[HPforGrownups] Free Will and Time travel

[Warmsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 1321

>>> What Dumbledore must teach Harry is that he is the agent of
his own
>>> destiny;
>
>This is an interesting comment in light of something I have
been thinking
>about regarding the time travel in Book 3.  I was watching
"Early Edition" the
>other day and I was struck by the fact that there seem to be
two approaches to
>time travel:  the "one person can make a difference" approach
shown through
>Early Edition, and Quantum Leap, and then what I call the
"Prime Directive
>approach" (i.e. we can't change the past, because it will have
all kinds of
>unwanted repurcussions, and if we do meddle with the past, it
should only be
>to change the damage we have done by meddling with it in the
first place.
>This second one seems to be pretty common, though the only
example I can think
>of right away is "Back to the Future".  When I first started
thinking about
>this, I felt that PoA falls into the first camp, because
obviously H&H are
>setting out to change the previous course of events.  (thus
fitting in with
>what has been said about free will and our actions defining
us).  BUT both
>Hermione and Dumbledore realize the repurcussions of this
course of action and
>try to minimize its effect.  So maybe it's really somewhere in
between.
>

I think JKRs use of time travel is the most coherent I've ever
seen in fiction; none of this parallel universe malarkey; they
either go back in time or they don't, and the things that happen
to them in the past as a result of them going back in the future
actually do happen - i.e., the past is secure, so if someone
were to go back and kill Harry whilst he was a baby they'd fail.


BUT! On the other hand, that has some interesting repercussions
for "free will" - certainly, there is predestination in JKR's
world (remember, Divination, even if it never does turn out as
you expect) - and this sort of time travel means it's hard to
escape from your destiny... if they were to use the Time Turner
to go a couple of years into the future and find out what
happens with Voldemort, then... hmm...

Perhaps it's like Schrodinger's Cat - undecided till observed.


>> Did anyone else from this group enter the contest
(Alicia/Sue,
>>Scott, Jeremy


Nope. US residents only. :( Katie?

Jeremy