Gilding the Lily

[distaiyi]

No: HPFGUIDX 114383

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "manawydan" <manawydan at n...> 
wrote:
> Point taken, but with just two provisos.
> 
> First one is not that it would have been unremarkable in the 
context of the
> war for Harry's grandparents all to have died at the hands of the 
DEs, but
> wouldn't it have been fairly important in the context of the 
_story_ for
> Harry to learn what had happened, not only why he didn't have any
> grandparents but also whether that was the real explanation for 
Petunia and
> her fear and loathing of wizardry.

I don't think so, at least not until more recently in the story and 
it appears that we're going to see some of this come out. Is it 
important to me that my paternal grandfather (who I never knew, as 
Harry never knew his) died to TB? No, not really, it doesn't inform 
who I am and what I do in the world. It does force me to have chest 
xrays instead of tb tests but how is that significant to my story?
 
> Second point is that the WW isn't behaving like a society which 
had suffered
> the kind of trauma which losing most of a generation would inflict.
> Admittedly the only grandparent we've seen is Neville's gran (and 
even she's
> a widow) but that could just as easily be perspective: we haven't 
seen a lot
> of _parents_ either, apart from the Weasleys and, fleetingly, the 
Graingers.

I respectfully disagree, they are acting like a culture which isn't 
sure the dictator who did it to them is really gone. They're still 
afraid to speak the name of the dictator! I think they are acting 
exactly like a society who lost a lot of people to a war, but who 
aren't sure the leader of the enemy forces are gone, and in fact 
know the enemy soldiers live among them.

They are sheltering their children from the horror they hope the 
children will never have to deal with. They are watching neighbors 
with suspicion. They are protecting what they see as the ultimate 
weapon, just in case they need it again.