World Building And The Potterverse/Sarah Monette books/timetravel

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 167239

> Betsy Hp (who loves the sort of world building that kind of slowly 
> builds its layers and depths and is most notable when it's *not* 
> there, and thinks Sarah Monette does a good job at it, and also 
> wonders if there's some sort of award for longest sign off tag)


Alla:

Oh my goodness. You just had to mention Sarah Monette to make me to 
respond, yes?

You **know** that I adore these books and will be forever grateful to 
you for recommending them, but I have to disagree, sort of. While I 
do not think that her world building is horrible or worse then some 
other universes I read about, I found it often to be quite confusing 
and find that JKR is much better in introducing detailed, richly 
layered world, no matter how many inconsistencies we can find in 
Potterverse.

Having said that, I have to say that I find Sarah Monette books to be 
superior on more important level ( for me) – in writing character 
driven story. There was not once while I read those books that I felt 
that Felix and Mildmay behaved as somebody else, contrary to what I 
felt they are as "people". Felix does not loose his obnoxiousness, 
his desire to be in control even when he is going through hell and 
Mildmay is well, Mildmay, always.

I cannot imagine Sarah Monette for example writing Dumbledore "the 
giver of second chances" as not giving Sirius a second chance, 
because to me that compromises one of the core qualities of 
Dumbledore as a character a great deal. No matter how much plot will 
demand it. 

Do not get me wrong, I believe sometimes characters in Potterverse do 
influence the plot, but I think that often enough the contrary 
happens – the character development is sacrificed to make plot move 
along. Which is sometimes fine, the characters are still interesting, 
but sometimes it grates on me badly. I mean Ron was supposed to 
overcome his Quidditch insecurities in OOP, wasn't he? Why is he back 
to them in HBP?

> Ken:
> 
> I suppose I should admit that I just hate time travel stories in
> general. It is patently obvious to me that it is impossible. Human
> nature being what it is our "descendents" would be constantly strip
> mining earlier time periods and generally making human life as we 
know
> it impossible if time travel really existed. I am confident that it
> will never be invented for this reason alone.
> 
> But this is fiction and I will tolerate time travel stories if they
> are amusing enough. What did she get wrong? Well the Earth moves for
> one thing. Time travel machines must be able to account for this. 
You
> could argue that a time turner can magically account for this and I
> *would* buy that if the argument had been made but it wasn't. And if
> you do make that argument then you cannot simultaneously have a 
world
> in which many witches and wizards struggle to master the very
> difficult art of apparition and some fail. The reason is that you
> could simply manufacture "time turners" that include the ability to
> move through space but not time. Then only those with a nostalgia 
for
> the old fashioned ways would have to learn to apparate. If you are 
not
> going to do even *that* then you owe me a reason why not.
> 
> Then there is the problem I have with a Harry Potter who is de-
souled
> in a dementor attack coming back from the future to save himself. 
How
> is that possible? Something similar happens in the concluding 
episode
> of "Red Dwarf" but I accept that in a comedy series. They also had 
an
> earlier time travel frolic that was wickedly funny, perhaps the only
> time travel story I have *truly* enjoyed.
> 
> Finally there is the energy problem. In order to transport yourself
> back in time you have to somehow create a copy of the mass contained
> in your body because during the period you are time traveling there
> are either two copies of your self, or the matter that your body 
will
> eventually be made of. This either requires enormous amounts of 
energy
> to create a "new you" out of nothing or else you have to create a 
copy
> of yourself from matter existing in your world. If the former, where
> does this energy come from and what an awesome weapon it would make
> when used in reverse. If the latter, my what a fascinating 
technology
> you have there. Time travel has been done to death why not write a
> story about that instead? Of course that would more or less be the
> basis of David Brin's "Kiln People" sans any notion of time travel.
> 
> So unless it is being played for laughs, I could do without time
> travel. On a less SF nerdy level I also think that time travel would
> profoundly change us and our society and I don't think any time 
travel
> author has ever even begun to explore this. I'm not even sure it is
> possible to imagine what time travel would do to use. 


Alla:

Well, of course I understand what you are saying. I respect your 
right to criticize that or any other aspect of the series. None of 
your concerns bothers me in the slightest though, to each their own.

I like time travel stories. They may bother me a little when they do 
not function within the possibility that time travel exists, but I do 
not believe that JKR's time travel belongs to that category. I think 
she packaged it very neatly, IF of course you are willing to assume 
that it is possible. If you just hate time-travel period, that is  
different story.

I did read plenty of SF in my time and the main reason why I like 
time travel is how it reflects on characters.

Time travel to me reflects the longing that many people have to 
change something that went wrong in  the past and I think that I love 
how JKR shows that Harry and Hermione cannot change that much, cannot 
change something that Harry would have really wanted to change. THAT 
what I find so poignant in time travel in PoA. That despite being 
able to save Sirius, the possibility of time travel will still not 
let Harry to have a home with him.

If time travel will be introduced again in DH, I think we will see 
again that Harry cannot resurrect his parents, no matter how much he 
wants to.

On the other hand, they did save Sirius and wouldn't many of us in RL 
wish to change something that we did wrong and never can turn time 
back?

I know I would for sure. I think some other people may want to do 
that too. I know it is impossible, but I sure like to see that sort 
of wish fulfillment sometimes in fantasy or science fiction.

So, yeah, like time travel, would not mind to see it again at all.

JMO,

Alla