Is there really a divide?

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 156335



> Ken:
I think that I am not alone in seeing a very stark
> fault line running through the description of the Potterverse that 
we
> see in these books. I see many of you as not reacting to it but
> instead treating everything in the books as "real" and directly
> relateable to real life. When I read the scenes at Hogwarts and at 
the
> Dursleys I hear a constant "beep, beep" sound in my head. For those
> who don't follow that I am reminded of the Saturday morning 
cartoons
> we "boomers" watched as kids, eg "The Roadrunner and Wile E. 
Coyote".
> I see these scenes as symbolic of real life but very exaggerated. 
They
> may teach life lessons, we may not agree on what those lessons are,
> but we cannot take their details overly seriously. In real life 
your
> classmates did not polyjuice themselves into housecats and teachers
> did not remove all the bones in your arm while giving you first 
aid.
> The events at Hogwarts and the Dursleys are hilarious yet serious 
too
> when you look at them this way.
> 
> And in a way that works very well in this Snape scene. The kids who
> witness these types of hazing incidents are often both amused and
> repulsed by them. 
> 
> The cartoonish character does not obscure the lessons these scenes
> teach unless you get all hung up on gagging and choking and all the
> other dreadful things that happen to these students and their 
Muggle
> family members on a daily basis. Yes, all these things are truly
> dreadful, or would be in our world, but they aren't all that real 
to
> me since a flick of the wand puts them right. In most cases. We 
don't
> know how poor Dudley or Marietta will turn out, we know Snape was
> deeply hurt by the pensieve scene or else he would not have hidden 
it.
> And yet I think it is precisely the hurt that is inflicted that we
> should concentrate on and not the outrageous details that are used 
to
> inflict them. The former is symbolic of the hurts that real people
> really cause each other, the latter is just cartoonish window 
dressing.
> 
> On the other side of the fault line is the somewhat realistic
> depiction of LV and the DE. It is very jarring to me as a reader 
when
> the author constantly drags us back and forth across the dividing 
line
> between Toonville/Hogwarts and the deadly serious land of Pure Evil
> Incarnate. I don't know what her artistic purpose in this is, or if
> she has one. I'm not sure the technique works for me. Maybe it 
does.
> It reminds me a bit of a similar fault line that occurs in Handel's
> Messiah. There is this delightful little Baroque choral ditty about
> the attractions of sin, "All we like sheep", that bounces along 
for a
> while and really draws you in and then without pause crashes 
headlong
> into the somber chords of "And the Lord hath laid on Him the 
iniquity
> of us all". What a very effective way of illustrating that 
scriptural
> lesson. Maybe Rowlings intent is something similar, I just can't
> detect it yet. I do think that the events that involve the DE can 
be
> more directly related to real life examples than most of the 
Hogwarts
> scenes.


wynnleaf
First, Ken, thanks for your reply about the pensieve scene.  Once 
you explained again and responded to my comments, I *think* we're 
mostly in agreement on what would be considered typical vs. uncommon 
behavior and as to whether "all" or "most" guys engage in that 
degree of bullying behavior.

I found your comment above very interesting.  I have wondered about 
this often.  At first, I thought like you that many of the things 
that go on at Hogwarts are to be taken somewhat lightly, like the 
things that happen to people in a Dahl book, or Wile E. Coyote's 
plunges down cliffs.  The notion that "nobody really gets hurt," 
seemed to apply.  

But while I could accept that through most of COS, by the end of POA 
I felt somewhat differently.  Sirius was about to have his soul 
sucked out, which is pretty permanent and horrible, and being in 
Azkaban 12 years sounded like a sentence of constant psychological 
torture.  

Then by GOF, especially the scenes at the end, I had changed my 
mind.  

I think JKR wants to lure the reader into a sense of false 
acceptance and false "safety," for the characters, so that we accept 
the risks and actions that they take or are involved in, and then 
she presents us with unmistakably awful events where we can no 
longer pretend that all will be okay.  

I'd love to hear the opinions of others, but I think that JKR does 
not mean for there to be a real divide.  I think she is using the 
appearance of a divide to lure the reader into accepting events and 
characters that we might otherwise question.

wynnleaf