CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 30 (Grawp)

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 117250


Debbie wrote:
5. Hagrid calls Grawp "harmless" even though Grawp caused Hagrid's 
injuries.  He needs to be tied down. Harry doubts he could ever be 
permitted to mingle with humans. Is this a signal to reassess 
Hermione's conclusion in GoF that wizarding attitudes toward giants 
is "just prejudice"? Do Grawp's circumstances cause or contribute to 
his wildness?


Dungrollin replies:

Aah...  Grawpy.  Personally, I've got a great deal of sympathy
for Hagrid's fondness for interestin' creatures.  I wanted to
know far more about the blast-ended skrewts, for example, yes, and 
erumpents, flobberworms, tebos, clabberts and whatnot. (Having kept 
ferrets at one time, Jarveys sound like particular fun).  And I'm
a mite concerned about Buckbeak, shut up in that room, with no air 
and no exercise.  Fang, Crookshanks and Hedwig on the other hand, I 
find quite dull.  Yes... Magizoology would be just my kind of thing.

I have a great deal of respect for Hagrid and his knack with magical 
creatures.  He's the only person in Britain who's managed to
train thestrals, he's gained the trust of unicorns, and single-
handedly bringing a reluctant Grawp back from wherever the giants 
were...  That's rather impressive, in my book.

(And as for Newt Scamander – JKR is apparently as much a fan of 
Gerald Durrell as I am.  I recently re-read Fillets of Plaice, and 
laughed so much I was nearly sick – one of the reasons I've
never been able to take Lawrence Durrell seriously.)
 
But back to Hagrid, Grawp, and the giants in general: I think 
they're great (particularly Grawpy).  Wouldn't call them
harmless though.  That's where Hagrid's problem lies.  He
anthropomorphises.  And he assumes that because he likes them, they 
like him.  Moreover, he's half-giant: difficult to harm and very 
strong, so he's got a better shot at keeping rogue monsters under 
control than have the rest of us (sorry, I mean *them*).  He simply 
doesn't understand why other wizards don't share his
partiality for the less cuddly fauna. (Again, I sympathise with him. 
I just don't get arachnophobes, entomophobes and people afraid
of all things creepy or slimy – though animals which pose a
significant threat are a different kettle of plimpies. [Pauses to 
sweat a little at the memory of a charging elephant...]) 

The attitude of wizards in general towards the giants, however, 
strikes me as a little over the top.  "They're just
vicious." (– Ron, GoF).  Vicious is entirely the wrong
word. Hagrid's right, Grawp doesn't mean any harm (unless you
piss him off), he really doesn't know his own strength in
relation to humans.  Just as wizards would be wrong if they expect 
giants to behave like humans (a perfectly normal anthropomorphising 
attitude to something with two legs and a capability for language, 
but utterly inappropriate), giants would expect humans to behave 
like giants, and are surprised when a thump that would be a friendly 
gesture to one of their own ends up being nearly fatal.

I'm not sure that Hermione's assertion that it's 'just prejudice' is 
right, though it's probably a contributing factor, based on the 
giants position in the last Voldywar.  It's more likely to be a 
misconception about the species in general.  It's quite a normal 
human reaction to humanoids, as far as I can see.  Chimps look cute 
and cuddly - but anyone who's seen them up close and in a bad mood 
knows that they can be really scary, not to mention dangerous.

Considering the care with which the magical community has hidden 
other fabulous beasts from Muggles (introduction, FBAWTFT), it 
strikes me as rather a glaring double-standard that the giants 
should be forced to live so close together, in conditions that are 
unsuitable for them and will lead to their extinction. (Does FBAWTFT 
classify them as beings or beasts? I don't recall...) 
They're not calculating enough to be called evil, and they're
not clever enough to understand fighting for a moral cause.  They do 
respond to how well they're treated by wizards, though.  But they 
were on the wrong side in VW1, and this is apparently enough for the 
WW to condemn the species to the dustbin.

>From the Edinburgh Book Festival: 
`Will Hagrid ever succeed with his plans for his brother?'

JKR: `In a limited way, yes. Grawp is obviously the very
stupidest thing that Hagrid ever brought home. In his long line of 
bringing home stupid things [...] but ironically it might be the one 
time that a monstrous something came good. By the next book, Grawp 
is a little bit more controllable.'

Three cheers for Hagrid!  Good luck to him, I say.

Dungrollin.

"The premise of expressionism suggests that the Constitution is a 
legal fiction, but only if reality is distinct from art; if that is 
not the case, consciousness, ironically, has objective value."
– The Postmodernism Generator,  
www.elsewhere.org/cgi-bin/postmodern