New elements

[love2write_11098 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 15343

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> <sorry if this is a repeat--it got eaten the first time>
> 
> Every once in awhile someone raises the question of why we don't 
hear 
> about this or that thing until a later book.  E.g. why do we never 
> hear the term "Death Eaters" until GoF?  Is this a Flint on JKR's 
> part? etc.

While I agree with most of your observations -- that most of the 
things just come up when they come up and that it makes the books 
more interesting -- I think that "Death Eaters" has a very specific 
reason for not being brought up as early as PS/SS: it's too dark. The 
early books, especially PS and CoS, are not nearly as scary as PoA 
and especially GoF.

I mean, think about the term. Death Eater. What kind of images does 
that bring to mind? It's an ugly term for people who do ugly things --
 we don't find out just *how* ugly until GoF. We don't get the Dark 
Mark until then either, because, as we can infere from the 
conversation between Mr. Weaseley and Harry, Ron, etc. at the World 
Cup, it just isn't something that's brought up much in conversation. 
The first war with Voldemort is not something that people like to 
dwell on, which is probably why Harry doesn't learn all this stuff 
until he absolutely has to.

Stacy