Wasted Charms & other magical devices (Time Turner)

[Elizabeth Dalton]

No: HPFGUIDX 32743

I was having an off-list conversation with someone about the Time Turner in
which I made a similar point. I had called the Time Turner "hokey" and was being
asked to explain that desgination. I'll repost that explanation here, because it
also applies to things like the Accio charm (which might not have worked on the
Egg because of an anti-magic property of the dragon, but I think that's
reaching).

Anyway, regarding why I called the Time Turner "hokey":

Mostly it's that it's kind of overdone. Time travel is considered a cheesy 
effect in SF, unless it's done *really* well, directly addressing the 
problems of time travel (causality, paradox, etc.) Rowling makes a point 
of having Dumbledore stress with Hermione that there are severe 
consequences if an error is made with the Time Turner ("Mis Granger, you know
the law-- you know what is at stake... *You must not be seen.*"), but those
consequences are never really spelled out. If it's only that you have to worry
about not startling your former self, as Hermione explains it to Harry, that's
not much of a consequence, and I'm surprised these things aren't more commonly
in use (and better known). Sure, there's the risk of doing something to
yourself, but it's an awfully handy device. But if causality gets messed up and
the world will fall apart or something, then why did they risk letting Hermione
have the thing in the first place? She's bright, but still a kid.

It's a basic SF/Fantasy problem. If something is powerful enough to save 
the day, especially due to some surprise element, you have to have a 
reason that it isn't in use all the time. And then you have to be sure not 
to *let* your characters use whatever it is too often. Rowling makes sure 
Polyjuice potion takes a month or more to make, and remembers to tell us 
that it's incredibly difficult to become an animagus (even if there *are* 
four or more unregistered animagi running around), and that invisibility 
cloaks are really rare (and she backs that one up in FB&WTFT). But she 
kind of drops the ball on veritaserum, the Time Turner, and the Marauder's 
Map. And she really blows it with portkeys (at least so far).

(And I would now add, a number of charms such as Accio and the Cheering Charm.)

I put it down to the fact that she doesn't read much fantasy or science 
fiction. If she did, she'd have seen other authors run into and try to 
solve some of these problems, and might not have tripped over them 
herself. Then again, the logical constraints of children's fiction are 
less severe than for YA or adult fiction, so she might be writing herself 
out of her skill level, at least where this kind of element is concerned.
(Meaning that her earlier books, which are more clearly children's stories,
don't suffer as much from these problems as her later books, which are less so.)

Well, those are my thoughts for the day,

Elizabeth
(who does think Rowling is doing a fine job with the series, considering she
says she hasn't read much fantasy, but thinks she would have done even better if
she had a little more experience with the SF&F genre.)