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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 156404

 
> Betsy Hp:
> Which may be why the cartoon element fades as the books go along.  
> But I don't think the cartoon was ever supposed to be the actual 
> state of the Potterverse world.  Harry, with his innocent faith, 
> *saw* things with a cartoonish clarity where bad people are just bad 
> and don't love their families like good people do and don't feel 
> pain like good people do.  And part of growing up is recognizing the 
> cruel things you've done as a child and deciding to not make that 
> sort of mistake again.  Because *all* people feel pain, just as much 
> as you do.
> 
> Maybe that's what JKR has been trying to do?

Pippin:
I think our confusion about how to respond to these scenes on rereading
is part of what JKR is going for.

Most people think they would respond instinctively to help someone in 
distress.  But social scientists say  that in real situations we take our
cues from other onlookers and   those in  authority  to a far greater 
extent than most of us realize.  It actually takes an unusual amount 
of awareness and moral courage to react the way we think any decent 
person would.

JKR educates us  by showing us  how much our reactions can be made 
to vary even in what ought to be the open-and-shut case of a child 
subjected to an unprovoked attack. When it comes to subtly manipulating 
a reader's sympathies, Rita Skeeter has nothing on JKR herself. 


The Dursleys are clearly suffering:  "gagging and sputtering",
"yelled and sputtered", "bellowing and waving his arms around"
"screamed",  and "sobbing hysterically"

But JKR cues us to be amused  by using exaggerated figures of
speech:  "tugging Dudley's tongue as though determined to rip it out", 
"bellowing like a wounded hippo", and "lolling around like a great 
slimy python." The animal comparisons literally dehumanize the
Dursleys. 

In contrast the images used to describe the Robertses:
"as though the people above them were marionettes operated
by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air" and
"spin like a top" emphasize the toylike helplessness of the
captives in the hands of the Death Eaters. 

The figures of speech in the Worst Memory episode : "as though he 
had been expecting an attack" "as though bound by invisible ropes" 
"rigid as a board" are less fanciful  and I think help the reader to
see this scene as more 'real' than either of the others. 

JKR works this into the story itself when she has Hermione
explain what the Daily Prophet has been doing to discredit Harry:
'they say something like 'a tale worthy of Harry Potter' and if 
anyone has a funny accident or anything it's 'let's hope he hasn't 
got a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next--"

The Prophet uses the same tricks  to turn Harry into a standing joke
as JKR uses with the Dursleys.

Pippin