Point of Order: "The Marauders"

[morgan_d_yyh]

No: HPFGUIDX 53425

Answering GulPlum's post about why James, Sirius, Remus and Peter are 
often refereed to as "Marauders": 

>OK, the reason I can imagine most people would want to do so is 
because of 
>the name of "The Marauder's Map". I really, really, don't want to 
repeat 
>the rant about apostrophe abuse in general which started off a huge 
debate 
>on the OT-Chatter list recently, but there is an apostrophe in 
>"Marauder's", and its meaning is clear: there is *one* "Marauder". 
The 
>Map's name is never, ever spelt any other way. 

I confess I fail to grasp why the use of singular or plural is that 
conclusive. But I won't argue that particular point, certain that 
some member with better understanding of English grammar probably 
will.

My point is, no, we don't have canon proof that James, Sirius, Remus 
and Peter called themselves "Marauders", but we also don't have any 
proof that they didn't. Even if the singular in the map's name is 
conclusive, what if the group was named after the map, not the 
opposite? Think of it: they create the map, baptize it "Marauder's 
Map", and a week later one of them suggests, "Hey, that's a really 
cool name, why don't we call ourselves "The Marauders" too?"


> I take the name of the Marauder's Map in an analogous sense. 
Besides, I
>can't imagine the authors calling themselves "Marauders", which has 
zero 
>positive connotations (at least in my mind, as a native speaker of 
British 
>English). 

Well, I don't know what connotations the word "marauder" suggests to 
you, but I doubt James, Sirius, Remus and Peter considered it a 
negative word, or else they wouldn't have called the map "Marauder's 
Map". They probably spent a long time working on that map, wouldn't 
they have wanted to give it a cool name? 


>Furthermore, I don't see "a plunderer; one who pillages" (my 
>dictionary's definition) fits the foursome. 

Ah, then maybe I should lend you my dictionary, a very old and 
battered Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 4th edition, 1989 
(numbers are spelled out, I didn't have to guess, thank god! ^__^):

marauding - adj [attrib] (of soldiers, armies, etc.) going about 
searching for things to steal, people to attack, etc. /The 
countryside was overrun by marauding bands./
--> marauder n person or animal that does this. 

A lot more appropriate, isn't it? ^__^
One thing to keep in mind is that groups of male teenagers usually 
don't name themselves after kind, sweet things. They prefer to be 
called "Sharks", "Devils", "Shooters" and stuff like that, even if 
the group itself isn't really involved in violent actions. Young 
hormones and macho pride, I suppose. Grand, boastful metaphors are 
for occasions like that. ^_~


>They were in search of 
>adventure rather than thievery. The definition fits Gred & Forge 
pretty 
>well, though (they use the Map to get food from the kitchens and 
party 
>supplies from Honeydukes).

And what's to say that James, Sirius, Remus and Peter didn't use it 
with the same intent? Even if the map was created to guide them 
safely in their adventures during the full moon nights, I sincerely 
doubt such good pranksters wouldn't have seen the potential the 
Terrible Twins saw in it. (And no, I'm not saying Fred and George 
call themselves "The Terrible Twins" ^__^) 

Anyway, they created a map called "Marauder's Map", so they could 
sneak safely in, out and around the castle. It's logical assume then 
that they would think of that sneaking as "marauding", whatever the 
word meant to them. And while they were sneaking in and out and 
around, they would be, to their own vocabulary, "marauders". Whether 
or not they officially called their groups "Marauders".

I really don't see James, Sirius, Remus and Peter going about wearing 
leather jackets with "The Marauders" written on their backs, bullying 
little kids into giving them their lunch. I don't think they're a 
gang in *that* sense. But I imagine them using the words "marauder" 
and "marauding" as a code, as tribal language -- the same way we can 
say stuff like "bouncing like a ferret" and only be understood by 
people that are part of our HP "tribe". I can picture them saying 
stuff like, "Hey, it's marauding time!" or "Full moon is next Friday, 
any idea of a good place for us to maraud?" or "Oh come on, a true 
marauder wouldn't chicken out like that!" 

In other words, if James, Sirius, Remus and Peter ever hear us 
calling them "Marauders", I'm sure they'll know we are talking about 
them, and I honestly doubt they'll feel any offended by it. ^__^

Personally, I'd rather refer to them as "Marauders" for two reasons:

One, as pointed out by Maria, it just sounds cool ^__^

And two, while writing James, Sirius, Remus and Peter (or Prongs, 
Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail) all the time is a pain, I really think 
Internet is already too full of acronyms for its own good. I'm the 
first to admit that acronyms are handy when we're in a hurry to 
write, but gosh, sometimes they make some postings unintelligible 
until we can find a glossary -- a *proper* glossary. Took me quite a 
while to figure HRH wasn't "His Royal Highness", you know. 

Morgan D.
Hogwarts Letters - http://www.hogwartsletters.hpg.com.br