Readers in the WW (was: JKR and "Think of the Children!")

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 162097

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Magpie" <belviso at ...> wrote:

> Magpie;
 
> (And while another poster covered many of the characters mentioned 
> originally, I seem to remember one of the problems with Eustace Scrubb's 
> upbringing was the lack of the kind of books the Penvensies liked, but maybe 
> I'm misremembering.)

Geoff:
I think a very relevant quote is on the very first page of "Voyage of the Dawn 
Treader":

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved 
it......

....Eustace Clarence liked animals, especially beetles, if they were dead and 
pinned on a card. He lked books if they were books of information and had 
pictures of grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model 
schools."
("Voyage of the Dawn Treader", chapter 1 "The Picture in the Bedroom")

So, like Hermione to an extent, he uses books to garner and squirrel away 
knowledge but obviously doesn't wish to suspend his belief willingly.