Ron's Parseltongue ( was: Loved it!)

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 172639

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "AmanitaMuscaria"
<amanitamuscaria1 at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "eggplant107" <eggplant107@> 
> wrote:
> >
> >  "AmanitaMuscaria" <amanitamuscaria1@> wrote:
> > 
> > > Yes, Ron's sudden ability to impersonate
> > > Parseltongue was lame. 
> > 
> > I don't find it lame at all, not even a little! Yes Ron couldn't
> > discuss the subtleties of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy in
> > Parseltongue as Harry could, but he did know one word of the 
> language,
> > just one word, "open"; he knew that word because he heard a very good
> > friend of his say it. I mean, would it stretch your mental capacities
> > to the breaking point to learn ONE word of Chinese? Couldn't you
> > manage one word?
> > 
> > Eggplant
> >
> 
> Eggplant - No, it would not stretch my intellectual capacities, but as 
> it's a language with no links, connections, or soundsystem common to 
> English, it would probably stretch my vocal abilities to the extent 
> that the word might not mean what I wanted it to in Chinese.
> Parseltongue is noted, by Ron, as being very rare. As far as I 
> remember, Ron heard Harry say 'open' once in Parseltongue, in Moaning 
> Myrtle's bathroom. 
> Cheers, AmanitaMuscaria
>

Ken:

This is one of the items that a lot of people choke at but it seems
plausible to me. I don't know if there were any previous examples of
Ron being a vocal mimic but he does do a passable Peter Pettigrew
earlier in the book. That scene in the bathroom would certainly be
etched in Ron's mind, it would only be a slight stretch for him to
remember the word from that incident. He has a much more recent and
vivid memory to draw on though. Harry used the same word to open the
locket in the scene where Ron destroys that horcrux. Ron will never
forget that evening!

I, a Baptist with no languages beyond English, once stood at the front
of a Catholic Church with a hundred of my closest friends and sang:

Quoniam tu solus Sanctus,
Quoniam to solus Sanctus,
Tu solus Dominus,
Tu solus Altisimus,
Jesu Christe,
Jesu Christe.

as well as the rest of the bass part of Vivaldi's Gloria in D. It was
a much bigger job that imitating one word and while we had far more
time to learn it than Ron did, it was not particularly hard. I can
sing a song for you in Portuguese too, although I could not begin to
spell the lyrics correctly. I can believe that Ron managed to spit out
one word in Parseltongue. He probably spoke it with a terrible accent! ;-)

Overall I liked the book. It is of a piece with the rest, neither
better nor worse. It showed some signs that it would have benefited
from a revision or two, nothing new there. It resolved the essential
plot lines nicely, I thought. I even guessed one thing right: Harry
was a horcrux and LV did AK his own soul bit without killing Harry. I
like the epilogue. Most of us would be familiar with these words:

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we
can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add
or detract." 

I think that the epilogue shows the living doing one essential thing
that must be done to ennoble the sacrifices of the dead, whether they
participated in the struggle or not: living the life they died to make
possible. Snape, to choose one example, would have died in vain if the
survivors had not gone on to build normal lives and a better world.
And if you open your mind to it, the epilogue hints at other things
you might have hoped would be resolved that aren't stated directly.

Ken