JKR's Point of View

[Zarleycat at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26982

--- 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?  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?
> 
> In other series, how have the authors handled this issue?  Are we 
> going to get pages and pages of "Hey, everyone, guess what happened 
> to me the other day" kind of expositive dialogue?  Does anyone have 
> any thoughts on this?
> 
> Cindy (wondering what Sirius and Lupin are doing, and worried she 
> won't find out because Harry isn't there with them)

You could even consider that there is a third camp - the oblivious 
Cornelius Fudge and the official MoM group.

I don't think JKR will have to switch POVs.  I think she can still 
tell the majority of the story through Harry's eyes.  I'm not sure 
the story would be as effective if we were to know what is happening 
within  the DE camp.  There would be fewer surprises for the reader, 
although we could be in the position of knowing something that Harry 
and Co., don't know and as we see one of the good guys waltzing 
blithely into danger we'd sit there screaming, "No! No! Don't do it!!"

Perhaps JKR will use Snape as a potential window into what is going 
on with V.'s forces, and Arthur Weasley as an MoM conduit.

And, I'm sure that Sirius and Remus will send owls to Harry, not only 
to let him know they are okay, but also to try to keep tabs on him. 

That leads me to another thought.  If JKR really wishes to use Sirius 
as a father-figure for Harry, I think that they will have to have 
more face-to-face interaction.  It's all very well for them to be in 
communication, but I don't think that owl letters can substitute for 
someone's presence.  I think that something has to happen in book 5 
with Sirius - either he's cleared, and can then be a more active 
participant in Harry's life, or something dreadful (GULP!!) will 
happen to him.  Or, JKR will develop some settings where the two will 
actually have the chance to meet, talk, act like normal people, 
without every meeting hinging on some sort of danger or calamity in 
Harry's life.

Marianne