Hogwarts: Real or Cartoon? (was:Scene with likeable James WAS: Re: Eileen Pince

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 156337

> >>Ken:
> <snip>
> 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".
> <snip>
> 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.
> <snip>
> 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.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I've heard this idea before, that Hogwarts (or the Potterverse) is 
cartoonish, that the hurts visited upon the students are therefore 
as real and harmful as Elmer Fudd falling off a cliff.  So you're 
not alone in thinking this.  But, I'm pretty sure I disagree.

For one, as you point out, the cartoon nature of it all doesn't 
carry through.  If Draco being slammed into a stone floor is a 
cartoon, than Harry carving words into his hand should be a cartoon 
too, right?  I mean, Elmer Fudd or Bugs Bunny, falling off a cliff 
is equally harmless to both.

So instead there's this argument (not yours, Ken, I think) that, no, 
only the painful things that happen to the *bad guys* are 
cartoonish.  What happens to our heroes is as real and as painful as 
real life.  And... that really doesn't make sense to me.  I mean, 
both Draco and Harry are terrified when they stumble upon Quirrell!
Mort feeding off that unicorn in PS/SS.  Are we meant to read 
Harry's terror as real, but Draco's as running through a brick wall 
funny?  Doesn't that ask for too much of a disconnect on the readers 
part?

Also, for me the Voldemort aspects are the *less* real moments of 
the books.  I wouldn't call it cartoonish, but certainly mythical or 
fantastical, where you have a villain who's practically pure evil, 
with the blood-thirsty (literally) henchmen and all.

Whereas the school moments strike me as very "real": Harry's nerves 
at having to ask a girl to the big dance; Draco and Harry both 
equally nervous before the big quidditch match; Hermione and her mad 
color coding before big exams.  It's all very mundane and very 
universal, I think.  Sure there's a bit of magical flair added on, 
but at the end of the day, these are students behaving like 
students, IMO.

I don't know, I think maybe the inclination to color the Potterverse 
as a cartoon is ducking the big questions.  If it was bad for a 
teacher to make Harry carve words into his hand,  might it not have 
been equally bad for a teacher to slam Draco repeatedly into the 
floor?  And what does it say about us that we were amused at first?

A lot of this depends on the outcome of book 7, of course.  Are the 
Slytherins as real as the Gryffindors?  Is Draco just as much a 
human being as Harry is?  I think JKR will take the real rather than 
the cartoon path.  I think.  Though I'm betting the Voldemort bits 
are going to be pure fantasy.

Betsy Hp