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

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 162116

> Magpie:
<SNIP>
 I don't think 
> Harry's being a reader would confuse anything or make the WW seem 
less real 
> or blur any lines between fantasy and reality.  It would work 
fine.  Harry 
> just doesn't happen to be that boy.

Alla:

I don't get it. Okay, you are saying it would work fine, Neri and me 
tagging along with Neri saying that it is easily could be seen as 
one of motivations for JKR to not make Harry's reading Dursleys' 
books. Could you clarify please how the argument is invalid on its 
own? I mean, how the argument that in your view Harry is not a 
reader seem to invalidate the idea that he is not a reader of 
fiction ( because he does read non-fictional books) precisely for 
that reason?

Harry may indeed not be that boy, or JKR may want to do exactly what 
Neri suggested, no?

> Magpie:
> Are you suggesting that if we'd happened to be told that Harry 
liked to 
> read --including fiction--in the opening chapters of PS, that that 
would 
> somehow give the theory that the whole story is his imagination 
more weight? 
> Because I really don't think that's true.  <SNIP>

Alla:

Yes, that is precisely what I am saying ( or more accurately) it is 
me liking Neri's argument. Why it cannot be true?


Neri:
<SNIP>
  All the 
> things that Dudley does without being
> the great intellectual and imaginative type.
> 
> Magpie:
> I hesitate to say this because I don't mean to pretend I know your 
personal 
> motivations, but I can't help but jump on those last 
words "without being 
> the great intellectual and imaginative type" because it seems like 
that's 
> exactly why Harry's disinterest in books is an issue is because 
it's seen as 
> somehow insulting, as if it's a way of saying he's stupid.  (Which 
of course 
> is partly the point of telling us Dudley's own books are 
untouched.) 
<SNIP>

Alla:

Well, to me the issue is that do not see in canon that Harry is 
disinterested in the books per se, I see him not reading muggle 
fiction books, more precisely books on Dudleys shelf, that is it. 
So, yes, that is the main issue to me. Even if the only thing Harry 
reads is non-fiction sometimes, I consider that to be a reader.

But  what you just said , certainly comes as my **secondary**  
motivation, absolutely. Let me stress it again - secondary 
motivation, because I do not agree that canon shows us that Harry 
never reads a book. Having said that, I certainly think that 
character or person should read books sometimes. IMO of course.

I once went on a date with the guy, who told me that the last time 
he read a book was when he was in the fifth grade. He did not seem 
to be joking, the guy was in his early thirties. This was my first 
and last date with this guy.

So, yeah, I would **prefer** Harry picking a book sometimes, but I 
also **see** Harry picking a book in canon sometimes and whether it 
is a fiction or book about Quidditch, really makes no difference to 
me.

Let me say again, I am not even sure if I call Harry book lover, but 
would I call him a reader? Certainly, I would. If you insist, I can 
call him a non-fiction reader with the assumption that it is a 
possibility that he reads fiction when we don't see it, but even if 
he does not, I had seen enough of him reading to convince me that 
the books exist for him.

Certainly Harry is no scholar and he does not need to be, he is not 
that much into books, but I saw him with the book enough time ( as 
much as the story allows of course) to convince me that he knows 
that the books exist :)

JMO,

Alla, who has a very bad suspicion that this is her sixth post if 
she counts it again, but since it is too late she takes a chance and 
posts and goes to slam her fingers.