Lurker Jo - Squibs - Put-outer - d.e.m. - POV - Flint - Ron - USDOM

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 27257

dittany/custodienne wrote:

>   1st:  has anyone else wondered if JKR is not secretly lurking (Is 
> this a tautology?) to harvest ideas either to create wrinkles or to 
> iron them out?  I think I would do so...

She better not be.  Keeping up with this list is a half-time job in 
itself.  Jo, if you're reading this, please stop doing so and go 
finish OoP.  See you when Book 7 is done, 'kay?

Kelly wrote:

> According to the testimonials & blurb, KwikSpell is marketed to 
people
> who can *do* magic but not well (think Neville).  I still say Squibs
> canNOT do magic.

Then why is Filch, a self-described Squib, interested in a Kwikspell 
course?

Rowena wrote:

>   Personally I just put the 'puter-outer' down as a
> cute gadget and Dumbledore obviously likes gadgets,

Me too.  There's lots of duplication in the Muggle world, why not in 
magic?  You can do something with a wand *or* with a nifty little 
gadget.  (I really want to know what the whirring silver thingies are 
for, too.)

Rrishi wrote:

> This entire episode hinges on one quality of phoenixes (phoenices??) 
> that Rowling is careful to stress: that they are highly faithful 
> pets. Thus, when Harry shows "exceptional loyalty" to Dumbledore 
> in the Chamber, the stage is set for Fawkes to turn up and help. 
> This, in my opinion, saves this episode from being a case of deus ex 
> machina, but barely. Just barely.

I thought of something else that bails JKR out here.  Dumbledore does 
drop his hint about help being available to those who ask, and Harry 
even knows it's a hint and wonders how to make use of it.  So when he 
wishes for help in the Chamber ("'He's not as gone as you might 
think!' . . . . wishing rather than believing it to be true," 17), 
we've already been primed to know that Dumbledore, or his proxy, is 
ready to offer it.

Cindy wrote:

>So we move seamlessly from omnicient (I think), to Bryce's POV, to 
Harry's POV.  A neat trick.

Good point.

> Boy, I wish I understood the limits of an author's ability to move 
> credibly back and forth among various points of view and how JKR is 
> able to get away with this in GoF (and PS/SS also).  Surely someone 
> must understand this.

I don't know--there aren't any hard-and-fast rules about it.  I'm 
recalling a scene in Anna Karenina in which the POV suddenly shifts to 
the hunting dog's; you can do anything if there's good grounding for 
it, and if you write as well as Tolstoy.  JKR might not be 
quite in that league, but she's very attentive to POV and switches 
when it makes sense for the narrative, not as a gimmick and not 
carelessly.

Cindy's daughter pointed out:

> "There!" said Pettigrew shrilly, POINTING AT RON with his maimed
> hand.

Yes, I think it's a Flint, but it seems like the typo variety, like 
the nonsensical double negative in "The Parting of the Ways."  My 
Raincoast (=Canadian) edition, 6th printing, has "Hermione."  What's 
your daughter's name?  We'll send her a L.O.O.N. badge pronto.  
Children's memberships are free.

Re: the McCoy/Ron parallel:  yes yes yes, and they are both, if not my 
*favorite* members of their respective trios (how does one choose?), 
the ones who make me laugh the most.  So there's Ron's special role in 
the Trio:  he's the funny one.  Obvious, but important.  And if you 
need a reason why it's important to the plot and not just to the 
amusement of the readers, listen to Harry talking to Fred and George 
at the end of GoF.

Edis wrote:

>Surely Baton Rouge, Albany,... Salem would be Salem, Oregon
 presumably?

Nope, Salem, Massachusetts.  If we must put DOM depts. at state 
capitals, rest assured that Salem is quite close to Boston--an easy 
trip by Floo Powder <g>.  But capitals are located where they are 
through odd convolutions of Muggle history; they are frequently not 
the biggest city in the state, nor centrally located; they became 
the capitals because there was something convenient or politically 
expedient about them at the time they were founded (a lot have 
changed, BTW).  The DOM could operate with the same sort of logic:  
Salem gets the DOM because it's the *magical* center of Massachusetts, 
never mind where the geographical center is or where the Muggles chose 
to put their statehouse.

Edis, please tell me you don't know the 50 capitals by heart.  We 
Americans are embarrassed enough by our own geographical ignorance 
without this kind of thing rubbing salt into our wounds.

Amy Z
who does know them, but lives here, for crying out loud

-----------------------------------------
 The bureaucratic mentality is the only 
 constant in the universe.
              --Dr. Leonard McCoy, Star 
                Trek IV: The Voyage Home
-----------------------------------------