SHIP: JKR Interview (what she said and what she didn't say)

[anguaorc <fausts@attglobal.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52025

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Penny Linsenmayer 
<pennylin at s...> wrote:

> Now, now.  :::wags finger at Angua::::  Let's be clear about what 
JKR said (Oct 1999): 
> 
> Q: Do Harry and Hermione have a date? 
> A: No. They are very platonic friends. But I won't answer for 
anyone else, nudge nudge, wink wink. 
> 
> She did not say that she *intends* for Harry and Hermione to be 
very platonic friends.  She said they *are* very platonic friends.  
She also said this in response to a very specific question: "do they 
have a date?"  As in: Do they have a date *in GoF?*  I've never 
understood how it is that this implied "in GoF" can be so in 
contention.  The interview was given pre-GoF.  The question is 
*clearly* directed at what happens in GoF (and is, after all, only 
asking whether Harry and Hermione have a *date* ...... not whether 
they will have a romantic relationship, marriage, sordid affair or 
anything else).  :::shakes head:::

Angua:
Huh?  The interview was not given "pre-GoF."  The interview was 
given "post-PoA," in connection with the US publication of PoA.  
There is nothing whatever in the question or the interview as a whole 
to imply that GoF was the point of reference.  The interview was not 
about GoF -- in fact, GoF was barely mentioned.  Of the twenty-two 
questions asked and answered in that interview, almost all referred 
to the series as a whole or to JKR's personal life, etc.  Only TWO 
questions referred to "the next book" (GoF, as it was later named), 
and in answering BOTH of those, JKR CLEARLY and CAREFULLY specified 
that her answer referred to GoF.  She did not do this in the "date" 
question.  She used the same form in answering it as she did for 
questions such as "will Harry ever turn into a shape changer like his 
father?"  In other words, she answered it with NO time qualifications.

I've never understood why the question was understood by anybody as 
referring to GoF.  The person who asked the (awkwardly phrased) 
question "do Harry and Hermione have a date" must, surely, be 
understood as being curious if they have a date EVER, not if they 
have a date in one specific book which JKR will somehow 
telepathically understand to be the next one she plans to publish.

I can just see the person, saying, "hoo boy, I don't care diddly 
about the future, I just want to know if Harry and Hermione have a 
date in THE NEXT BOOK when they're FOURTEEN, because that's all that 
matters, isn't it?"

:shakes head:


Anyway, she clearly "intends" Harry and Hermione to be "very platonic 
friends" in Books 1-4 and thus she portrays them as such.  If she 
intends them to NOT be "very platonic friends" in later books, she 
will have to change the way she portrays their characters.


Angua