W.A.F.F.L.E.S. and the Dursleys; a few rambling thoughts

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 142886

Geoff:
I have been mulling over writing a post such as this for a day or two 
and have finally decided to launch out. My thinking was triggered 
partly by the Dumbledore etiquette threads and also by a couple of 
posts.

ellecain wrote in message 142574:

"Anyway, while I love the thought provoking posts by the more 
intelligent list members, I think it necessary to allow for some 
humorous respite among them. We cant be serious all the time can we? 
So with a view to promoting this sort of capricious jocular posting 
behaviour I have taken the liberty of giving it a title.

I propose that this sort of thing be called W.A.F.F.L.E.S. the 
translation of which is:
Whimsical Adventure of Fanciful Frivolity, Lighthearted but 
Entertaining Speculation"

And Bart Lidofsky wrote in message142837:

"It's been said that the novels have a great deal of breadth, but not 
a lot of depth. They are in an incredibly detailed world, but most of 
the characters lack complexity; they have quirks which stand in 
forpersonality. But still, reading the novels is very much like 
playing a game; each novel has a mystery, which is solved by the time 
you havefinished the novel. But there are a number of series-wide 
mysteries, and, as we read the books, we learn the rules, and can 
play the game.

And the game is fun."

If I look at my reading habits from childhood, I have always tended 
to opt for books which needed my "willing suspension of disbelief" in 
order to enjoy them. When I was 8 or 9, I was avidly reading Hugh 
Lofting's "Doctor Dolittle" series, accepting quite happily that the 
animals could hold sensible conversations with the doctor within the 
parameters of that world. As a pre-teen, I vicariously visited Venus 
with the Dan Dare strip in the "Eagle" comic and, in later years, 
Alan Garner's books, LOTR, Star Trek – all of which demanded that I 
accept something outside the real world.

Looking at a current thread title, "Why do you read the HP books?"

When the books first came out, I allowed myself to be influenced by 
some of the folk in my church for whom the Harry Potter books were 
a "Bad Thing" and for several years ignored their existence. Then, by 
chance, I went to see "Chamber of Secrets" at the end of 2002 and, 
immediately afterwards, watched "Philosopher's Stone" on satellite 
TV. I bought the books and was hooked. As a side issue, my opinion is 
that the books are excellent for bringing out certain aspects of 
Christian teaching and I have frequently used the books to help with 
informal discussions with young people at my church (we're all going 
off next Friday as a group to see GOF).

Bur for me, to lose myself in books or films such as I have mentioned 
is great fun and here I find myself fervently nodding in agreement 
with ellecain and bart. We should be enjoying our alternative 
universes and letting that spill over into our interchanges of ideas 
on this group.

But I have felt increasingly aware for some time that the tone of the 
group has changed. There seem to be a number of contributors who seem 
to be blurring the lines between the real world and Harry's world by 
treating some of the events and topics of the books as being as 
serious as the news in of today's world. 

Ever since HBP landed in July, there have been long threads dealing 
with Snape and Horcruxes, to mention but two, and dealing with them 
with intense seriousness. We have seen  several threads of the type 
which I have been credited with calling "tennis match threads" – Yes 
you can/No you can't arguments being repeated ad infinitum and ad 
nauseam. And also, perhaps more worryingly to me, there has been an 
increase in bad-tempered or grumpy replies, often from people who 
will only see their own point of view and snarl at those who do not 
subscribe to the same conclusion.

Which leads me to the Dursleys. 

Many writers have introduced characters into their books who verge on 
caricature and I think that readers are expected to recognise them as 
such. Roald Dahl had several; Dickens created Bumble the beadle in 
Oliver Twist along these lines while Shakespeare also introduced 
comic characters to amuse the groundlings – Dogberry in "Much Ado 
About Nothing" springs to mind.

And sometimes the funniest are those who are social climbers who try 
to project the image that they are a cut above the rest. Group 
members in the UK will probably be familiar with Hyacinth Bucket in 
the TV series "Keeping up Appearances".

If I maybe allowed to refer to the "medium that dare not speak its 
name", on the DVD of "Chamber of Secrets", there are interviews with 
most of the main characters and Fiona Shaw – Petunia Dursley in the 
film – comments:
"The extraordinary thing about the Dursleys is that they are very 
funny because they are very recognisable social aspirers and full of 
that kind of dogged low-ceiling imagination which means that they 
can't see beyond their material dreams. But, of course, that is what 
most people are like."

One of the things about fiction like that which I have mentioned is 
that folk, including children, usually recognise and accept that we 
are not in a real situation. What happens is determined by the 
internal rules of the world created by the writer. Hence, there is 
often a comeuppance for these characters designed to meet the 
anticipated desire of a reader to see them knocked off their perches. 
And so it is with Vernon and Petunia. I believe that JKR wrote this 
chapter so that we could have an opportunity to see them chastened; 
whether we should then be beating our breasts about the enormity of 
Dumbledore's actions or remembering that this /is/ just a work of 
fiction is up to our individual interpretations but I personally 
believe that some of us here are getting too serious for the good of 
our sense of humour!

While writing this, my mind went to the end of the film "Star Trek: 
Insurrection"  where Artim, the young Baku boy, says to Data:
"Don't forget – you have some little fun every day."

If that's good advice for an android, it's good advice for those of 
us on HPFGU. 
:-)