More about the wizarding world and empire, and humor

[Amy Miller]

No: HPFGUIDX 50961

I think that "we Yanks" forget that other cultures do not encourage the "melting pot" theory of social structure.   Great Britain still has royalty, and probably will for a long time.  It might not be "acceptable" to put an Anglicized first name with an ethnic surname in their culture.  In the USA we do this all the time, because we want to be accepted, to be like everyone else.  I don't think that JKR's omission of ethnic names is a lack of "political correctness."    It's possible that  people in Great Britain don't name their children anything they like, but what they are expected to name them.  [My uncle's name is Sam, but when he was born (1927) all the neighbors told my grandparents that Sam wasn't an *American* name.  Better they should call him Seymour.  He was Seymour until he enlisted in the navy.]   She is very comfortable with interracial relationships, i.e. Fred and Angelina.  Such a coupling would have been scandalous 25 years ago. 

One of the best interviews that JKR has given is at
http://cbc.ca/programs/sites/hottype_rowlingcomplete.html  
IMO, it reveals much of her own personality and character and allows us to better understand how the WW and those who populate it were created.
  
 I agree that her female characters could have more substance.  It's the same argument I had with Sesame Street when my daughters were little; all the strong characters were male.   But the titles are not "Hermione Granger and the Chamber of Secrets", etc.  Too bad....

Just a note about the humor (or humour) in the series.  I think it was on the A & E channel's program "Biography" that JKR was asked about the humor in her books and she mentioned that she was a big Monty Python fan.  Well, nothing is more "Pythonish" than using the acronym S.P.E.W. for the house-elf liberation movement!    

cantoramy (who named her daughters Jacqueline and Roberta so they would have dignified names in their old age, but addresses them as Jackie and Robin)

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