Readers in the WW (was: JKR and "Think of the Children!")

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 162065

> 
> Potioncat:
> I'm reading Huck Finn now, and to my surprise, Tom Sawyer reads a 
> lot. He's the one who read the stories that the boys base their 
> adventures upon. He knows about pirates, knights, and  highwaymen. He 
> doesn't understand all the details, which makes for a bit of humor in 
> itself, but he does read.

Neri:
As I wrote, it was required by the plot. But lets see if I can restate
my rule more precisely. The rule would be: in a fantasy setting that
is supposed feel *real*, it would be rare to find "fiction" books. And
the more "real" the fantasy setting is presented, the less you are
likely to find fiction books in it.

So for example, the Tolkien universe does have books in it. Bilbo is
even writing one himself. But this book ("There and Back Again") is
not fiction – it is true inside the reality of Tolkien's universe.
There's also a lot of legend and lore in LotR, but it is *true* legend
and lore – it plays the role of history inside the Tolkien universe.
The same also works for HP: the legend of the Chamber of Secrets, for
example, turns out to be true history inside the Potterverse. 

The point is: I can't recall a single book inside the Tolkien universe
that is stated to be total fiction, purely for the sake of the
storytelling with no presumption to Tolkienverse "fact". 

The reason for this is probably that it might be too confusing: inside
a fantasy setting that needs to be convincing enough, to have a book
that is fiction in that fantasy setting. It's too complicated. The
author is trying to make the reader feel the fantasy setting in his
fictional story as "real". It would be counterproductive to present in
it a book that is supposed to be pure fiction.  

So Tom Sawyer is allowed to read fiction because his adventures take
place in a RL setting, but Harry Potter is not allowed to read fiction
because his adventures take place in the WW fantasy setting. It might
confuse the reader. The sense of what is "real" and what is fictional
in the WW might be lost. So Harry is only allowed to read fiction when
he is in the RL setting, in the Dursleys house. But he is only present
there for a short time each book, and besides, the fantasy setting
creeps into the Dursleys' too: snakes talk, house elves and flying
cars and dementors appear. 

Now, if JKR wanted to confuse the border between imagination and
realty *on purpose*, she could have made Harry read, say, "Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang", maybe even make him play an imaginary adventure
based on it, and *then* present the flying Ford Anglia. The reader
then wouldn't be sure if Harry is imagining this or not. JKR is
actually playing this trick with Luna – she has Luna reading and
believing the obviously fictional Quibbler stuff in order to keep the
realty of the thestrals (in the beginning of OotP) and of the voices
behind the veil (in its end) ambiguous. But this is not what JKR is
trying to do with Harry. She's trying to make Harry's adventures feel
as real as possible for the reader. So this is why no fiction in the
WW is allowed, and why Harry and Hermione read a lot, but never fiction.

So now for testing my rule: I haven't read all the Narnia books, and
the ones I did read it was many years ago, so I remember very little.
But I'm willing to bet: if the Narnia kids ever read fiction at all,
it would only be when they are in the RL world, and never when they
are in Narnia itself. 


Neri