Wordplay/ What's fun about the HPs?

[Randy]

No: HPFGUIDX 152542

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "inufan_625" <inufan_625 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Geoff:
> This, I believe, is one of the factors which makes 
some "children's"
> books so engaging to all ages.
> <snip>
> I have always be highly amused by JKR's wordplays which are 
sometimes 
> lost on young people and also will leave readers who are not 
native 
> English speakers lost.
>  
> Consider names such as Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, Hogwarts, 
> Durmstrang, Grimmauld Place and Umbridge just to list a handful....
> 
> 
> 
> Inufan_625:
> 
> This caught my eyes as it was mentioned by another 
poster...something
> about being embarassed about not getting the joke with Knockturn 
Alley
> for so many reads.
> 
> I guess I should be supremely embarassed then because I still don't
> get it. I know that JKR choses her names carefully using a variety 
of
> sources to put meaning behind her choices (mythology, history, 
ect.),
> but I feel like I am missing something, especially pertaining to 
the
> above examples.
> 
> I would appreciate it if someone would feel this clueless reader 
in. I
> have no excuse as I am a native speaker and not all that 
young...lol
>

Are you asking for deaper meaning than just the puns that she loves 
to use?

Like Grimmauld Place is a grim old place?

Knockturn Alley is a place that people might visit nocturnally (at 
night)?

Randy