Bonehead Question about Goblet of Fire

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 127593


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "fanofminerva"
<drjuliehoward at y...> wrote:


> > Karen:
> > Basically because calling yourself John Smith Jr is an 
> > Americanism. We do not use this term at all in the UK .... The use 
> > of "Jr" is so far removed from British ... I doubt if it 
> > even crossed JKR's mind.
> > 
> > Karen

> 
> Thanks for the cultural insight.  How is (?Crouch) referred to in
> the British version of the book?
> 
> Julie

bboyminn:

Two points; first, it's an integral part of the story for Harry to
confuse Barty Sr and Barty Jr, so I would logically expect all books
to refer to either in the same manner. This is especially true of the
Map. It's a necessary part of the story for Harry to see 'Bartemius
Crouch' and think of old Mr. Crouch, when it's actually young Mr. Crouch.

Second, if you remember seeing the BBC-TV show 'Are You Being Served'
which has been in reruns for many year here in the USA, the owner of
the store, Grace Brothers, was 'young Mr. Grace' despite being about
80 years old. It's entirely possible that /young/ Mr. Grace was a
Junior; that is, carried the same first name as his father. Although,
it's possible that if he and his father or perhaps older brother
worked there together when they were younger, the staff might have
adopted the 'young' just to distinguish between them. That is, it
really is a matter of older/younger and not having the same name.
Still as someone else pointed out, this would be more common in the UK
than the Jr/Sr designation.

I guess the key point is to remember, the confusion between young Mr.
Crouch and old Mr. Crouch is a necessary part of the book. Since it is
necessary, and since JKR hasn't given us her explaination of how the
Map works, we can only assume that everything is in order and make up
logical explanations as to how and why?

For what it's worth.

Steve/bboyminn