How dim is Harry? (longish)

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 98542

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> PS On the subject of my paternal grandfather. My father was very 
> reticent about his family because of the estrangement; I first 
> learned I possessed an aunt and uncle and seven first cousins on 
his 
> side when I was 16. However, although I had some information about 
my 
> grandfather, I didn't find out a lot until I was 60 when I started 
> digging around in the Family Record centre on my occasional visits 
to 
> London because some of my family wanted to have family trees 
sorted 
> out. It wasn't that I lacked curiosity, it was just finding the 
time 
> to spend on what can often be a long and tedious business.

I quite sympathize - my family antecedents are lost in the past, 
probably never to be discovered, at least by me.  But Harry isn't 
quite in the position of someone like me, who'd like to know about 
my maternal great-grandfather who must have lived and died somewhere 
in Yugoslavia, and whose traces, if any, were probably obliterated 
by about 4 wars passing through the area.  If you discovered that 
your grandfather was actually, oh, Winston Churchill, I doubt you'd 
find such insurmountable problems in finding out SOME information 
about him.  Harry is FAMOUS, and so were his parents, if only by 
association.  Maybe no single person would give him an 
authoritative, complete picture, but if he did no more than ask each 
person to tell him THEIR version of the events, he'd probably be 
able to piece together most of it, and have a decent idea of what 
points needed more examination.

I agree with those who've said that Harry's blank-slate existence is 
a plot device.  Personally, I think it's outlived its usefulness, 
but it's up to JKR to decide whether she wants to discard it.  
Perhaps everything that exists in the HP world has a reason, but 
it's not necessarily the case that it has to be a GOOD reason, or 
one that would make sense in any other setting.

Wanda