Harry's questions about his parents (was Harry, Hermione, Sirius, and the Dream, 2-way mirror)

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 117393


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "meriaugust" <meriaugust at y...> wrote:
> 
> I don't find the lack of photos weird at all (movie contamination 
> nonwithstanding). Remember some of the only memories Harry has of 
> his mum and dad are memories that resurfaced due to the Dementors, 
> ie: the night they were murdured. I think that Harry has accepted 
> that they are never coming back, and he knows that he can't change 
> that. Looking at pictures of loved ones we've lost usually helps to 
> remind us of all the good times we've had with them, but that's just 
> the problem: Harry can't remember any good times with them. The only 
> experiences he's had with them are in the Dementor scenes and 
> Snape's pensive. And in the latter, neither came off very well. 
> Harry literally has no good memories to look back on, so why keep 
> something out and remind him of all that pain? 
>

Not quite only the  Dementors and the Pensieve, there's  the Mirror
as well. Suddenly he's presented with  what looks like a whole crowd
of relatives he never knew he had, he sits there for hours staring at
them - and asks not one damn question of DD, Hagrid, MM or
anyone who could tell him something. Hagrid  follows it up with
the photograph album, but no "Who's this? When was this taken?"
An album provided by friends, lots of them is the implication -
how many have we seen? Two. Sirius and Lupin. Who were Lily's
friends? Or didn't she have any? Even if Harry doesn't want to know
we do. It's authorial sadism perpetrated on the reader, that's what it is.

This 'disinterest' is something  I've complained about before, it's so
blatant, it's un-natural. When they first  meet Hermione tells him she
"knows all about him" that he's in  the history  books -  she even 
comments on the fact that  he's never bothered to look for himself, but
still he exhibits all the curiousity of of a stuffed turnip. Wouldn't you look?
I would. Wouldn't you ask Hermione what she knows? Yep. Harry hasn't.
Not once in 5 years. Nearly as bad is the fact that Hermione doesn't up
and tell him - she rarely holds back on other subjects, especially in the
earlier books. Grrr.

We know why of course - well, probably.
The first draft of PS/SS gave everything away. So much so that 15 chapters
were excised or changed. So it's highly likely that an awful lot of explication
happened back then - but the re-writing meant that things once known
had to be concealed (not so easy when you've got the amount of detail to
deal with that JKR has)  but fortunately in books once something has been
explained the characters don't harp on about it as much as we tend to in 
real life. So if it's removed Harry ends up looking like an incurious dolt,
whereas previously he probably had asked the questions and got answers.
Doesn't help our frustration levels though. 

Kneasy