[HPforGrownups] Re: 1980 being Harry Potter's Birthyear (short)

[Hana]

No: HPFGUIDX 39579

>~User "Harry Potter and the Ocarina of Time" Googol~ wrote:
>> In the begining of GoF, (supposedly in 1994) Dudley's Playstation  
>> is thrown out the window. However, the Sony Playstation was first 
>> released in 1995. (And England tends to get video games later than 
>> the rest of the world, not earlier.) Trust me on this, by the way, 
>> I know my video games.
>> 
>> I don't, however, think that the 1980 chronology is completely 
>> wrong. After all, 1994 and 1995 are pretty close. I think that the 
>> whole matter is very delicate though, and that there is no purely 
>> failsafe timeline theory. (This one is ideal for the time being 
>> though.)
>> 
>> ~User "Harry Potter and the Ocarina of Time" Googol~
>

Maybe it's just me, but my first instinct is that JKR simply forgot  what year Playstation came out.  I know that ~I~ personally wouldn't have been able to tell the date for certain other than mid 90s.  

It's possible that she just estimated when the system came out because, remember, the original audience for this series was children who likely wouldn't have noticed or cared what year it came out (since most of them were toddlers or babies at the time) or if things like dates, moon cycles etc actually added up to the correct years.  

The only reason any of this is an issue at all is that it has become popular with older and more critical audiences who ~do~ care.  Somehow I don't think JKR expected anything even close to what has happened, especially mailing lists like this one with well over 4000 members that go over her story with a fine toothed comb.

In the end, I don't think it really matters if the years are exact as long as the events and general spacing is right.  I don't think it matters if Harry is in school the 90s, or 2002 -- it's pretty universal overall, and unless JKR starts putting in more specific references to link it to time the series will continue to be only vaguely connected to actual calendar events.

---
--Hana





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