Pensieves objectivity

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 79607

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Matt" <hpfanmatt at g...> wrote:
> --- 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.  <snip>
> -- Matt
Laura (having a prolific day, apparently):

The thing I don't understand about the objective!pensieve theory is 
why we would call what appears in one a memory.  As I would define 
it, a memory is a personal version of a past event.  It's not just 
the factual event itself but how the person experiencing it felt 
about the event.  It's not a videorecording.  I just can't believe, 
for instance, that if you saw James's or Sirius's memories of 
Pensieve 2, they would be exactly the same as what we saw in Snape's 
memory.