Re: Fred and George- antisocial personality disorder


"Cindy Hamilton" <angelicapaganelli@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1156942892.590880.17170@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam's the little guy wrote:
Cindy Hamilton wrote:
gjw wrote:
On 27 Aug 2006 19:17:23 -0700, "Sirius Kase" <SiriusKase@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

When the last book is done, most of the people getting wrong
messages
about inappropriate humor, etc, will forget they ever did, things
will
be so obvious in hindsight. I think it is the sick humor that (i
can't
find the word, "bothers" is the closest that comes to mind) me the
most
because although I rarely laugh when bad things happen to people,
Jo
"tricks" me into doing it and I feel a little guilty about it until
I
remind myself that these are fictional people. So, yes, even with
fictional people, the humor makes me a tad uncomfortable.


Alas, I suspect that when the last book is done, people will come
away
with exactly the same opinion of the "sick humor" that they had when
they finished reading the other books. I don't think Rowling has
any
intention of backing away from her somewhat warped sense of humor.
Remember her comments about loving to torture Dudley and the
Dursleys?
She finds that stuff funny (and apparently harmless), and probably
always will. And she's rather proud of the fact that her stories are
funny (as she should be). I remember another quote in which someone
asked her to compare herself to Tolkein, and she said something to
the
effect of "He's a better writer, but I like to think my books are
funnier."

I find it funny and quite harmless.

Funny and harmless are two different things, of course. You might find
it funny, but then later realise it wasn't harmless. 'Harm' is far more
objective than humour, since harm is the basis of law.

For example, take the incident where Fred and George truss a gnome to
the Christmas tree. At first I found that notion humourous because it
was bizarrely twisted. But imagine if I did that to a dog - Trussed it
to a tree so that it couldn't move and left it there several days
because 'it annoyed me'. I would most likely get arrested.


But, then, I also laugh when some poor guy gets hit in the crotch,
too.


Interesting. I suspect there is a scale here, which I will call the
scale of empathy.


A. Would you laugh at him to his face, or only if you saw it when the
victim could not hear you laughing? (Bullying, versus lack of empathy)

Depends who he is. I have, in fact, laughed at friends under these
circumstances. I might suppress my laughter if it were a stranger,
but I'd be laughing inside.

B. Is it funny when it happens for real, or only in fiction? (absence
of empathy, versus immaturity)

Certainly it's funnier in fiction (especially movies), where the setup
is
carefully crafted. However occasional viewing of America's Funniest
Home Videos reveal that I find humor in real, accidental incidents.
(Of course, we have to apply a "discount" because the guy paraded
his discomfort for possible profit on television.)

C. Is it funny when it happens to anyone at all, or only to someone you
don't like?

It's funnier when I don't like them.

D. Is it funny when it's deliberate, or just funny when it's
accidental?

[snip]

[more snips]...I don't care what happens to fictional
characters.
They're not people. They're... Constructs. Things. It's equivalent
to
shredding a paper doll. Less than; a really old paper doll might have
some
value.

Cindy Hamilton


I think Cindy's got it exactly right - and that some of you guys are taking
this whole Twins thing far too seriously!

It might not be totally pc and definitely not acceptable in the real world,
but come on - it's a book and they provide lots of light relief. I think of
them as a form of literary cartoon - like Tom and Jerry, if you will: when
someone does something mean to a dog or cat in the real world, I get mad as
hell (all my liberal inclinations fly out of the window and it takes some
time to round them up again!) But I can quite happily laugh at a cartoon
where Jerry hits Tom on the head with a (clothes) iron and Tom's head takes
its shape, for example.

Because it's n o t r e a l !

The other thing is, look at the surrounding context - if a school was 1/10th
as dangerous as Hogwarts, it'd be closed in an instant. Doing detention with
noxious substances (was it Ron who had to sort flobberworms without
protective gloves and got burnt hands as a result - even if it was Snape,
that shouldn't be on!); the injuries at quidditch; all the bat bogey hexes
that are cast, apparently with adults effectively ignoring them, etc.

Anyway, just my two penn'orth!

DaveD



.

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