Pensieves objectivity

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 79575

--- Pip!Squeak wrote:
>
> *However*, the evidence that Pensieves provide 
> objective evidence is becoming very strong. Both 
> in GoF and OOP Harry is able to wander around in 
> the scene and observe things that the person 
> whose memory it is could not have seen.
> 
> In GoF, Harry can see Mad Eye Moody's expression 
> when Moody is behind Dumbledore. In OOP, Harry 
> can read what his father was doodling on a scrap 
> of paper - despite Snape being several tables 
> away.
> 
> In both cases, the Pensieve appears to not so 
> much store the person's *memory* as use the 
> memory to access the actual event. 

I like your interpretation, but it is not the only possible one.  The
fact that the Pensieve shows portions of the event sequence that were
not directly perceived by the first observer could just as easily be
read as support for a "subjective" Pensieve.  Rather than the "actual
event," the Pensieve might be showing items filled in by the
observer's subconscious.  For instance, Snape might have physically
perceived enough to infer that James was doodling, and might have
known enough to imagine that it would be something about Lily. 
Correspondingly for Dumbledore with Moody (who was expressing enough
consternation verbally for DD to mentally fill in an image).  Indeed,
it would fit well with what we know in the RW about how perception and
illusion work if the memories held by the Pensieve were *mostly* the
product of the observer's inference and imagination.  

It also fits with JKR's portrayal of the process of transferring
memories to the Pensieve (memory as a self-contained thread plucked
from the wizard's head and deposited in the Pensieve).  It would be a
little odd for something unperceived to the observer to be stuck in
his head, unless it was created there.  And while your concept of the
memory as the key to access the actual event is attractive, it doesn't
fit neatly with the picture JKR draws of the memories floating there
on the surface of the Pensieve, waiting to be stirred up.

Getting back to the idea of gaps being filled in by the subconscious,
it is conceivable that some of the filling in might be supplied by the
person observing the memory in the Pensieve.  That would help explain
why DD says the Pensieve can be a useful tool for making connections
and seeing things that you missed the first time.  (Objective!Pensieve
also explains that statement, but arguably gives the Pensieve
inordinate power as a detective's tool: you could never whisper a
secret while sitting in the same room with someone who had access to a
Pensieve, lest she listen in on you while replaying the memory.)

-- Matt