DD's dilemma + owl post

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 126388



Potioncat here, trying to correct some sort of programming error that 
showed up the first time I sent this post. With any luck, this one 
will work and I'll delete the original post

  
> Siriusly Snapey Susan wrote in post #126374
> My main point to Lupinlore really was intended to be that JKR may 
> > well have never anticipated the degree of analysis her books & 
> > decisions would undergo.  She may have thought that her reasoning 
> > would be clear to the readers, whereas a lot of us (esp. her 
adult readers) are more inclined to question and critique.   
> 
> Jen agreed, responding in post 126375:
> > 
> >...we wouldn't get to see Harry enter the magical 
> > world for one thing, as he'd already be there. That was the hook 
> for 
> > me, the magic of the story--Harry got a one-of-a-kind 
oppoortunity 
> > to leave behind this totally disastrous life to be a *wizard*. 
Who 
> > can't relate to having someone appear and say, 'this isn't who 
you 
> „« really are, let me show you the magical world you really belong 
> to." 
> 
> Potioncat:
> It took two attempts for me before I could get into the Harry 
Potter 
> series, and at that, I had to make myself stick with it the second 
> time. (Who would have guessed!) I couldn't buy the idea that Harry 
> could be treated the way he was and still be a nice kid! although 
I'll  accept Jen's professional opinion on the matter. 

 So very quickly, in the first couple of chapters, I took it as a 
throwback to earlier  forms of literature. The Dickens or Bronte 
story: hero/herione is  treated horribly, unfairly accused of things, 
punished unjustly but grows up well anyway. In fact, that style of 
story telling make the series a quirky sort of out-of-time narrative.
> 
>  We're never quite sure when or where we are. Are we in Victorian 
> England?  Is Harry Pip? Medieval England? Is Harry Wart? Modern 
> England? Is he just Harry?  Because I came at it from a Dickens sort
> of filter, I never reacted to the abuse. Abuse is a modern issue.  
> And while Harry is in modern England, the story really isn't. 
> 
> It also turns the idea of witches upside down. (No foreshadowing 
> intended.)  Harry is rescued from the bad Muggle world and taken to 
> the good Wizarding world. Just as we became comfortable in the 
> Wizarding World, knowing that some wizards aren't good, but most 
> certainly the ones at Hogwarts are, we meet Snape... erm, Professor 
> Snape, another literary throw-back. Once again, for me at least, I 
> suspend disbelief and accept this character from the past. And 
again,we're surprised when he doesn't follow the standard role of 
cruel schoolmaster but seems to have hidden agendas and good 
purposes.  
> 
> This quirky use of time and characterizations are what make the 
> series so much fun IMHO.
> 
> 
> Susan also wrote in that same post:
> 
> > I've always assumed that the precise addressing of envelopes in 
the  WW comes via some special magic of the owls, rather than of the 
> > sender.  That somehow they are able to adjust the ink so that it 
> „« matches the true location of the recipient.
> 
> Potioncat:
> I agree. And while JKR no longer has Harry amazed at the address on 
> envelopes they probably read something like: Ron Weasley, 
Compartment 4, Hogwarts Express. Or Sirius Black, cave under the 
holly tree near Hogsmeade, or better yet: Sirius Black, You Know 
Where.
> 
> Potioncat