No Sex, Please, We're British

[o_caipora]

No: HPFGUIDX 83692

grannybat84112 replied to me:

> And the kittens on which they practice vanishing spells don't 
> seem to be harmed when they vanished, if Ron's wriggling 
> mouse tail is any indication.) I felt particularly sorry for the 
> hedgehogs transformed into pincushions in McGonagal's class. 
> 
> I take this attitude as a further extension of the Magical world's 
> attitude toward "inferior" beings: Even if they are fully magical, 
> they're not fully human, and therefore they are lesser creatures, 
> to be used for whatever purposes Magicals see fit.

When I was in junior high schools we dissected frogs. They were dead 
of course, but they were killed (and raised) so that we could dissect 
them. Surely the ethical questions that raises are more serious than 
temporary pincussionhood. And yet we dissected them.

Maybe kids don't dissects frogs any more. I've heard they now wear 
bathing suits in swimming class. Things change.

grannybat84112 said elsewhere, but on this topic:

> [M]y argument is that this is exactly why Dumbledore 
> NEEDS to institute classes on ethics. The Magical world 
> is so comfortable--or so far in denial--regarding its
> immoral, institutionalized attitudes and practices that 
> this society has to change or else it will keep devouring 
> itself until it dissolves. What better place to start 
> questioning an ingrained past than in school, 
> where the future citizens are trained?

Ethical lessons are more easily taught in terms of distant 
circumstances. A child who questions how house elves are treated may 
grow up to be puzzled at how free trade can be argued when it helps 
US exports, but protectionism practiced to keep out Third World steel 
or agricultural products.

When I was in elementary school, we were taught about the Four Basic 
Food groups: meat, dairy, grain, and fruit & vegetable. A college 
friend who moved from China confessed he was puzzled by the inclusion 
of "dairy", which seemed less basic. As an adult, I know why it was 
there: not because of its importance to nutrition but because of the 
importance of the American Dairy Association to Congressional 
campaign finance.

Rowling has complete liberty to portray injustice in the wizarding 
world. She's stepping on nobody's toes. But children who read her 
books may learn lessons, and apply them later to the real world. We 
can hope so, at least.

Suppose a real-world Secretary of Education (for that is Dumbledore's 
role) encouraged students to calculate the cost of dairy subsidies, 
or to study the basis in ethics and law of the American occupation of 
Iraq, or to ask what the effect would be on the Unitied States of the 
imposition of a budget-balancing scheme such as the World Bank 
imposes on other countries.

He would, excuse my language, be out on his ass in an instant. There 
must be questions in the wizarding world which Dumbledore must treat 
with delicacy. 

That statue in the Ministry of Magic symbolized an attitude cast in 
stone. Perhaps in the midst of VWII, if all stands in the balance, 
Dumbledore can do things he could not do in ordinary times. He's had 
a lot of trouble on the simple issue of whether Voldemort had 
returned.

Few societies truly crave an informed and ethically questioning 
citizenry. Athens was exceptionally enlightened, and look what 
happened to Socrates.   

> > Dudley makes such a crack at the start of OotP, regarding Harry's 
> > saying Cedric's name in his nightmares, so it's not beyond 
> > Rowling's reach. 
> 
> I caught that, yes. But Harry was already so angry at the mere 
> mention of the graveyard incident–and so fearful of what he might 
> have let slip while yelling in his sleep–that the full impact of
> the jab went right by him. 

However puzzling teenage girls may be to me, I was once a teenage 
boy, and this is just a generic insult. It's flung with wild abandon. 
I may have been wrong to put Dudley's random insult in the same class 
as a deliberate and measured insinuation that Ron and Harry had found 
their own answer to underheated dorm rooms. 

> Next thing we know, Hermione will be subscribing to the 
> Oprah Book Club–
> 
> Aha. Books.
> 
> She's quoting from self-help books she's absorbed for light 
> reading. Books on romantic  relationships so she can 
> deal with Viktor. Books on male adolescents acting out stress,
> because her best friend Harry is under so much pressure. 
> Books on "Boys Who Love Quidditch and the Witches Who Love Them."
> She picks up the messy details from what she 
> observes in the girls' dormitories, and she makes sense of it all 
> through books.
> 
> I still don't like reading that passage, but now I can give her a 
> rationale that's in character. ;)

I like your explanation. If it's that easy to explain, why do girls 
bother? Why not just come out and say what they mean? 

Is there a door in the Department of Mysteries which explains girls? 

Grannybat said:

> PS - Thank you for the link to Tobermory. Quite amusing.

I can remain on topic and recommend Saki's portrait of a teenage 
werewolf, "Gabriel-Ernest":
http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/772/

I will also recommend what may be his finest story, "The Unrest 
Cure". If you examine the link, there's an occult number in it so 
it's not off-topic [cough]: 
http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/666/

 - Caipora