Bigotry or NOT? Re: CHAPDISC:HBP19,Elf Tails

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 157628

>
> Eddie:
> > 
> > I'm Curious: Can a squib see the magical things a muggle can't?  Leaky
> > Cauldron, etc?
> 
> Carol:
> Since Filch can see Hogwarts, which to Muggles looks like an old ruin,
> I'd say yes. 

Ken:

And I would say no. Filch can see Hogwarts because he is allowed to
see it in the same way that those complete Muggles, Hermione's
parents, can see the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley.

> Carol:

> Also, both Mrs. Figg and Filch have an affinity
> with cats that goes beyond any rapport a Muggle might have with an
> animal. 

Ken:

You don't spend much time with dog or cat people do you? Ok, no I
don't know of anyone who can communicate with cats the way Figgy and
Filch do, but then I don't know of any cats like Mrs. Norris either.
I'd say the rapport is due to the cats not the Squibs. I sure we all
know someone who *thinks* they can talk with a cat they way Figgy does!

> Carol:
> A Squib is *not* a Muggle, contrary to the opinion expressed by one or
> two posters recently. He or she is simply the reverse of a Muggleborn
> witch or wizard, with magical parents but (almost) no magical ability,
> as opposed to Muggle parents but full magical powers. These people
> belong in the Wizarding World and speak like witches and wizards but
> are always on the fringes because they can't use a wand or receive a
> Hogwarts education, which is why Filch is so full of animosity toward
> the students. 

Ken:

A Muggle is a human with no magical ability. A Squib is a human with
no magical ability. Squib is really a subset of Muggle. Even if you
want to argue that Squibs might have some *slight* magical ability
then surely such people are born to Muggles too (who can produce full
blown wizard and witch offspring after all) and are considered
Muggles, not Squibs. The things that set Squibs apart from other
Muggles is that *both* (or at least one according to a JKR quote you
referenced later and which I snipped) their parents are magical AND
they are allowed routine contact with the wizarding world. There are a
few ordinary Muggles that are allowed the latter. As far as I can see
it is quite accurate to say that a Squib is a Muggle. It *is not*
accurate to say that a Muggle is a Squib. All Squibs are Muggles but
not all Muggles are Squibs.

> 
> Carol, wondering whether a squib (a "dud" firecracker) would crackle
> and hiss a little bit rather than making no noise at all
>

Ken:

Funny you should say that, the paperback Webster's in my desk says a
squib is "a firecracker that burns with a hissing noise before
exploding", a dud is "a bomb or shell that fails to explode". The
Squibs we have seen are, so far, much more like duds than squibs. 

The modern technical use of the word squib is broader than my
Webster's allows and it makes JKR's choice of the word in this context
much less appropriate. Today a squib is a small, useful explosive,
something very different from a Squib in the Potterverse. The
explosive bolts that release rockets from their launch pads and allow
their stages to separate are squibs. The charges that inflate the
airbags in your car are squibs. A squib perfroms a useful task by
exploding. A Squib may be useful in the WW in the ways that any
ordinary human being can be useful but is not *magically* useful. And,
if Filch or Figgy does perform magic late in life would they still be
considered Squibs?

Ken