Last one, I swear. You just have some amazing insights into this book, and it's my favorite, so I can't help but jump in. :)
Interesting that it's Muggle "reality" that's portrayed as exaggerated fantasy, while the descriptions of things that go on in the magical world tend to be more restrained.
I was talking to a friend of mine a while ago who has read the books but is non-fannish, and when I was telling him about the fandom and its fanfic in particular, I mentioned that there was a tendency in fic to address the abuse issues with Harry and the Dursleys in a way that was hardly even touched in canon. I told him that, personally, I have issues with the fact that we see little if any of the effect of their treatment of Harry once Harry is able to leave them. When he answered I realized I'd been looking at it much less from a literary vantage point than one of realism, when I should have been doing the former. What he said about it was, essentially, what you've said here, that it is because Harry has never identified with the Muggle world. There is less realism there than in the WW for him, so it stands that it is able to affect him less.
You or someone who commented mentioned how OotP shows this all turning on its head; Harry wants to go back to his "reality," but it turns out being worse than the limbo he lives in at the Dursleys. A desegregation b/w the WW and the Muggle world was also brought up. I haven't been able to reread OotP since it was released; I'd be interested in going back and seeing exactly how the Dursleys are portrayed (though I do seem to recall Dudley seeming much more like a real bully than a caricature of a bully). But I do remember that there seems to be a breakdown in the separation between the two worlds. Actually, throughout all the books, magic in the Muggele world has steadily more frightening and potentially permanent effects (all on the Dursleys, you'll notice): PS/SS, the Dursleys' home is invaded by letters and owls, Dudley gets trapped in the empty snake tank; CoS, Dobby ruins Vernon's business deal (and is it book canon that Vernon falls out of the window?); PoA, Marge is blown up; GoF, Dudley almost chokes to death on a Ton-Tongue Toffee; and the grand finale, OotP, in which Dudley is nearly Kissed by a dementor. In OotP, there's also the appearance of Arabella Figg, a woman whom Harry believed to be firmly entrenched in the Muggle world who turns out to have ties to both. So I think your observation is of particular notice and importance.
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Interesting that it's Muggle "reality" that's portrayed as exaggerated fantasy, while the descriptions of things that go on in the magical world tend to be more restrained.
I was talking to a friend of mine a while ago who has read the books but is non-fannish, and when I was telling him about the fandom and its fanfic in particular, I mentioned that there was a tendency in fic to address the abuse issues with Harry and the Dursleys in a way that was hardly even touched in canon. I told him that, personally, I have issues with the fact that we see little if any of the effect of their treatment of Harry once Harry is able to leave them. When he answered I realized I'd been looking at it much less from a literary vantage point than one of realism, when I should have been doing the former. What he said about it was, essentially, what you've said here, that it is because Harry has never identified with the Muggle world. There is less realism there than in the WW for him, so it stands that it is able to affect him less.
You or someone who commented mentioned how OotP shows this all turning on its head; Harry wants to go back to his "reality," but it turns out being worse than the limbo he lives in at the Dursleys. A desegregation b/w the WW and the Muggle world was also brought up. I haven't been able to reread OotP since it was released; I'd be interested in going back and seeing exactly how the Dursleys are portrayed (though I do seem to recall Dudley seeming much more like a real bully than a caricature of a bully). But I do remember that there seems to be a breakdown in the separation between the two worlds. Actually, throughout all the books, magic in the Muggele world has steadily more frightening and potentially permanent effects (all on the Dursleys, you'll notice): PS/SS, the Dursleys' home is invaded by letters and owls, Dudley gets trapped in the empty snake tank; CoS, Dobby ruins Vernon's business deal (and is it book canon that Vernon falls out of the window?); PoA, Marge is blown up; GoF, Dudley almost chokes to death on a Ton-Tongue Toffee; and the grand finale, OotP, in which Dudley is nearly Kissed by a dementor. In OotP, there's also the appearance of Arabella Figg, a woman whom Harry believed to be firmly entrenched in the Muggle world who turns out to have ties to both. So I think your observation is of particular notice and importance.