Damoclesian sword for whom? (Was: Longbottoms and "happy ever after"...)

[cornflower_o_shea]

No: HPFGUIDX 30852

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., laoisecronin at y... wrote:
> But the stories are all told from Harrys point of view, if he died 
do 
> you think it would be strange to have the events afterwards from 
> anothers pov? I know that wouldn't be a good enough reason for JKR 
to 
> change who is going to die but we can all hope!

Not to get to technical here, but the stories are actually semi-
omniscient third person narratives. Which is to say that we have a 
voice that recounts the story from "above", i.e. not using any one 
character's voice, but does not let us in on all the details and 
often takes on the the emotions of the characters and/or goes along 
with the "gaps" in the characters knowledge. Because the books tend 
to be quite dialogue heavy, much of the story reads like theatre, in 
which we are the omniscient observer, with the added benefit of 
hearing the thoughts and dreams (selectively) of the characters. 
Perhaps the reason that we feel that the story is from Harry's point 
of view is that Rollings limits the internal observations almost 
entirely to Harry (much in the same way Shakespeare limits his 
soliloquays to the main characters); however, this should not be 
confused with a first person narrative. We are priviledged to things 
Harry is not (points in case, the Riddle House scene, the baby Harry 
delivery scene, etc.)

Sorry to get English-teachery, but I think it is an important 
distinction.

Cheers!

- Cornflower O'Shea

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"Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" -Albus Dumbledore

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