Politics and Swearing in HP

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 84790

> > I'm occasionally irked by the almost complete absence of 
swearing, 
> > though, as it seems unrealistic to me. I know one (one!) teenager 
> > who swears as infrequently and mildly as the Harry Potter kids. 
> 


Dicentra:
> Though she usually avoids the actual expletives, she does mention 
> that people swear.  For example, "Ron swore," or "Ron said 
something 
> that made Hermione say, 'Ron!'"  Personally, I prefer this method: 
if 
> you dig expletives, you can fill in the blank yourself, or if you 
> don't, you won't be offended by the strong language.  It 
accommodates 
> more people that way.
> 

I came from an era and a background as a child where swearing just 
wasn't on. As a teacher, I often used to chide pupils who swore in my 
hearing by saying that I was surprised that they needed to use toilet 
words from a language which had been dead for 1000 years when I could 
make my dissatisfaction perfectly clear in modern English. That 
usually used to make my point in a humourous way. In my current 
involvement with a Boys' Club in our church which has about 30 boys 
aged 8-14, the level of swearing is fairly low when they are with us; 
maybe the church atmosphere ruhbs off because I have overheard 
naughty words flying outside the Club environment(!)..... In the 
books, we are often seeing Harry interacting with adults and he is 
probably a polite enough guy. With others like Ron and Hermione, his 
contact doesn't call for gratuitous bad language.

I have commented somewhere in the past about Ron's over-use of a mild 
swear word in the films - especially in the hearing of Minerva 
McGonagall.