[HPforGrownups] Re: OOP: James' Behaviour normal? [Was: Humor and Tone (Was Questions for JKR)]

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 68210

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "medeacallous" 
<medeacallous at y...> wrote:

> What exactly does that mean, 'normal'?  I don't know if I grew up in
> some kind of utopia, but where I come from, physically
> restraining, hurting, humiliating and exposing the underclothes of
> a schoolmate  in front of a crowd of people is not only abnormal,
> it would result in a jail term. 

Sounds pretty utopic to me (-8

I was the victim of severe bullying at school, I now do a lot of work in the 
anti-bullying field. While there are areas and schools where bullying is 
totally not tolerated as you describe, there's a lot more when it's 
commonplace (and a lot between the two). And in the past, it tended to be 
even more common.

Basically what we see happening to Snape is *nothing* compared to what 
was happening to me between about 1987 and 1990 (when I was 15). 
Some kids are just bullies, for all sorts of reasons.

A lot stay that way - but you do get some who grow out of it, either by 
themselves or with help from others. It can be quite sudden. James and 
Sirius behaviour, though certainly, IMHO, reprehensible from what we see, 
isn't that unusual, nor is it necessarily a reflection on how they will act 
when they are older. Indeed, in my experience, one of the worst bullies I 
dealt with when I was 14 or 15, was by the time we were both 17, totally 
obsessed with justice, fairness, and doing the right thing. Basically one day 
he saw me being attacked, saw it from the outside. And it clicked for him 
what he was doing. He suddenly realised what he was doing, and became 
completely and totally disgusted with that. And he never did it again, and 
became quite a nice person.

I wonder with James, if the incident at the whomping willow had the same 
effect. Maybe he finally realised the consequences of what he was doing 
and didn't like what he saw. And so he didn't just stop being a bully. He 
changed himself around.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in 
common. They
don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit
the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the
facts that need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia