Potterverse timelines just don't fit the RW (was: JKR has updated her site t

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 158345

> 
> Hickengruendler:
> 
> h> In reality, yes. However, as the first chapter in PS informs us, the 
> h> story begins on a Tuesday. It is Tuesday evening, when Hagrid and 
> h> Baby Harry finally arrive at Privet Drive (after having done who 
> h> knows what ;-) ), therefore it was on a Monday, when James and Lily 
> h> died. But I don't think it matters much. JKR quite obviously doesn't 
> h> care for dates.
> 
> Dave:
> 
> That's Why I have always asserted that it is pointless to try to
> assign definite RW dates to the events of the books, e.g. Harry was
> born in 1980.  Things just don't work out -- full moons on the wrong
> dates, anachronistic Playstations, etc., etc.  And now I think we can
> add this as a further example.  I think the best we can do is talk in
> terms of a "BCWE" ("Before Current Wizarding Epoch") and "CWE"
> ("Common Wizarding Epoch").  One might debate what event to use for
> "Year 1", but for our purposes it would probably be Harry's birth.
> So then for example Book 6 would take place in the years 17 - 18 CWE,
> and Riddle first opened the CoS in, um -- 38 BCWE (Am I right?? --
> Maybe to ease the arithmetic we could assume Wizards have a "Year 0"
> even though Muggles don't...)
> 

Ken:

The problem is more basic than that. Dates in HP cannot be related at
all to either the Gregorian calendar that we use or to the Solar
system we live in. Some of Rowling's weeks have too many or too few
days, the length of the lunar cycle varies, constellations rise and
set at the wrong time of year, Mars' orbit is driven by plot instead
of orbital dynamics, and on and on and on. Our dear writer does not
have a firm grasp on the principles that drive these details and she
apparently thought none of her readers would either. 

It would have been easy as could be to just buy calendars for the
years the story covers that would have the lunar phases indicated on
them and very cheap too. Basic astronomical data can be obtained for
free at any library. There is no excuse for not doing this. In only a
very few cases would the plot be affected significantly since the
intervals between major events are usually vague. Shifting a day or
two the match a real calendar would affect nothing. I believe that PoA
presents one of the worst problems, the moon should have been full
when Lupin was riding the Express with the students! She just has a
mind that doesn't work that way and evidently no editor or advisor
that is qualified to recognize these sorts of mistakes for her. 

Ken