The Dursleys: the missing piece?/The Prank in DH/Responsibility for Sirius'

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 167365

>
> Magpie:
> Are you saying they're really fundamentalists the way C3PO
> is "really" a black stereotype? Because there's nothing strange
> about an aspirational, conservative middle-class person wanting
> their family to be "normal." An artistic child might ultimately
earn
> a lot of money for his family, but that wouldn't necessarily stop a
> family like the Dursleys from preferring him to be "normal" instead
> of creative. They wouldn't have to be fundamentalists to think that
> way. In the Dursleys case, they seem to be a charicature of a
> specific British type that isn't religious in that way. If the
story
> were set in America I think the Dursleys might be more likely to be
> religious that way, and that it would be overt. There's no hint
that
> they're worried about the devil.
>

I think this is basically right, although I would emphasize that this
type of person tends to think of "money" and "normality" in the same
way -- i.e. it's the "normal" and "respectable" people that get ahead
in the world, the "weird," "strange," and, to use your
example, "artsy-fartsy" don't.  Several recent social surveys in the
US have pointed out that middle-class religion/morality and middle-
class capitalism are closely linked -- that is, people see their
religious and moral values as also being market values.  One
institute that sponsored the survey reported being quite surprised
that when they expected religious answers, they got capitalist ones.
I.E. you shouldn't dress in offensive ways because it crushes your
chances of promotion, you shouldn't associate with disreputable
people because it might be remembered at a crucial moment, etc.  As
the surveyors pointed out, values that some people loosely associate
with morality truly ARE moral values to the middle class, but are
ALSO simply expressions of hard-headed pragmatism.  After all, such
views and warnings about what will and will not serve you well in
your career and ability to advance are correct at least 95% of the
time -- or, to put it another way, its remarkable how much smarter
your parents become as you grow older.

Of course, human motivation is complex, and simply because something
is rooted in pragmatism doesn't mean it's pragmatic in every
situation.  A parent with a wizard child or an artistic genius child
would be better advised, in that situation, to encourage their
special nature.  But that does not mean that the appeal to pragmatic,
capitalist values in support of "normality" is irrational in general.

Thus people like the Dursleys, whether in Britain or the US, really
do value "normality" at least partially because in the vast majority
of their experience it really DOES aid in success and strangeness of
oneself or ones relatives really IS a drag on your advancement.

All of which is to say that Vernon's claim that he wanted to "quash
the magic" out of Harry for the boy's own good is, of course, MOSTLY
self-serving and utterly contemptible.  But that is not to say that,
from Vernon's own perspective and experience in the corporate world,
it's COMPLETELY a false or unreasonable claim.


Lupinlore, who never thought he'd use the words "reasonable"
and "Dursley" in the same sentence, but never thought he'd live to
see a lot of other things, either