Hogwarts Pop (was: the sorting hat problem)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 54677

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Troels Forchhammer
<t.forch at m...> wrote:
> At 18:06 31-03-03 +0000, Serena Moonsilver wrote:
>  > This particular issue has been the subject of much (much!)
>  >  debate. Offically, JK has said that there around 1000 students 
>  > at Hogwarts. With 200 in a house, that puts it at 800.  Though 
>  > most people arrive at or arround the 280 you mentioned when you 
>  > actually try and calculate it.
> 
> One of the main problems stems from the documentary "Harry
> and me" where Rowling shows to the camara a list of 41
> student names, which she tells is the whole of Harry's
> year (the pictures are in this groups photo section).
> 
> ...edited..
> 

bboy_mn:

It lists 41 names; you claim they are all the students, I claim that
they are merely a list of the characters. 

What's the difference?

There are a lot more students than the ones who get 'face time' in the
story. Those who do get face time, that is, their presents is actively
acknowledged in the narative, they have speaking lines or are spoken
to or are spoken about, or are mentioned by name, are characters.

To illustrate this principle, look at the overal student population
and think about how many students there might be, then consider how
many of them have been specifically mentioned. Example, how many
characters are there in Ginny's year? So far all we know about are
Ginny and Colin Creevey; they are 'face time' characters, but logic
would tell us that their year has more than two students. There are
other students in that year who are only vaguely acknowledged, as in
Colin sat in the common room with a group of third years (which
assumes that he was also a third year). 

So, the number of students in Colin/Ginny's year is much larger than
the number of characters. We could equally assume or suppose that the
number of students in Harry's year is bigger than the number of
characters in Harry's year. 

Some may point to Harry's sorting ceremony and say that the students
were all named, but Harry's mind wanders while the sorting ceremony is
going on. He is looking at other things and thinking about other
things. We have no way of knowing that un-named student weren't being
sorted during these distractions.



> Troels continues:
> There is, however, much evidence that Rowling, while an
> extraordinarily good writer is considerably more limited
> in her mathematical skills. There is the dating issue
> <http://www.hogwarts-library.net/reference/Harry_Potter_timeline.html>
> and several other issues (the real world value of a
> Galleon would indicate a gold content of less than
> 1 gram).
> 

bboy_mn:
Are Galleons gold or gold colored? Are Sickles silver or silver
colored? Do we know?

Precious metal based monetary standards are rarely based on the fair
market value of the metal itself. When the USA was on the gold
standard, gold on the open market was floating around +$150 an ounce
while the monetary value of the gold was locked at something like $30
an ounce. Although I will add that in the 20th Century most of the
Gold Standard money was not in the form of gold or silver coins, it
was in gold and silver certificates, which eventually gave way to
Ferderal Reserve notes, which is what we are using now.



> Troels continues:
> In the end it might be best to not wonder about it,
> because there is no way to make the numbers meet, and
> we have several indications that Rowling just hasn't
> bothered to make numbers meet at all.
> 
> Troels

bboy_mn:
Having said that, I will agree with you. While JKR has research her
writing more than most authors, I seriously doubt that she every
envisioned the likes of us trying to analyse and resolve every little
detail. When she said there was a full moon or that Mars was bright, I
really don't think she every expected anyone to check and see if it
was true. By the way, Mars was relatively bright, but the moon wasn't
full.

I have said before that JKR really doesn't have any obligation to make
all this stuff add up, or to make sure her stories match the star or
lunar charts. Her only obligation to the story is to make us believe
it when we read it, and I think she certainly has succeeded in that goal.


Just a few thoughts.

bboy_mn