post- mortem storytelling?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 89723

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Anne" 
> <anne_conda at w...> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > (PS/SS)
> > 
> > >>"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard yes, their son, 
> > Harry"
> > 
> > Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at 
> the  whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but 
> thought  better of it.
> 
> <snip remainder of quote>
> 
> > 
well, obviously this can't be Harry's perspective, can it? In
> fact 
> > the whole book's opening isn't. Then, WHO is it leading the 
> reader?
> > 
>   
> > 
> > I know a time I argued against the case of Harry's death: "Well, 
> WHO  do you reckon will continue telling the story once Harry is 
> dead,  since apparently HE is the narrator in some way? You 
> know Rowling  promised us epilogues."
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > 
Probably the very same WHO, who inaugurated the series, to 
> answer my  own question, as weird as this is.
> > 
> <snip>
> > 
> > (PS/SS)
> > >>"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," Hagrid mumbled. He 
> stared  through his binoculars. "If I didn' know better, I'd say he'd 
> lost  control of his broom
but he can't have
"
> <snip remainder of quote>
> 
> > 
You see my point: this whole scene simply ISN'T Harry's 
> point of  view <<<
> 
> I always thought the narrator for the second quote might be 
> Dumbledore. Who else would know that Snape never found out 
> who set him on fire? That would argue that Dumbledore is going 
> to survive the series...I imagine  him retired on that beach Harry 
> thought of, with suntan lotion on his  long nose.
> 
> And you know, if Dumbledore were the narrator for the first quote, 
> that  solves a great mystery. We then know how he spent the 
> missing twenty-four hours. He was invisible, following Mr. 
> Dursley around and using Legilimency to read his thoughts. <g>
> 
> Pippin

The narrator is just a voice, not a character. Usually but not always
he or she sees from Harry's point of view, but sometimes it's as if
the narrator is an invisible presence witnessing and reporting events
from the outside. We're treated at one point to Vernon Dursley's
thought (though not really his perspective) and at another to Frank
Bryce's. I very much doubt that Dumbledore will ever be the POV
character, simply because he needs to remain mysterious.

Who else would know that Snape never found out who set him on fire? JKR.

Carol