Toons, Petunia, and the Horrible Vase (WAS: Blame Fryffindor for everything)

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 175275

va32h:
If there's any winking and nudging going on, I would say that it's
from JKR to the reader, because she expects us to detest Petunia too,
and this is another example of Petunia's bad taste.

I just think you are reading way too much into a throwaway line. No,
it wasn't a "necessary" comment in the letter, neither are a few
hundred little phrases that JKR inserts in her writing. Why did
Dumbledore say "let us step out into the night and pursue that
flighty temptress, adventure." in HPB? It isn't necessary. Dumbledore
could have said "Let's go."


Debbie:
I don't doubt that JKR included the bit about the vase as a throwaway and as
a joke.  I also believe there are certain characters who are fair game for
such comments.  Had Vernon sent the vase (not that he ever would), I would
not have cared, because Vernon is an example of what someone on this list
once characterized as a 'Toon.'  Vernon is so caricatured and obviously mean
that we can have little, if any empathy for him.  Like a cartoon villain, a
Toon can be physically and mentally tortured and we can laugh because he/she
suffers no real harm, only well-deserved humiliation for being such a nasty
villain.

In PS/SS, I might have characterized Petunia as a Toon.  By the end of DH,
however, Petunia has been given a backstory with a good deal of pathos
attached to it.  She's much more than an object of ridicule; she has become
sympathetic (which is not the same thing as being likeable).  The very
existence of the vase tells us that however much Petunia resents Lily and
her magical talent, she cares enough to send Lily a gift.  Whether Petunia
has good or bad taste (and I have no doubt that it is bad, because taste
requires self-confidence and Petunia feels her inferiority too keenly) is
beside the point.  Lily's comment is belittling to her inferior sister.
Thus, the comment is a jarring moment in what otherwise is a very thoughtful
letter in which Lily thanks Sirius and enlists his help in raising James'
spirits.

Perhaps I should read the comment as humanizing Lily.  She is not perfect,
if she cheerfully makes her Muggle sister the butt of jokes.  However, if
JKR means us to find this funny, I don't think it works, at least for me.

Petunia is not the only character that JKR sometimes treats as a Toon and
sometimes not.  However, JKR gives these characters sufficient depth --
often using just a couple of vignettes -- that we feel their pain.  For
example, Percy also sometimes is treated as a Toon, yet the jokes played on
him are part of the dynamic that alienates him from his family.  Like the
Velveteen Rabbit, once characters become "real", they're no longer fair game
for jokes between the author and reader.

Debbie


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]