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

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 162080

Neri:
> 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.

Jen:  Does it work if the fiction isn't intended to be fiction <g>?  
I get your point and think it's a good one, most fantasy settings 
want to make a clear distinction between what is real in the world 
and what is not.  Although if this was JKR's plan with Luna it 
didn't work for me because Harry is a very literal sort of guy 
without much imagination: once he saw the thestrals and heard the 
voices behind the Veil, I took those to be a very real part of the 
world unlike some of Luna's beliefs.  Just as in COS it never 
occurred to me Harry was imagining the disembodied voice even though 
that suggestion is presented as one possibility to consider.  

(I understand Harry is meant to have an imagination in the Muggle 
world so he can believe in the WW at *all*, and to contrast him with 
the Dursleys who are entirely unimaginative.  But once past the 
portal into the WW he is drawn very literally in order to make the 
plot work.  Hermione is the 'clever' one and even then most of her 
ideas come from non-fiction books as other people have mentioned.)

Neri: 
> 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. 

Jen:  I just finished this series over the summer and no examples 
spring to mind.  Mr. Tumnus has a bookshelf with non-fiction books 
about the beings in Narnia and several myth books about humans but 
Lucy doesn't read more than the titles.  Other than that my memories 
are of battles, time aboard ships, visiting distant lands and lots 
of action sequences while the various children are in Narnia.  
Someone who has read the series several times might be able to come 
up with an example.

Besides blurring of reality, another reason for not having fantasy 
characters read fiction books is that there's simply no time for 
reading when Evil is taking over the Universe.  This is true in 
Narnia and the other fantasy series I read, Star Wars.  The Jedi 
Temple is the only known source of books in my memory and in both 
the adult and juvenile book series the mostly non-fiction Jedi 
archives are used only for researching missions or for reading 
Sith 'legends' (which may or may not be true).  HP has more books 
for narrative purposes because it's set in a school with school-age 
characters, but in my view they are simply there to fill out the 
world and for plot purposes.  JKR uses them very *well* for this 
purpose and for humour, but what's the fun of watching the Trio read 
fiction when they could be discussing the latest fiendish plot or 
trying to outwit all the adults?!?

Jen R., hoping at least one of Luna's creatures will prove to be 
real as a jab at Hermione even though Luna doesn't seem to notice 
her skepticism.