numbers again

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 13070

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer <pennylin at s...> 
wrote:
> Hi --
> 
> naama_gat at h... wrote:
> 
> > I have another point to make regarding the number of students.
> > JKR has said quite specifically that there are 1000 students in
> > Hogwarts. Now, obviously that doesn't sit well with (or rather is
> > flatly contradicted by) evidence in the books. BUT - I can't 
believe
> > that JKR, who has spent years planning and thinking of the HP 
world,
> > and who is at least as intelligent as most of us here, hadn't 
thought
> > of this very basic problem. Its not a reasonable slip up, IMO.
> 
> But, neither is the wand order mistake a reasonable slip-up, but 
from
> all accounts, that's exactly what it was.  A mistake.  A huge one. 
 But,
> one that was made by the author & missed by every editor who looked 
at
> the manuscript before it went to press at both Bloomsbury & 
Scholastic.
> So, I don't think it makes too much sense to assume that JKR is
> infallible & has every detail completely worked out.  If she did, 
then
> there wouldn't be the flatly contradictory evidence about the 
number of
> students.

Of course I don't think that JKR is infallible - Flint, wand order, 
toffee/fudge... we have worked very hard here on finding just how 
fallible she is. My point was different - it was that the number of 
students at Hogwarts isn't something she could have conceivably 
skipped thinking about in years of fleshing out an imaginary world 
whose center is Hogwarts. To me that would be a slip up on a 
completely different scale than local, plot related discrepancies, no 
matter how important they are. IMHO, of course. 

Naama