Pensieve question...

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 76684

Karen wrote:
> Do we know if the pensieve works more as a video recorder or as a 
personal recollection of events? In Snape's penseive, Harry saw 
Snape following James & Co. He was concerned that Snape wouldn't 
stay where he could see his father, but Snape stayed near them. It 
appeared as though Snape was deliberately staying in viewing/hearing 
range of the group in spite of the fact that Snape was a frequent 
target of their derision. Was Snape spying on them? Was he taunting 
them? Was he looking for a chance to show up James? It seems odd that 
he would be innocently hanging around so close by.>

The Pensieve appears to offer the user an objective point of view 
from which to view events, otherwise Harry would not be able to see 
Snape or Dumbledore from an external viewpoint, nor move away from 
Snape at all. As a device, I feel it exists not really to create 
space for extra thoughts, as Dumbledore told Harry during his "talk 
down to the child" phase, but to help the user form mental 
links,ie "a connection I could have made without assistance, but 
never mind". I wonder if the Pensieve works similarly to Omnioculars, 
which allow time to be recorded and replayed, where the field of 
vision is slightly different from what the viewer already saw. I 
think that Harry's experience of being in Tom Riddle's head is 
slightly different, but then again he's still able to see an external 
Riddle, which can be no part of the actual memory, as none of us are 
able to watch our external selves at all times. 
I also don't find Snape being around the Marauders particularly odd, 
as it's made clear that the entire year have gone down beside the 
lake to relax after the exam, just as HRH and co do twenty-odd years 
later. 
Finally, I'm afraid that James really did behave like that, and that 
what we see in the Pensieve has to be an objective recording rather 
than biased subjective memory. Part of the central theme of OotP - 
Harry coming to learn that people aren't just simply "good" 
and "bad" - is lost if James turns out to be the bland heroic type 
after all.
Apologies if some of my quotes aren't quite right- I'm convalescing 
canonlessly at my mum's.

Kirstini, rather bewildered to come back to the list after a two-week 
absence and find that she only recognises six names in the last 
hundred-odd posts. Sheer volume of listees is amazing at the moment.

"The External Riddle" probably wouldn't make a very good band name, 
but it sounds appropriate for a heavy-going tome of philosophy. I'm 
not sure that finding pretenious book titles is going to be as fun as 
the band-name game, however...