On the other hand (was Re: Disliked Uncle Vernon)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 92435

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Barry Arrowsmith 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:

Kneasy:
> JKR dislikes Uncle Vernon? Can this be true?
> Surely there's a mistake here somewhere.
> 
> Those of you that are regulars to the site are doubtless aware
> that Kneasy is a tireless crusader on behalf of the victimised,
> the down-trodden and those under the jackboot of the despot.
> 
> IMO Vernon is such a sufferer.
> Time to take up the cudgels. 

> Family man, wife and one
> child, works hard, probably at senior middle management level, sole
> wage-earner in the household, lives in the suburbs, a conformist.
> 
> See any sign of a monster yet? Neither do I. Though to some that
> word 'conformist' is as the cloven foot of the devil. You know the
> type - they're the ones that pretend that phrases like "post-modern
> irony" actually mean something.

> Some claim that Petunia (and by extension Vernon) are exhibiting
> some species of jealousy or envy; I don't agree, it's fear. They are
> frightened of  magic, it's practitioners and what it can do. 

<some snipping throughout>


Geoff: 
I agree completely. 

It's fear..... of the neighbours, of being odd, not the sort of 
people we invite round for coffee. 

The irony is that,because Harry is treated in the way he is -  
wearing Dudley's castoffs, glasses mended with Sellotape, looking 
uncared for - that he becomes part of the oddness with which the 
Dursleys do not want to be surrounded. They are creating their own 
banana skins.....



Kneasy: 
> They give Harry a hard time, well, fairly hard, it's not as if he's 
> thrashed
> thrice weekly. An old instinct to try to drive out evil by imposing 
> virtue?
> "Best pretend we know nothing about it" is the attitude they take - 
> "with
> luck he may not be a changeling after all, and if we forbid all 
> references
> to this horror perhaps it won't show itself." But one day their 
hopes 
> come
> crashing down,  felled by  the weight of a letter through the 
> letter-box.


Geoff:
But they obviously recognised the letter; Petunia's memory must have 
been long enough. And their reaction was not one of regard for Harry 
but of the need to protect themselves, their conformity and their 
reputation as "those nice Dursleys at number 4".

"'But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we 
don't want -'
Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down 
the kitchen.
'No,' he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an 
answer... yes, that's best.... we won't do anything...'
'But - ''
'I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we 
took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?'"

"PS "The Letters from No One" p.31 UK edition)

Stamping out. Sounds a bit violent. A good reaction for someone 
vicitmised, down-trodden and those under the jackboot of the despot? 
Sounds more like the person on the other end of the jackboot....


Kneasy: 
> First option -  denial. Nobody seems to have considered that 
Vernon's
> actions might be motivated by concern for Harry. If he had 
said  "Fine,
> off you go to that Hogwarts place, get out and don't  come back" 
what
> would Vernon have lost? Nothing, in fact he might have gained some
> peace of mind. "Got rid of the little tyke at last!" But no, he 
goes to 
> great
> lengths to save Harry from this aberrant fate and is mocked for 
doing 
> so.


Geoff:
"Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into 
the firelight.
'He's not going' he said.
Hagrid grunted.
.....
'We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish,' said 
uncle Vernon, 'swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard, indeed!'
.....
(Petunia) 'Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got 
married and had you and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just 
as strange, just as - as -abnormal...'"

(PS "The Keeper of the Keys" pp.43-44 UK edition)

This doesn't look like saving Harry fom this abhorrent fate. Looks a 
bit more like the previously mentioned policy of not letting the 
neighbours think you are anything bother than a decent, respectable, 
middle-class suburban estate dweller.


Kneasy:
> Vernon is by no means a 'nice' man; he's pompous, self-opinionated, 
a
> bully (though he would probably call himself 'blunt-speaking') and 
not
> given to introspection, but he is not evil. He doesn't like Harry 
and 
> is not
> hypocritical enough to pretend otherwise, but Harry does live under 
his
> roof and his personal moral code requires him to protect Harry from 
what
> he considers  to be dangers. Hence the reaction to the letters. He 
> blusters
> and calls magic nonsense, tells Harry to forget it, and live a 
normal 
> life.


Geoff:
...and in so doing, open Harry to the continued real dangers of 
Stonewall High with its bullies who have picked on Harry and others 
similar throughout their Junior School careers. But, of course, he 
would doubtless say that a little roughing up at the secondary school 
would help turn Harry into a real man and not a wimp. After all he 
does possess the sensitivity of a high class pachyderm. But not 
evil...

"As Uncle Vernon delightedly told anyone who would listen, Dudley had 
recently become the Junior Heavyweight Inter-School Boxing Champion 
of the Southeast. 'The noble sport', as Uncle Vernon called it, had 
made Dudley even more formidable than he had seemed to Harry in their 
primary school days when he had served as Dudley's first punchball."

(OOTP "Dudley Demented" p.15 UK edition)

 I wonder what he'd do if Dudley suddenly decided to change things, 
do a "Billy Elliott" and become a dancer?