McG / DD / Re: Why should Harry be expected to listen to anyone at H

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 123085



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "festuco" <vuurdame at x> wrote:
> 
> Alla: 
> > 
> > Basically you are saying that being tortured with the blood quill 
> > was a very good thing for Harry, in itself, correct?

> Gerry:
> In this situation, yes. Rotten but beneficial. For the people who 
only
> want to equal good with virtuous, nobel, morally good etc. please
> check a dictionary and broaden your view of the English language.

Geoff:
As you rather brusquely suggested, I consulted the nearest dictionary 
to hand:

good > adjective (better, best) 1  to be desired or approved of. 2  
having the required qualities; of a high standard. 3  morally right; 
virtuous. 4  well behaved. 5  enjoyable or satisfying. 6  
appropriate. 7 (good for) beneficial to. 8  thorough. 9  at least: 
(she's a good twenty years younger).

rotten > adjective 1  suffering from decay. 2  corrupt. 3  informal 
very bad or unpleasant.

beneficial > adjective favourable or advantageous.

Please note that these definitions /do/ equate virtuous and morally 
right with the word; admittedly noble(sp) isn't included.

Now, considering the situation between Umbridge and Harry, 
>From "good", I would eliminate 1,2,3,4,5,8 and 9 immediately. I 
presume that Umbridge considered her punishment fitted 6 and 7.

I also fail to see a correlation between "rotten" and "beneficial" in 
this context.

All things considered, I think that you missed an important point in 
Alla's remarks - that using the quill was /in itself/ correct. Are 
you suggesting that the action, which was improper and sadistic, was 
correctly started by this woman to bring home to Harry the need to 
conform? 

This standard of behaviour falls into the category which 
coincidentally is very much the leading news story in the UK today, 
whether the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and in our own 
Belmarsh Prison in London is correct or not. Dolores Umbridge has the 
right as a teacher at Hogwarts to seek to improve the educational 
achievement and social interaction skills of her pupils but I think 
the use of water torture, meat axes and even magic quills falls 
outside the parameters of what would be considered to be good 
teaching techniques.