Is there anything in the HP world that bothers you?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 56478

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Petra Pan <ms_petra_pan at y...> wrote:
> 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. 
>>
>> ...edited...

> ..edited...
> 
> 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.
> 
> ...edited...
> 
> It all depends on the POV.
> 
> Petra

bboy_mn:

I seemed obvious to me that JKR had taken a minor characteristic of
the Mandrake plant, the root vaguely resemble a human body as do the
roots of the ginseng plant, and exagerated that characteristic to
cartoon levels; ugly babies, acne, socks & scarves, moving in
together, etc...., and that is exactly how I picture the mandrake
roots in my mind, as little cartoon baby roots. 

I admit that the thought of casually carving up the roots with
human-like characteristics did occur to me, and created some level of
intellectual discomfort when I humanized them in my mind, it quickly
passed when I reminded myself that it was all fiction, and absurly
cartoony fiction at that.

I think it would be wise to explain to a very young child what was
going on here, and that a real but primitive characteristic of the
mandrake was exaggerated to the extreme in order to make it funny.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn