Unspeakable, pt 1: Horror (Feb Potterdelphia talk)

[drinkingcocoa]

Unspeakables.  Secret-Keepers.  The Forbidden Forest.  Taboos.  There is power in things that cannot be named or spoken.  The Potter books undertake a gloriously multifaceted exploration of this concept, a series of thematic variations that run the gamut from mischief to dread to the sublime.  Today, we take a hard look at unspeakable horror.

Comments

Umbridge - rape - Ariana

[dragonprince72]

While I have only read OOTP twice...I don't remember the book version quite so clearly as SS, COS, POA, or GOF, or even HBP or DH - I don't see how / why one would jump to the conclusion that Umbridge was raped by the centaurs. I agree with the one thing mentioned earlier in your article here about the different species. Just as she hated the centaurs for being "half-breeds", as she called them, they hated her for being a human, her gender having nothing to do with it. My interpretation was that she was just battered, abused, beaten - which would produce shock on anyone. When you hear of animal abuse in the news - of a dog or cat or horse that is beaten by its owner and left to die, you typically do not think of, much less hear of that animal having been sexually abused - because it just doesn't happen all that often and as far as Umbridge and the centaurs - each of them perceived the other as mere animals almost.

As for Ariana, I didn't think Ariana was that old, perhaps she was - but I would have thought she would have been in Hogwarts if she was older than 11. Boys that age simply do not have those thoughts in mind of sexual aggression and it's abnormal psychologically to go after people significantly younger than them. I think and I gathered this from reading DH the first few times, that since she was a witch and her powers were strong and not yet under control, they were abusing her in more than verbal fashion...in a physical fashion, sexuality having nothing to do with it.

I think the first time deviant sexual activity came up in my mind was Dudley's mocking of Harry in the beginning of OOTP but then after that the only other reference was JKR's admission that Albus Dumbledore was gay, which was in none of the books. I don't think it was an unspeakable concept because it was a children's book but just no reason to put something in that isn't a primary concern in the minds of children that age and isn't normal between different species.