[HPforGrownups] Smeltings' sticks

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 168891

carol wrote:

> Dudley and his fellow Smeltings students wear uniforms that seem to be
> a parody of British public school uniforms (maroon tailcoats, orange
> knickerbockers, and boaters), but they also carry "knobbly sticks used
> for hitting each other when the teachers weren't looking" (SS Am. ed.
> 32). Clearly, it's a boys' school and Uncle Vernon hopes that it will
> make a "man" (i.e., an even bigger bully) out of Dudley.
>
> Does anyone (preferably British list members) think that JKR is poking
> fun at British public schools, especially boys' schools, here? What do
> the Smeltings' sticks suggest or correspond to?
>
> Thanks in advance for your input on this question.
>
> Carol, who, being female and American, never attended any remotely
> similar institution


montims:
the stick reads to me like a Shillelagh, but is a parody I think of school
uniforms, such as at Eton:

The school is famous for the traditions it maintains, including a uniform of
black tailcoat (or morning coat <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_coat>)
and waistcoat <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waistcoat>,
false-collar<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False-collar>and pinstriped
trousers. All students wear a white
tie <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necktie> that is effectively a strip of
cloth folded over into the collar. There are some variations in the school
dress worn by boys in authority, see School
Prefects<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_College#School_Prefects>and
King's
scholars <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_College#King.27s_scholars>
sections.The long-standing tradition that the present uniform was first worn
as mourning for the death of George
III<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III_of_the_United_Kingdom>is
unfounded, as "Eton dress" has undergone significant changes since its
standardisation in the 19th century. Originally (along with a top-hat and
walking-cane) merely Etonian dress for formal occasions, it is still worn
today for classes, which are referred to as "schools". Members of the
teaching staff (known as *Beaks*) are also required to wear a form of school
dress when teaching.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_College)
But it also reads as Dickensian to me, like much else of the HP series... I
think it's not so much a parody as a caricature...


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