Marching to an off-beat drum

[ciroccoj]

Must admit, this was an angle of the latest Harry Potter movie that just hadn't registered with me at all, but apparently it's got some people bothered:

Harry Potter and the Pint of Liquid Courage

Excertp: Hermione is tipsy. Neville is serving drinks. Ron is sipping mead and Harry is partying with his professors.

Does Hogwarts have a drinking problem?

I always find this kind of thing interesting: how something that can be a huge deal to one person just simply doesn't register to another. I get that sometimes when it comes to body modesty & nudity; I was brought up in a house and atmosphere where nudity was just a state of unclothedness, with no particular emotional attachment to it beyond "You better put something on before leaving the house or you'll get cold and miserable - or get arrested and miserable." So other people's nudity, or my own, doesn't really... it usually has about as much impact on me as seeing a woman with her hair or face showing has on those of us who don't live in countries where women cover their faces or hair whenever they're out of the house.

I know it bugs other people. I just don't get it.

Same with drinking. I was brought up among people who regularly had wine with dinner, rarely got drunk, and were perfectly willing to let me try whatever they were drinking as long as I didn't drink too much of it because kids generally can't hold much liquor. Same as I wasn't allowed to drink too much coffee or tea because kids don't do well with caffeine. It wasn't forbidden fruit. It wasn't mysterious. It was just (somewhat yucky) liquid.

So I read this article and have difficulty getting what the writer's on about. I don't see "flouting the law", or constantly turning to alcohol to "calm their nerves, fortify their courage or comfort their sorrows." (Edited to add: Although I do recognize that in part that's because I'm a geek who knows that way back in Goblet of Fire somebody mentioned that Butterbeer can't possibly make anybody but a house elf drunk. Still.)

Same planet, different worlds ;)

Comments

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

True, it is different what a range of things people pick out as being the most important or concerning in the same situation. I totally didn't pick up on that either. If the alcohol consumption registered as being more present than in past HP movies, it was only as an understanding that the characters weren't little kids anymore.

[fearciuil.livejournal.com]

I saw the headline, but didn't read the article ... the headline and summary made me roll my eyes and think, "Harry Potter is British, not American. Different mores concerning ... well, a lot of things. Like alcohol consumption." And walk past.

I agree with you.