Ancestor / descendant (Re: Chamber of Secrets - The Unexplained)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 109538

> Snow:
> This is JKR's answer in a Scholastic interview October 16, 2000
> 
> Harry Potter for grownups again! Is Voldemort the last remaining 
> ancestor of Slytherin, or the last remaining descendent of  Slytherin?
> > 
> "Ah, you spotted the deliberate error. Yes, it should 
> read "descendent." That's been changed in subsequent editions. 
> (Keep hold of the "ancestor" one, maybe it'll be valuable one day!)"
> > 
> Hope this helps!
 
 
Pat responded:
> 
> I'm going to correct myself here.
> 
> I checked my hard back and my paperback again, and here's the really 
> weird thing.  In the hardback, (US, p.332) it says descendant--and 
> the date is 1999.  In the paperbook, (US, p. 332) it says ancestor--
> and that one was actually later--printed in 2000.  So we are still 
> left with the question of why they would change it incorrectly.  
> Odd, but very interesting--especially since she said deliberate 
> mistake.


Carol:
That *is* odd. But I think that "deliberate mistake" is one of JKR's
little jokes--like preferring to have Marcus Flint repeat a year than
confess that she made an error. Or sending her family and herself to
South America in false mustaches rather than confess that she gave
Mark Evans the same name as Lily without realizing that the readers
would jump to wrong conclusions. You don't make a deliberate
mistake--it's a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron. But to change
"descendant" *back* to "ancestor" makes no sense at all. Maybe the
paperback and the hardback are based on different editions/printings?

Carol, who apparently has the same paperback you do, the 15th printing
from September 2000 (with "ancestor" on p. 332). It does, however, say
"text copyright 1999. . . ."