Harrys POV versa facts (was: Re: Courses)

[heidi.h.tandy.c92 at alumni.upenn.edu]

No: HPFGUIDX 15141

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., jennifer.k at l... wrote:
>  How long can we stretch the Harry-POV? I mean, the story isn´t 
told 
> by him. Its told by an allwise narrator, describing the 
> characters. And the narrator doesn´t say: "Hermione signed up for 
so 
> many courses that Harry/Ron thought she must have covered them 
all" - 
> it is said that Hermione signed up for everything. 
> 
> Or do you mean that fact and Harrys personal impression is mixed 
> without this being stated in the text???

The story (well, most of it) is actually told in what's called Third 
Person Limited, which means that every scene that Harry is in is 
shown only from his perspective, and there are no perspective shifts. 
There are a few exceptions - the begining is Vernon's perspective, 
then Dumbledore's, and the start of GoF is Frank Bryce's perspective 
(although it might actually be Harry's dream-traveling perspective) 
and there's a scene in PS/SS in the quidditch match which is either 
Ron's or Hermi's perspective. I think it's Ron's, but I'm not 
perfectly sure.
Third Person Omniscient, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, 
would have perspective shifts from scene to scene or even within the 
same scene. The best HP-related examples I can give are from fanfic. 
Ebony's Trouble in Paradise is first person, which is inherently 
limited (you also might be familiar with Catcher in the Rye, also a 
1st person story); my Surfeit of Curses is third person limited - 
mostly draco, with one chapter so far of Hermione; ASA, PoU/STNE and 
DD/DS have perspective shifts and the stories are each "told" from 
multiple character perspectives. To see what happens when you tell 
the exact same scenes from 2 character perspectives, if you don't 
mind slash, try Grim Slasher's Boy's Own Camping Adventure - the 
perspectives in chatpers 1 and 2 are phenomenally instructive.

Over on PoU at one point, Lori Summers did a pretty interesting 
discourse on perspective shifts - search for her name & the word 
perspective over on PoU to find it. (If you don't know what PoU 
means, check out THIS GROUP's VERY Frequently Asked Questions page, 
available by link from http://www.hp4gu.org.uk