The Romance

[cubfanbudwoman]

md:
> > THERE WAS NO MISSING 24 HOURS. 
 
SSSusan:
> From your POV, yes, but that's an opinion, not a fact.

md:
> That's not even a logical argument. 
> 
> You can say there's 21 hours of time in which JKR doesn't tell us 
> what happened, but you can't say whether or not 21 hrs is missing 
> is an opinion. 
> 
> My point is this, it is a fact that no time is missing, it's only 
> that JKR didn't explain what happened or why it happened. That's 
> not an opinion, that's a fact, and it's not from my POV, that's 
> nonsense. 
> 
> What's happening here is that some readers are saying that because 
> events are not explained that's the same as JKR simply having a 
> mind-fart and not realizing that21hrs disappeared. That's not the 
> case at all, it's not my POV and it's not an opinion. When we read 
> books we do not get minute-by-minute explanations, and often, days, 
> months, years go by in books without explanation of what happened. 
> The fact that the  author choose not to write what happened does 
> not mean she forgot those moments, or that she left the reader high-
> and-dry, only that the events in the story begin for Harry when
> he shows up at the Dursely's. It's an entire chapter, an entire 
> different beginning of the book to explain the 21 hrs from his 
> parents murder until he arrives at the Dursely's. 
> 
> THERE IS NO MISSING HOURS. 
> 
> Not an opinion, a fact.
> 

SSSusan:
md, we're talking semantics on the word "missing" here, it seems to me, not really having a substantive disagreement.  

I'm just saying that there is a long history of people who've been part of the HPfGU universe for years who liked to have fun with theories and what ifs and I wonder if it could bes.  One of those areas where many people had fun was the "missing 24 hours."  The group members *called* it that, which is why it came up over here with that phrase.  

A similar example was the Droobles wrappers that Neville's mom gave him each time he visited them at St. Mungo's.  A lot of people thought there was significance to that and developed some fun & elaborate theories about what that might be.  Turned out they were wrong and, to paraphrase Herself, "It was only ever a mouth organ."

So those are two examples of things that folks in the fandom who were awaiting future installments in the series thought might be significant but found out *weren't* for JKR.  *I* wasn't criticizing her for NOT having made "the missing 24 hours" or "the Droobles wrappers" into something significant; it was just a bummer to find that they weren't.  And then, yes, a SURPRISE that, in the case of the 24 hours, she hadn't thought about how or why fans would've been considering that possibility.  

You are right, of course, that all kinds of things happen off page and yet aren't "missing" in the true sense of the word -- although, lol, you wouldn't believe the discussions that have happened over whether these kids ever shower or brush their teeth [after all, it's never shown or talked about!].  

What I reacted to -- and called your opinion -- is that I read your previous comments as saying, AS ABSOLUTE FACT, that there is no way those hours were missing, as in there was no reason in the world to consider that they might contain something mysterious or significant.  And I was trying to point out why, for many people, it was quite reasonable to think that there was!  They were left unexplained, and it seemed like a goodly chunk of time to a lot of us [that's where the opinion comes in, to me], so it wasn't weird or crazy to have thought there might be some clues there in a series which, at many levels, was a mystery.

Siriusly Snapey Susan,
who doesn't mind having her position challenged or questioned, especially when we're trying to figure out if we're talking about things in the same or different way, but who'd appreciate not having her words called "nonsense"