Smart Talk on Harry Potter
By Matthew
The poll is on the right.
To keep Red Rocker happy, please select what you least like to meet from the available options.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I really sincerely, prefoundely detest clowns. They freak me out. I guess someone agrees with me….
That was me.
I wouldn’t like to think what a clown might be doing down a dark alley… or what it might try to do to me if I disturbed it.
The poll should have specified whether the werewolf was transformed or not and also whether s/he had been taking Wolfsbane. Most of the time in the Potterverse, meeting a werewolf is a non-event. (Even if it’s Fenrir.)
Persephone
Stephen King’s Pennywise and John Wayne – “A clown can get away with murder” – Gacy have given clowns a bad name, it’s true. And like Korg, I’d wonder what a clown might be doing down a dark alley.
But overall, I think most of the candidates would evoke extreme apprehension if encountered under those – or in fact, any – circumstances. They all have the power to dismember, mutilate and kill. But there are a few that aren’t generally malicious: the original Frankenstein’s monster was a gentle and book-loving creature, until driven to violence by circumstance. And Sasquatch seems to be a solitary creature, avoiding contact. If he saw you, he’d probably run if he could. And werewolves, like Persephone points out, are ok much of the time. And poor Gill-man’s main crime is unrequited love for the beauteous Kay: might as well name King Kong and get it over with.
But enough musings. I picked Dementor, and I picked it almost instanteously. While this is partially due to the fact that Dementors are more familiar to me now than any of the others, it also has to do with the fact that unlike most of the others, Dementors mess with your mind and emotions (and your soul, if you believe in such things). They are more personal than most of the others. My second choice would be the Horta, for similar reasons. I can’t remember what the Horta’s ultimate goal was, but it acts pretty much like a doppelganger, wearing your clothes, drinking from your glass when you’re asleep, and pretty much acting like you. Which is deeply creepy.
The Horta was a monster from the original Star Trek series. Although I’m sure that’s not who you meant by it in the poll. The Horla is the one to fear.
I picked Dementors for much the same reasons as Red Rocker. Messing with your mind & emotions, making you relive your worst memories. Let’s not go there. As for the soul, I don’t believe anything has the power to forever destroy a soul but for the sake of the books I put up with Jo’s explanation.
The Horla would come in a close second, again because of the mental aspects of its attack.
Never had much truck with clowns but I can understand people’s fears of them. Generally when I think of clowns though I think of Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons.
Vampires & Werewolves have been romanticized & rehabilitated these days to such an extent that it’d probably be kind of cool being turned into one of them.
Dementor. But there a few villains I wouldn’t care to meet either.
revgeorge, you’re right about the Horta/Horla. The Horta is an intrinsically peaceful critter who only kills to defend her eggs. The Horla is Maupassant’s soul-sucking, invisible, next-step-in-evolution monster.
My candidates for scariest monsters would also include the little drowned girl who crawls out of the well (and under your sheets) in The Ring and Nicole Kidman in The Others and the meanest mother of them all, Mama Alien from the movie of the same name. Funny thing about Alien, even repeated exposure doesn’t detract from her scare-worthiness.
Dementor, hands down .
While I would not like to meet any of them, the dementors seem to literally freeze everybody in their paths while I’d like to think that you could react to the others.
I actually did mean The Horta from Star Trek.
I reckon meeting something like that wouyld be scary no matter how normally peaceful something is. There is all the difference in the world between a cow in a field and a furious bull.
Sharing a room with korg20000bc for a great part of my life means I have no fear of the Sasquatch.
But American Werewolf in London was the first horor movie I saw and it affected me badly for years. Had to sleep with the sheet up to my nose regardless of how hot it was. You can imagine my terror when Dad put another doorway into our bedroom – two ways for the werewolf to come in!
But clowns – that’s what I voted for. They are wrong.
Korg, when was the last time you watched Star Trek? Do you remember that the rocks were papier mache? I suppose if someone parked a Horta at the end of a dark alley, and then made it move forward towards me with strings and pulleys, I might be startled for a second or two. But it wouldn’t be its Hortaness which scared me, just that something large and unknown was shuffling towards me.
Black Angus, did you have a similar reaction to Lupin in PoA? Or Two-Face in Dark Knight ?
Red Rocker,
I have an irrational fear of papier mache.
Black Angus,
You may have got over your fear of sasquatch and likewise my fear of biohazards has been greatly reduced.
With all these people voting for dementors did anyone else think of the dark cloud/island that the Dawn Treader sailed into when they read about dementors for the first time?
I didn’t think of it but that’s a great connection! The island where dreams come true. Not daydreams. Not wishes. But your dreams whatever they may be. Just think of some nightmares you’ve had to get the idea of what a terrible place that would be.
Red Rocker, I’ve come to terms with my lycanophobia. Now I see them as misunderstood (but I’m still not going to pat one).
But American Werewolf in London did not cure me of my Jenny Agutterphilia that’s for sure.