[HPforGrownups] Jim McGuffin

[Derek Hiemforth]

No: HPFGUIDX 87953

LWalshETAL at aol.com wrote:
>Remember Jim McGuffin with the weather?  A Word a Day,
>put out by Anu Garg just featured the word McGuffin.
>I wasn't aware of the meaning of the word and perhaps
>others aren't either.  
>
>He writes:
>"McGuffin (muh-GUF-in) noun, also MacGuffin
>  A device that helps propel the plot in a story but
>is of little importance in itself.  A McGuffin could be
>a person, an object, or an event that characters of a
>story are interested in but that, intrinsically, if of
>little concern."
>
>I wonder if that means that Ted, the newscaster IS of
>concern, if McGuffin is NOT.  Ted Tonks? anyone?

Derek:
I also noticed (the second time I read PS/SS) that the newscaster's
name is McGuffin, and wondered if there might be significance to
that.  However, the definition of "McGuffin" in the Word of the Day
source is a bit misleading, methinks.

Hitchcock himself said, "The only thing that really matters is that,
in the picture, the plans, documents or secrets must seem to be of vital
importance to the characters. To me, the narrator, they're of no
importance whatsoever."  

So it's only to the filmmaker (or the author, in the case of HP) that
the McGuffin is of little intrinsic concern.  To that person, it doesn't
matter as much exactly what the McGuffin *is* ... it's just important
that there *be* a McGuffin.

And actually, even this is not universal.  The choice of McGuffin is
undoubtedly important to many authors and directors.  Hitchcock was
simply saying that it generally wasn't important *to him* what was used
as a McGuffin.

But within the context of the story and its world, the McGuffin may be
vitally important.  Wanting to possess it (destroy it, reclaim it, protect
it, discover it, explain it, etc.) is what drives the action of the
characters.  The One Ring from LotR is the ultimate McGuffin.  ;-)

The McGuffin in OotP was the bottled prophecy in the Ministry of Magic.
One side's desire to get it, and the other side's desire to prevent them
from getting it, were directly or indirectly responsible for almost every
major event in the book.

- Derek