Percy Ignatius Weasley

[jdr0918]

No: HPFGUIDX 83573

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "bluesqueak" wrote, and the 
Sergeant Majorette responds:

<<<...Except black gowned teachers and repressed sexuality could be 
any 'good' UK school up to about 1980...On full formal occasions, 
they would also wear the coloured hood showing that they had a 
University degree...>>>

<<<Red hair isn't really stereotypically Irish in the UK. If red hair 
has any stereotype, it's more Scottish...I agree that the Weasley's 
have a Roman Catholic 'feel'...the large family and giving a child an 
obvious Saint's name for the middle name...I dunno what version of 
the history of the English Reformation you got, but if it was the one 
that told you that England went entirely Protestant after the 
Reformation, then that was an 'oversimplification'>>>

<<<...If the WW reflects the modern UK, then it will have three 
quarters of the population with that sort of religion. But I think 
JKR has chosen not to attact particular 'denominations' to people for 
a very different reason...One of the things JKR is examining in her 
books is prejudice. One of the major prejudices in the UK-and-
Northern-Ireland is religion...So if JKR wants to examine prejudice 
by *only* using a prejudice specific to the Wizarding World...then 
she can't use or mention religion...So I suspect 'religious 
characters' are like 'gay characters'...>>>

Who was it that said the US and the UK are separated by a common 
language? The closest association I, as a New Yorker (a bit different 
from a regular American) could make to the teachers' robes was the 
habits of the religious teachers. I mean, I did kind of guess 
that "robes" meant academic garb, but then why wouldn't Snape be 
wearing trousers in the Pensieve scene? As is obvious from the "No 
sex..." thread, the only Americans who can relate to the sexual 
naivete of the Hogwarts kids are old used Latin-Mass parochial school 
kids like myself. And until I read the original post on this thread, 
I was wracking my brain trying to find an analog to the relationship 
of the WW world to the Muggle: Mormons? Amish? Way too literal, but 
Catholic? Now, that's funny!

As for the red hair, in the US, the first thought is always "Irish". 
And I think I've met (socially) one Irish Protestant in my life. 
(Somebody one one of these boards said that red hair is not natural, 
it's mutant blonde).

And, yeah, we *did* get the "oversimplified" version in school. Only 
we didn't learn the Protestant Reformation, we learned the Protestant 
Revolt.

See where I'm coming from? JKR has obviously got a Rocky and 
Bullwinkle thing going here in that even a kid enjoying the cartoon 
on a basic level call tell that there's some fairly sophisticated 
satire taking place way above his head. If you're familiar with the 
reference, you can enjoy Rocky and Bullwinkle and Harry and Snape on 
so many different planes. No stereotypes, no ignorance = no satire, 
no stand-up comedians. Who would want to live in a world like that? 
So we have sexual orientation, religion, AIDS, race, and poverty 
references to make the adults giggle; action, adventure, fart and 
booger jokes, and romance without bodily fluid involvement for the 
kids.

JKR is a genius.

--JDR