forms of address

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 117272


Carol:
> > Do any Brits on the list, preferably male, recognize a schoolboy
> > pattern carried into adulthood here, for the adult male
> > characters--and for McGonagall?
> > 
> > Carol, with apologies for repeating previously expressed ideas but 
> I'm still looking for responses from people with a British schoolboy
> > background
> 
> Geoff:
> Please, Miss, I fall into the above requested category!
> 
> :-)
> 
> To save me reposting what I have said before, may I just say that I 
> think I covered a lot of this is messages 115863 and 116253 which I 
> hopes had clarified the position.

My dear Geoff,
(Is it proper for a woman to say that? Compare DD's "my dear
Professor" to McGonagall. If not, please accept my apologies.) I did
read your posts carefully, but I don't see my questions answered. I'm
specifically comparing McGonagall to the nineteenth-century English
schoolboys in the biographies and literature I cited earlier (Percy
Shelley is a real-life example, David Copperfield a literary one) who
called their close male friends by their last names both during their
schooldays and in their later lives. Are you familiar with this
pattern, in literature, at least? Does McGonagall seem to be following
it, at least in PS chapter one? (I did read what you wrote about
office relationships, etc. That's interesting, but it's the "schoolboy
pattern carried into adulthood" that I'm asking about--not nicknames
like those you mentioned, but last names for close friends.)

Also, regarding Snape calling Lupin Lupin and Lupin calling Snape
Severus: What's up with that? Is Snape distancing Lupin or just using
the name he used in their schooldays? Is Lupin being polite or overly
friendly or something else? I think you said that last names weren't
appropriate between colleagues, but if that's what they used in their
schoolboy days, why not?

Please, sir, I did read your posts, sir, but I just feel that my
particular questions weren't addressed.

Carol, who has definitely read too much nineteenth-century literature
and not enough modern stuff