Politics and Swearing in HP

[nibleswik]

No: HPFGUIDX 84831

> > I may have been seeing politics where there was just 
storytelling, 
> > but to me (and many of my friends, and, I'm sure, many on this 
> > list), the Grand Inquisitorial Decrees just reeked of the 
Patriot 
> > Act. <snip>

Dicentra:
> Given that JKR devised the plot of the entire 7-book series before 
> 1997, I think it's safe to say that she's not parodying the Bush 
> administration or any part thereof in Book 5.  Furthermore, as a 
> British author, I don't think that commenting on U.S. politics is 
> uppermost in her mind.  The HP series deals with The Big Issues Of 
> Life, and therefore tends to address general principles rather 
than 
> particulars.
> 
> Her depiction of the MoM, the Educational Decrees, and Umbridge 
> encompass a particular pattern of human behavior that crops up 
from 
> time to time in every civilization. <snip>

Me (Cheekyweebisom):
That's a good point. It can be applied generally, certainly. As to 
your comment about JKR having planned the books years ago, a friend 
of mine who is quite a successful fantasy author and writes series 
(series looks wrong, but I'm sure it isn't serieses . . . grr) 
writes the plots beforehand, but does change them if there's 
something that's come up that she wants to include, whether 
politically inspired or culturally, etc. I imagined that JKR did the 
same. 

And as for JKR commenting little or not at all on U.S. politics 
because she's British, I'm not sure I agree. I can think of British 
authors, performers, screenwriters, directors and the like who 
definitely comment on U.S. policies -- Salman Rushdie springs to 
mind, for example. That said, JKR may very well not have been 
commentating on politics for other reasons, and I think you're right 
in pointing out the greater validity of applying it to humanity as a 
whole.

Cheekyweebisom:
> > I'm occasionally irked by the almost complete absence of 
swearing, 
> > though, as it seems unrealistic to me.<snip>

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!'"<snip>

Me (Cheekyweebisom):
You're right! I'd forgotten that. Still, through reading the books, 
I'm very apt to go, "What?! They're thirteen/fourteen/fifteen and 
the world is basically blowing up and they say, 'damn'? Yeeeeah. Um, 
no." I suppose, though, that one can only say, "Ron swore" a limited 
number of times in one page. Or chapter.

Dicey Elf:
> Please remember that although it is permissable to discuss whether 
> JKR is advancing political ideas and which ones they might be, 
it's 
> probably not a good idea to comment on current political events 
such 
> as the Bush administration. <snip>

Me (Cheekyweebisom):
Sorry about that. It won't happen again.

Cheekyweebisom