CoS - The Very Secret Diary

[laylalast]

No: HPFGUIDX 95499

> amanitamuscaria wrote:
> Yep, I'm re-reading CoS again!
> A thing that struck me this time was that Tom Riddle's diary 
> doesn't lie. 

<snip>
> It came to me because Riddle had to show Harry the bit about 
> Hagrid and the Acromantula and let him draw his own conclusions,
> he couldn't lie and tell Harry 'Hagrid opened the Chamber.' 
> There's a bit in the diary where Tom says 'I caught the 
> person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled.'

Lilian here:
But isn't that a downright lie? Tom did *not* catch the person who 
opened the Chamber, as that person was himself. He did, however, 
catch Hagrid keeping a monster, an offence for which Hagrid was 
expelled. In addition, Tom handled the matter so carefully, that 
everyone believed that Hagrid's monster was the monster of the 
Chamber. 

> amanitamuscaria wrote:
> so it seems to imply Hagrid, but later in the same para, he 
> says, '... the one who had the power to release it was not 
> imprisoned.', and Hagrid was.

Lilian:
This is Tom's careful phrasing again. First he talks about being 
expelled (which Hagrid was) THEN he speaks of being imprisoned 
(which Hagrid was not). And in this latter sentence he tells the 
truth, he himself had the power to release the monster from the 
Chamber and he was *not* imprisoned. But by this time using the 
word 'imprisoned', he makes it sound as if he is still talking about 
Hagrid.

> amanitamuscaria wrote: 
<snip> 
> The careful phrasing made it seem like it was a condition or rule 
> of the object that one couldn't lie?

Lilian:
Personally I think that the careful phrasing is done by Tom's memory 
in the diary, which speaks with a 'double tongue' (is that the right 
phrase?), meaning that he makes his lies sound thruthfully if the 
listener (characters in the books, not us readers) does not catch 
those differences. And yes, I think that Tom's memory is lying.

> amanitamuscaria wrote:
> Another other thing about this chapter is that Harry's using red 
> ink - this surely isn't standard practice? 'All his other books 
> were drenched in scarlet ink ... he pulled a new bottle out of his
> bedside cabinet...'

Lilian:
Well, as his bottle with scarlet ink was now empty, and he could not 
go into Hogsmeade to buy new ink, perhaps he simply moved on to the 
next bottle of ink in bedside cabinet? :)

Well, just my thoughts.

Lilian, who has figured out what went wrong with her previous posts. 
Just turn the security off before pressing 'send'.