Dates - Flawed characters - Religion

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 34271

Ron wrote:

>Has anybody ever bothered to check what day the 2nd of
>September 1995 falls on? Saturday. How do you think
>JKR will handle this? Does Hogwarts students always
>start their lessons on September 2?

>Also, do you think JKR actually plots events using a
>calendar?

The answer to your last question is yes, but just as it is completely 
obvious to me that she has a calendar and sticks to it (with occasional 
mistakes), at least for GF, it's just as obvious that the calendar she's 
using is not the actual calendar for that real-time year; the days of the 
week don't match up.  The Lexicon has lots about this.

>You all know the date plotholes (Playstation, Harry's 11th birthday, etc.).

What's the problem with Harry's 11th birthday?  I know it isn't the right 
day of the week (July 31, 1991 was not a Tuesday), but is there anything 
else wrong with it?

BTW, as long as I'm indulging in all this date nitpicking, an opinion:  I am 
glad the days of the week don't work.  All indications so far are that other 
than that date on Nick's cake, JKR does not have any very specific year in 
mind.  She didn't set out with the thought, "Harry should be born in 1980 
and start school in 1991, precisely" (though I do notice she made his 
parents' generation her own).  Naturally the books are dated by their slang 
and other such references (which will become more obvious as time wears on 
and they recede into oldfashionedness), but other than the Playstation 
reference, which doesn't work anyway, there is nothing to put the events in 
the early 90's as opposed to a decade earlier or later.  It seems likely to 
me that she set her stories in the present but had no intention of nailing 
down an exact year.  The cake gives us a nice handle for describing what 
year what happens (e.g. "V graduates c. 1945--any connection to WWII"?), but 
her refusal to use an actual 1992-3 calendar for that year suggests that 
she's trying to keep somewhat free of exact real-life dates.

The reason I like it is that it makes the whole thing just a bit more 
timeless.  It's like Narnia:  we can pin the dates down pretty darn closely, 
because LWW takes place right around the Blitz, and of course slang dates it 
too, but we aren't getting constant reminders like "this is happening in 
1944."  It allows us to just put the story in an era and not try to make it 
conform to precise real-life events.

Cindy wrote:

>So if we are going to find someone to blame ::waves at Luke::, I'd lay it 
>on James.  He's dead, so he won't mind.

Sounds good to me, but don't tell Harry.  He's a bit touchy where his dad's 
memory is concerned.

Cindy also wrote:

>we have some characters (OK, one character, Hagrid) who just has too many 
>flaws for my tastes.  He's over the top in that department.  I understand 
>from our discussion that there are probably only two of us who feel that 
>way, and most people adore Hagrid.  But I still feel that way.

>I wish JKR had removed some of Hagrid's flaws.

Now this really has me thinking.  We know JKR adores Hagrid; she has said 
he's her favorite character, after Harry.  So what do you all think?  Does 
JKR not see the flaws as flaws?

and re: flaws introduced to further plot or characterization:

>The werewolf adventures, however, didn't really enhance his
>characterization for me and could have been omitted.

They are needed for the plot; JKR needs a plausible reason he doesn't tell 
Dumbledore that Sirius is an Animagus, or else the plot ends at Halloween 
when he gets into Hogwarts as a dog.

But I think they're also a key part of characterization.  If you're not 
drawn to guilt-ridden, tormented souls the way I am <g>, try this on for 
size:  Lupin has to be flawed or he'll just be an oh-so-nice, 
oh-so-mistreated guy.  Yawn.  Like Harry, he has edges to his character; he 
is a very good person but not a saint.

and Cindy again:

>I do wish JKR had provided some reason why Dumbledore doesn't get a chance 
>to ask this question, however.  Crouch could lose consciousness or any 
>number of things to cut off the questioning.  As it stands, I am left with 
>the idea that Dumbledore forgot to ask about accomplices or thinks it 
>unimportant.

He's leaving a lot of the questioning up to Crouch--talk about bad moves.  I 
wonder if he is motivated by a desire to get Harry to the hospital.  He 
keeps him up long enough listening to Crouch and telling his own version as 
it is.  D's going to stay up all night dealing with this stuff, but he 
doesn't want to make Harry do it.

Gwen asked:

>So, may I ask exactly why
>it's such a big deal that this Western-centric work of fiction assumes
>the culturally expected religion--and does it as only a background for
>the rest?

I think you're knocking down a straw man here.  IIRC, no one objected to 
Hogwarts being structured on a Christian calendar the way most British 
schools are.  It is completely realistic for JKR to arrange things that way, 
and (IMO anyway) completely realistic to think that magical children in 
Britain would celebrate Christmas and Easter the same way their Muggle peers 
do:  some devoutly, many as more of a cultural thing.  The objections came 
from people,, myself included, who said we could not then call Hogwarts 
purely secular.

Amy

---------------------------------------------------------
A tremendous amount of thought went into choosing a
title for this book.  My personal choice, designed to
appeal to the book-buying impulses of today's consumer,
was Tuesdays with Harry Potter.
                         --Dave Barry, Dave Barry is Not
                           Taking this Sitting Down
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