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

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 159844

> Katrina: Of course, Book 6
> also reveals that Dudley has become an abuser like his father, 
whilst
> simultaneuosly showing us that Dudley has a terrible fear that 
causes
> him to react similarly to how Harry does to Dementors...

Magpie:
I'm not sure what you mean here--what's Dudley doing in Book VI that 
suddenly shows us he's become an abuser like his father?  

Katrina:

> I think he's someone Dumbledore would feel sorry for, in the same 
way
> he feels sorry for Draco. Both spoiled children, but both lacking 
in
> the kind of love Mrs. Weasley gives her children, or the love that
> Lily presumably gave Harry.
> 
> Although I would argue that Petunia is just as likely to sacrifice
> herself for Dudley as Lily was for Harry.

Magpie:
Of course she would.  I would say Dudley and Draco were raised with 
different values than Harry would have been, but I am very disturbed 
by the casual judgment that the love of these mothers is somehow 
inferior to Lily's or Molly's--especially Molly given that there are 
plenty of people in fandom who think Molly's a nightmare of a 
mother, one that pushes all their buttons (they tend to get into 
arguments with other fans who see Molly as what Good Mothers Are 
Supposed To Be Like).  

One of the interesting things about the HP-verse is that there 
really are no truly happy families--except the Potters who got that 
way by dying.  Even the Weasleys currently have a painful rift going 
on--one that some people are happy to dismiss as just a cuckoo in 
the nest turning out to be a DE but which seems to me much more 
realistically described as pointing to some of the long-running 
flaws in the Weasley family.  I am not, of course, trying to suggest 
the Weasleys are the worst family in canon by a long shot.  But 
while love is obviously a great power in this universe, it's not a 
protection against pain, misery or bad behavior.

-m