Handwriting (WAS:Re: CHAPDISC, HBP 10)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 148766

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "latha279" <brahadambal at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Krista:
> > <snip> 
> > I also think the whole idea of Snape's teenage writing being 
> > mistaken for a girl's is very odd, I have to say. <snip>
> > As a guy with esteem issues, he'd probably write small; as a 
> > wordy student, he'd have cramped handwriting on tests, to squeeze 
> > everything in; as a guy whose mind is inclined to logic/math, 
> > he'd have more linear, precise handwriting, closer to print than 
> > cursive; and because he's trying to write quickly, no effort at 
> > being "pretty." <snip>
> 
> 
> brady:
> 
> On the issue of the handwriting, I have asked this same question 
> before without getting any replies. Harry has seen Snape write his 
> exam. He could see that the handwriting was cramped, small and he 
> wrote a lot of matter. How is it that he didn't place the exam 
> handwriting and the HBP book writing together? At least a faint - 
> "I have seen this writing before...but where?" kind of 
contemplation 
> would have been more suspenseful in HBP than this case where HP 
> doesn't recognise it at all.

Geoff:
Just to add a couple of thoughts to the mix: if I look at my own 
handwriting, I have a lot of examples from my late teens at the end 
of the 1950s when it was rather untidy and scrawly. When I first 
worked in an office, I tidied it up because I was involved in 
designing data capture forms and others had to be able to interpret 
my heiroglyphics :-). Then, in teaching, I had to have readable 
blackboard work and was also involved in producing material for staff 
noticeboards - this when the school didn't have a photocopier. 
Nowadays, because I have a little bit of hand trouble,I'm back to 
scruffy handwriting. quite different from, say, 15 years ago.

Secondly, I have two sons, both in their early 30s. I am almost 
unable to distinguish between their handwriting. I can only decide 
who a letter is from by looking at the postmark! So I can quite 
accept that Harry didn't make a connection between the two scripts.