GoF 4

[pauraque_bk]

Highlights from Chapter 3:

-So long, and thanks for all the mice (or, WTF post owls!)

-People we like are "round-faced", people we don't like are "the size of a young killer whale" (or, Sympathetic fat people in HP)


GoF 4: Back to The Burrow

Capitalization hers.

You know what? I think this might be my least favorite chapter in canon. Thankfully, it's also short.

[Harry] had rarely seen Mr or Mrs Weasley wearing anything that the Dursleys would call 'normal'. Their children might don Muggle clothing during the holidays, but Mr and Mrs Weasley usually wore long robes in varying states of shabbiness. (39)

So, I guess we can assume that there's a cultural shift in progress here. In Arthur and Molly's generation, you didn't wear Muggle clothes, ever. In the kids' generation, you do. Am I right that in the generation preceding Arthur and Molly, you didn't even have the first clue what a Muggle might wear? Are they older wizards, the ones we see dressed in nightgowns and so on? I wonder if this has anything to do with Dumbledore becoming Headmaster -- Muggleborns feeling more welcome, wizard children feeling more inclined to emulate them?

Dudley, on the other hand, looked somehow diminished. This was not because the diet was at last taking effect, but due to fright. Dudley had emerged from his last encounter with a fully-grown wizard with a curly pig's tail poking out of the seat of his trousers [...] It wasn't altogether surprising, therefore, that Dudley kept running his hand nervously over his backside, and walking sideways from room to room, so as not to present the same target to the enemy. (40)

There's a lot of this Dudley-being-terrified business in this chapter (which you really can't blame him for), but the key word is diminished. The bully isn't so big anymore, doesn't loom large in Harry's life. As usual, his bad actions are tied to his physical appearance -- the narrative lays the pig connection on pretty thick here, "porky hands" and so on. It's supposed to be funny, I don't know if you guys find it so. Doesn't work for me.

Etc etc, the Dursleys are anxious, they eat dinner, finally the Weasleys try to come in through the fireplace. This is just not smart of Arthur. He knows Muggles don't use the Floo network -- if they did, he wouldn't have had to pull strings to have the Dursleys' fireplace connected -- and he didn't tell anyone, even Harry, that he was going to attempt it. It also seems a bit dim to blast his way into the room instead of... well, anything else. He can fix the room via magic, but he can't take some paneling off without an explosion?

We're supposed to get a laugh out of the Dursleys' reactions, but it falls flat to me. This kind of humor doesn't work unless both parties are behaving reasonably (by their own standards), not idiotically.

'Well ... bye then,' Harry said to the Dursleys.

They didn't say anything at all. Harry moved towards the fire, but just as he reached the edge of the hearth, Mr Weasley put out a hand and held him back. He was looking at the Dursleys in amazement.

'Harry said goodbye to you,' he said. 'Didn't you hear him?'

'It doesn't matter,' Harry muttered to Mr Weasley. 'Honestly, I don't care.'

'You aren't going to see your nephew 'til next summer,' he said to Uncle Vernon in mild indignation. 'Surely you're going to say goodbye?' (46-47)

This is the only thing I kind of like in this chapter. Arthur's defense of Harry reads as sincere (and it would be reasonable too, if the Dursleys' living room hadn't just been blown up). He really can't imagine why they would treat him discourteously. I can't quite put into words why this affects me, but it does.

Harry wheeled around. Dudley was no longer standing behind his parents. He was kneeling beside the coffee table, and he was gagging and spluttering on a foot-long, purple, slimy thing that was protruding from his mouth. One bewildered second later, Harry realised that the foot-long thing was Dudley's tongue -- and that a brightly coloured toffee-wrapper lay on the floor beside him. (47)

There's this perpetual debate in fandom about the Weasley twins -- merry pranksters or sadists? And I tend to come down pretty hard on them, and it's because of things like this. I guess we're supposed to think Dudley deserved it for his mistreatment of Harry, but the fact is that Dudley isn't in a position to mistreat Harry anymore. He doesn't need to be taken down a peg: he's already there. Not to mention, as Arthur rightly points out in the next chapter, it's hardly acceptable or legal to do something like this to a Muggle.

I'll also point out that he's gagging and spluttering. In past discussions, some (myself included) have put a lot of weight on the fact that in OotP 28, James's soap-bubble hex makes Snape gag and choke, noting that cutting off someone's breathing is a pretty violent act.

Well, I feel like a bit of a wet blanket now. Anyone actually enjoy this chapter? I promise not to get in a snit if you did. :D


Previous GoF posts are saved in memories here.

Comments

Con't...Sorry, It was too long to fit in one comment...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Even the first time I read this chapter, way back when it was first published, I did not like it. Honestly, I never blamed Dudley for his neurotic behavior concerning his bottom in the presence of wizards b/c, frankly, I'd probably be a bit neurotic myself after the pig-tail bit.

I remember being absolutely horrified by the way Arthur presents himself to the Dursleys in this chapter. He's an "expert" on Muggles but he commits a long series of inexcusable blunders that good manners if nothing else should have prevented. The crowning moment, of course, comes in the form of a Ton-Tongue Toffee. Arthur's only two "shining moments" in this chapter, imo, are the bits where he is indignant over Harry's lack of farewell and the fact that he stayed - despite flying objects and general hysteria - to fix that tongue. Although, I've always suspected that his "kindness" is at least partly based on his desire to protect his own sons from the repercussions of muggle-baiting.

I have to admit that during my first reading, when the twins dropped that candy, I expected it to be something like a canary cream - magical but harmless. I was disturbed when the candy turned out to be life threatening. What chilled me while re-reading was that none of the Weasleys, or even Harry himself, seem to understand just how serious their "prank" was. Nor do they seem to realize what an extreme lack of compassion it shows on the part of the twins that their only regret is that they were caught! They most certainly do not regret nearly killing another child! At that point, I was once again ready to scream at Arthur and Molly for their lack of critical thinking skills.

The Weasley twins are pranksters, yes - good tempered, imaginative, fun, and very amusing. But they're also sadistic bullies - cruel, thoughtless, compassion-less, frighteningly and cunningly efficient - apparently not armed with either a moral compass or any of those mental stop signs most of us come equipped with. That Harry seems to trust them implicitly distresses me. I know and like many somewhat shady/wild people - but I trust none of them. It's called judgment - something that nearly the entirety of the HP cast lacks. To me, this chapter once again illustrates that appalling shortcoming in vivid, technicolored detail.