Harry's B-day Re: Riddle and Grindelwald in 1945

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 109411

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "romulusmmcdougal" 
<romulus at h...> wrote:

RMM:
I have a question then.
Has anyone here had a book published?
Does anyone here know that the book publisher has people called
"editors" that go over the book for exactly these kinds of
discrepancies?

So, unless the editors are a bunch of bumble brains, they would be
telling Jo: "You have some dates wrong here. Fix them or we will."

But yet, the dates stay in the book the way they are. Why?


Geoff:
It depends, how assiduous the editors are in probing dates. First, 
let me say that I have a favourite book, not a fantasy book, which I 
read every couple of years or so, called "To Serve Them All My Days". 
I enjoy it, because it is about a teacher and is also set on Exmoor; 
as a teacher who spent many holidays on Exmoor and now lives there, 
it has always appealed to me. This book is absolutely riddled with 
time inconsistencies; the author regularly mixes up years and months 
but I have always shrugged my shoulders and pressed on. They don't 
affect the story line. It seems the editors let those through.

As i said in a recent post, I seem to have stirred up a storm in a 
teacup because I made a casual passing reference off the cuff to a 
discrepancy in the days of the week. When I read the HP books, I do 
not go through, like some readers, looking for clues or oddities with 
a fine toothcomb. I read the books to /enjoy/ them. I first noticed 
the wrong date of Harry's birthday when I was researching something 
else and it interested me, (with my hat on as a former Maths 
teacher). Frankly, as many have said, it doesn't affect my view of 
the books.
 

> RMM:

<snip>

> Secondly, I have pointed out that the July 31st date is ambiguous 
> based on English grammar.  You have not countered with a 
grammatical 
> argument that supercedes mine.  

Geoff:
Although I was a mainly a teacher of Maths and Computing, I did cover 
some English teaching in my earlier days. One of the things I recall 
emphasising with students was to be careful how they placed an 
adjectival phrase in a sentence in relation to the noun to which it 
referred as this could give rise to hilarious or completely 
misleading statements. I maintain that the placing the phrase "on 
31st July" next to Gringotts makes that data refers to the break-in 
and not to the investigation. In previous posts, I have suggested 
possible alternative ways of wording the sentence to make the date 
refer to the latter.
 
> > Geoff:
> > I think there is another mistake over the day here. I would 
indeed 
> > take the memory of Hagrid over the weatherman for one glaringly 
> > obvious fact....
> > 
> > Hagrid may be considered a bit of a buffoon by some folk but 
> > Hallowe'en is a most important date in the Wizarding World 
calendar 
> - 
> > certainly in Hogwarts. Do you really think that he would so daft 
as 
> > to mix up a date of Hallowe'en with an everyday date like 27th 
> > October?
> 
> RMM:
> Well for that year, yes I would say that there would be a huge 
mixup.
>  
> Consider the celebration going on that day!!  Voldemort was gone!  
> Dumbledore's own words: "We've had precious little to celebrate 
these 
> last eleven years."  Big celebrations happening 4 days before 
> Halloween.  I say very easy to get them mixed up that year.
> A ten year old memory could play tricks on the giant, whereas, Jo 
> narrated a math word problem into the very day to help us identify
> the 
> exact time. 


Geoff:
For a miilisecond, I thought you were agreeing with me.... Then I 
read on. 
:-)


> 
> Geoff:
> > The Lexicon certainly supports these dates.
> 
> RMM:
> I will grant you that. The lexicon and prevailing opinion are on 
your 
> side. :-) I have only my inner "voices" to support me.
> Perhaps a little more Electro Shock therapy is called for here, 
even 
> though I just had my last round less than a week ago.


Geoff:
No comment. Absolutely no comment!