JKR's Point of View

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26981

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., cynthiaanncoe at h... wrote:
> In the HP books, most everything is seen through Harry's POV.  If 
> he doesn't witness it, dream about it, or fall into some magical 
> device (pensieve, Riddle's diary), we don't hear abut it (with only 
> a few exceptions).
> 
> I wonder how JKR will handle this in OoP now that we have two 
> separate "camps" (Voldemort's and Dumbledore's), but Harry only has 
> access to Dumbledor's camp.  At this point in the series, could JKR 
> get away with switching to an objective omnicient POV?  

She probably could get away with it to a certain extent, as she did 
at the beginning of the very first book. I doubt she would overuse it 
if she decided to do it at all.  Another possibility is that 
Dumbledore will have a mole in the other camp to report back.  And 
Sirius and Lupin could send Harry owls to ask him to be in the common 
room late at night to tell him what they're up to via the fireplace.  
There are loads of possibilities for communication, and I fully 
expect JKR to present us with some wizarding devices that we haven't 
seen before, as she does in every book.

> Would the books be as good if written in that fashion?  Can JKR get 
> the reader enough information about what is going on with 
> Voldemort's forces using only Harry's POV?  Will she have to create 
> a whole closetful of devices Harry will fall into so that he can 
> report what is going on? Will he have a new dream every night?  
> Will Harry ever get any sleep?

Concerning your last question, I don't know how he slept at ALL after 
the horrendous Third Task.  But in reference to your other concerns, 
I don't think she SHOULD give very much information about what 
Voldemort's forces are up to before they act.  I think it is possible 
that a great deal of bad news will make it into the Daily Prophet, 
and in that manner the wizarding world will be aware of the renewed 
threat that Voldemort and the Death Eaters represent.  Secondly, I 
expect that Harry will have at least one more dream because of his 
scar-connection to Voldemort--and I don't think reusing this device 
will be tedious.  In fact, it would be odd if she DIDN'T use it 
again!  How to explain this only happening once?  All in all, I don't 
really see the necessity of knowing what's going on beyond Harry's 
POV because only knowing what Harry knows is one thing that makes the 
books interesting and suspenseful.  I would hate for her to change 
that entirely.

--Barb