Is there anything in the HP world that bothers you?

[Petra Pan]

No: HPFGUIDX 56476

Melanie L Ellis:
> The one thing that bothers me in the
> HP world is JKR's descriptions of
> the Mandrakes in CoS. When they
> pull up the "seedlings" they are
> described as ugly babies. Not
> creatures, not monsters, just "babies",
> albeit ugly ones with green mottled
> skin. From then on throughout the
> book, descriptions of them growing up
> sound just like children growing up
> (acne, getting into each other's pots
> to fool around, etc.) And then,
> they are CUT UP AND STEWED! <shudder> 
> 
> I won't go so far as to agree with
> thecuttingedge.org and try to say that
> JKR is trying to inure readers to the
> idea that abortion and/or genocide
> are okay, but I have to admit the
> overly realistic, human-sounding
> descriptions of the mandrakes give
> me pause. When reading the books with
> my kids, I actually changed the
> wording a bit here and there, and was
> quite relieved that the movie made
> them out to be more like monsters and
> glossed over the growing-up descriptions,
> even though Hagrid did bring
> out the line about when their acne had
> cleared up, they could be chopped
> up and stewed to make the potion. My
> kids are only 7 and 4 right now - if
> either one of them decide to re-read
> the books on their own when they get
> older, I will have to sit down and
> discuss it with them before they read
> CoS.
> 
> I just don't understand why JKR had
> to make the Mandrakes seem so *human*
> in the story!

Your response is perfectly understandable, 
though I suspect that JKR didn't write 
the mandrakes to gross anyone out.  
(Dicentra's already posted the background 
info that dates back waaay before JKR.)  
Empathy on your part is a good thing but 
keep in mind an awful lot of humanity has 
less-developed sense of empathy and 
sensitivity to the pangs of pain as 
felt by plant life.

It's debatable, whether JKR's intention 
is to 'humanize' vegetation (as they too 
are alive on their own terms) by making 
the comparison between 'us' and 'them' 
but I agree that anyone trying to make 
the case for believing that JKR is 
trying to inure readers to the idea 
that abortion and/or genocide has gone 
too far.

How do they know that JKR is 'denigrating' 
babies by comparing them to plants?  I 
read it as 'elevating' plants by comparing 
them to babies.

It all depends on the POV.

Petra
a
n  :)

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