Characters and the revelation model (Was: Re: Depth?)

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 139954

> Betsy Hp:
> So James really *is* retiring and shy?  <g>  Yes, the best way to 
> build up to a big reveal is to  leave blank spaces and allow the 
> reader to assume.  But the author  is unwise to lie.  And you seem 
> to be suggesting that JKR  lied.  That we should ignore everything 
> that occured during the  pensieve flashback.  That seems...wasteful 
> to me.  If it's  all untrue, why write it to begin with?
 
Nora wrote:
Not lying.  Complicating.  We keep open the  idea that the Pensieve 
scene is a snapshot of one aspect of character, one  point in time--
but we are very wary of the assumption that we're going to  
extrapolate that to cover all situations.  You seem very comfortable  
using one scene as the baseline for all formulations of character, 
and  linking up the similarities smoothly.  In situations with such 
little  information, what you get depends on how you read--you want 
similarities,  you get them; you want differences, you get them too.
 
Julie says:
Actually, it's not only one scene. We also have Sirius and  Lupin's 
admission of culpability in that scene, McGonagall's recall of James
and Sirius as first class troublemakers, and Snape's assignment of 
files containing cards outlining various misdeeds of Sirius and James 
throughout their school years (which appear to be quite  numerous,
if generally of the petty variety). There are probably some  additional
moments I missed. Clearly James and Sirius were the Fred and 
George of their time. 
 
That evidence taken as a whole gives us a fair amount of  reliable 
and consistent information, and provides a strong baseline on 
which to formulate the youthful characters of James and Sirius. 
No leaps of logic or embellishments of canon required :-)
 
The actual information we are missing isn't whether James was
arrogant and a bit of a bully as a teenager, but what  happened
to temper those traits--not erase them, but temper them--into more
positive manifestations (like self-confidence in place of arrogance). 
I think Becky is correct that the Prank probably served as a  wake-up 
call, and the normal progression of maturity (along with Lily's  influence) 
solidified James' adult character.
 
Julie  
 



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