World Building And The Potterverse (Harry's disinterest in parents)

[kvapost]

No: HPFGUIDX 167397

Betsy Hp:
> I used to think that these issues would clear up as Harry got 
older 
> and took more notice of things.  It hasn't. 

Kvapost:
Speaking of Harry getting older and taking more notice of things. 
One issue really bugs me big time and tilts the series 
towards 'fairy tales for kids' for me, rather than being 
multilayered well crafted masterpiece 'for everyone'.

Did Dursleys really do a good job in 'stamping out' most of Harry's 
interest in his parents ("Don't ask questions!") or am I wrong? I do 
not recall much of his genealogical digging after he entered 
Hogwarts. A couple of little chats here and there with DD, Sirius 
and Lupin, some photos that Hagrid obtained from parents' friends, 
and that's it. I'm not counting Snape's memory in a pensieve as 
Harry was not after specific information redarding his parents when 
he poked his nose in there. 

It looks like he's either afraid to ask questions about them or is 
not really interested that much. I'd expect an orphan like him to 
comb through the schools' archives etc in search of every little bit 
of information, anything at all, I'd expect him to pester every 
living soul that has ever anything to do with Mum and Dad. But he 
doesn't. Most of the information he gets is either volunteered by 
someone else (Hagrid with photos) or is obtained by accident 
(Snape's pensieve).

I don't care much about an author's precision in World Building, let 
there be 7 Mondays a week and light-speed travel, but when JKR keeps 
accentuating orphan's misery throughout the series, Harry's 
unnatural inactivity in that sense contradicts her portrayal of 
Harry as a bright child longing for loving relatives. 

Kvapost, sometimes wanting to kick the WW's saviour Harry so he 
moves and thinks faster.