How JKR depicts how we all live in England (Was Re: British V American)

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 101765

> On 17 Jun 2004 at 9:13, Jospehine wrote:
> 
> > The other day I was at a champagne reception at one of our West End 
> > theatres and got talking to a lovely American woman who was visiting 
> > from New York. She was, luckily, a great HP fan and ultra friendly as 
> > most visitors are from the US. However, I got knocked for six when 
> > she asked me if I was caned when I was at school. I'm sure she was 
> > thinking about Harry's made up discipline at St. Brutus'. My eyes 
> > widened as I explained, very politely, that caning has been banned in 
> > the UK for quite some time.
> 
> But remember that the Harry Potter books are set in the past - not 
> a long time in the past, but in the past nonetheless.
> 
> Consider that Prisoner of Azkaban (where we get the mention of St. 
> Brutus) is set in 1993.
> 
> In 1992, while all state schools had been banned from using the 
> cane for 6 years, and many private schools had also banned it, 
> there were still a significant number of schools across the UK that 
> were using the cane. It wasn't banned in private schools in Britain 
> until 1998, and there were still at least 200 schools still using 
> corporal punishment at the time of abolition across the UK.
> 
> It's really doesn't seem that surprising that someone like Aunt 
> Marge would be asking that type of question back in 1993.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought

Antosha:

It also ought to be mentioned that Aunt Marge is definitely 'old-school' when it comes to 
education. She doesn't have kids, so HER image of the school system was probably formed 
in the 1950s--almost certainly at a public school, since that's where her brother was, er, 
educated.

Josephine--your point is very well taken. For those of us outside of Britain whose window 
in consists only of JK Rowling (that's pronounced like 'row the boat' not 'we had a terrible 
row', yes?) and not of AS Byatt, Helen Fielding, Martin Amis or any one of dozens of other 
wonderful contemporary British authors, it is easy to lose track of the fact that the 
Potterverse is a) fantasy, even when on muggle soil and b) satire. But I submit to you that 
rest of the world has just as skewed an image of American life because of the exportation 
of a) bad American television and b) bad American movies. It's the downside of cultural 
imperialism!