Muggles v wizards redux

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 183280

> Pippin:
> *Of course* the set up is a mind game, one of many in canon.  We're
> cued to read the Muggles as a metaphor for dull and stupid people 
just
> as we're cued to read Snape as a villain and Dumbledore as the
> personification of wisdom and benevolence.  But we find, we have our
> consciousness raised,  that we have to ignore evidence and 
dehumanize
> the characters to do it. 

a_svirn:
That's not the first time this idea of Rowling's playing some sort of 
mind game crops up in the discussion. I must say I don't quite see 
what kind of mind game that might be. Because, you know, if muggles, 
which is to say non-magical people, work as a metaphor for dull and 
stupid people, then we are cued to read *ourselves* as dull and 
stupid. After all we are all here non-magical. Mostly. As  Montavilla 
said upthread we are placed into the situation of a Pole hearing a 
Polish joke. I ask myself, though, is it an elaborate mind game to 
regale Poles with Polish jokes? Or is it just plain rude? 

> Pippin:
>  The larger  point is that using people as metaphors is
> dehumanizing, period. A metaphor is like a patronus -- it's a
> projection with no feelings of its own. It may carry a message, it 
may
> be used to frighten or inspire, but it's just a tool.
> 

a_svirn:
In that case, I am afraid, our very language is dehumanising. Even 
our everyday speech is replete with metaphors, to say nothing of 
works of literature.
a_svirn