Respecting the Dursleys( was:Re: Hi everyone -- banning the books)

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 159497

> Betsy HP:
> I just don't see that what they do to Harry is all that actionable.
> 
> Lynda:
> 
> I just listened to SS again last week when I was doing housework.  
Vernon
> Dursley "hitting Dudley around the head" was mentioned.  That's 
actionable.
> Should be for both kids really. Not letting a kid out of his room 
other than
> for bathroom breaks could also be considered abusive.  What's most
> compelling though, is the way Harry reacts to Vernon. Keeps out of 
his way,
> due to his temper and his reach.  That's not good.

Alla:

Starving kid is actionable, putting prison bars on his room could 
easily be actionable, etc, but that is not what I want to ask.

My position is known - hate Dursleys, think Vernon should be in jail 
and Petunia close by, I mean, their RL equivalents of course, since 
Dursleys of course have caricaturic features, but  you said that it 
should be for both kids. And after book 6 it is rather clear to me 
that that is what JKR is trying to promote - that Dudley was abused 
too, but I am just soo not buying it, I mean I am buying it on 
intellectual level, but not on the emotional, because JKR did not 
manage to make me feel one ounce of sympathy for Dudley.

Could somebody who indeed feels that Dursleys are horrible, but feel 
something for Dudley explain why?

I mean if for you all Dursleys are great, ( for hypothetical you, or 
like for Betsy, they are just not abusive, I get it), I am just 
trying to feel something for Dudley and cannot, assuming that I am 
hundred percent sure that his parents are abusive monsters. I mean 
the fact that he is  a bully to Harry obviously does not help, but I 
am trying to imagine what if he would not and only his parents 
abused Harry, and he was indifferent and still cannot find any 
sympathetic scenes.

It is like with Draco - I do feel that he is likely headed to 
redemption and am feeling rather sorry for myself, because usually I 
eat those stories with the spoon, but I hated him for so long and 
for five books JKR did not give me ONE deed of Draco which is worth 
sympathy ( that is only my impressionn of course), so this 
redemption story will leave me untouched, most likely.

I want to buy Dursleys as abused child and want to sympathise with 
him. Help me?

Alla