JKR and the boys

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 161506

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Miles" <miles at ...> wrote:
 
Geoff:
> > Coming up to the current thread, we have to remember that we are
> > only seeing part of the Hogwarts year. In Philosopher's Stone for
> > example, out of a 45-46 week year if you count the Christmas and
> > Easter holidays as well as the three terms, how much time do we
> > really share with the Trio?
> 
> Miles:
> I have to repeat what I posted earlier in this mail: The films are even
> shorter, but they show more "boy's social life" than the books. Why?


Geoff:
I don't think that they show that much more than the books. Taking POA 
as an example, the scene which is quoted where the boys are in the 
dormitory imitating various animals takes up - what? - a minute and a 
half of film time.


> Geoff Bannister cited:
> >> JKR nailed male relationships very well with this one. For
> >> women, a good friend is someone with whom they can cry,
> >> share emotions, discuss whatever. To a man (at least in
> >> Teens and Tweens) a good friend is someone who is there,
> >> shows loyalty and doesn't pry into emotional issues. The girls
> >> (Hermy, Cho, Jenny) are the one that keeps bringing up the
> >> topics Harry wants to avoid (death, dreams, etc). Neville's
> >> comment after Sirius dies is as intimate a question as any
> >> guy would get with another guy. If Ron were asking the
> >> questions that Hermione asks and Harry didn't blow his top,
> >> then I'd say the people who think Harry is light in the loafers
> >> may have a leg to stand on.
 
> Miles:
> Who exactly are the male friends of Harry? Who are the boys he 
> relates to in a non-superficial way? Where are the boys he is hanging
> around with apart from Quidditch practice and school lessons?

Geoff:
May I just underline that, in the section above, I am quoting another 
contributor. They were not my words.

To your question above, why does he have to hang around with a lot of 
the others? Not everybody does.

When I was Harry's age, I had one close friend and a few others whom 
I saw, usually at weekends because we shared certain interests. However, 
they were not the sort of real friends with whom I shared "deep" thoughts.

Harry has spent many years without true friends because of the Dursleys' 
interference. It's not so easy to build that sort of structure when you're 
eleven and your links with friends are non-existent or have been disrupted. 
One of the reasons I didn't make a lot of close friends was that, one, we 
moved from Lancashire to London when I was nine and, two, when I 
started in the First year at grammar school when I was eleven, there was 
only one other boy who came from my old junior school, - and I didn't 
even know him.