World Building And The Potterverse

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 167418

> > >>Pippin:
> > I'm not sure she does want us (ie adult readers) to believe the WW
> > is a real place. I think she honestly feels that if you're old      
> > enough that it matters to you whether the numbers add up or the    
> > economy works, you're old enough not need to believe in magical    
> > wonderlands in order to appreciate their uses. 
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Like Neverland? No, I don't buy that idea. 

Pippin:
No, I mean that she doesn't want you, the adult reader,
to lose yourself in the story, or rather, she's intentionally 
creating a tension between your desire to lose yourself
in the story and your desire to understand what's 
going on. 

All works of art rely on conventions to simplify the real
world because the real world is far too complex and intricate
to fully depict in any set of symbols. But different types of
art use different conventions.

Consider an architect's model compared to the dollhouse.
The architect's model is more 'realistic' -- but that in itself
is a view formed by convention. Actually neither one is a 
real, functional dwelling, both are merely 
aids to the imagination. Both rely on  conventions 
to represent reality, but they use different ones. 

Imagine the  dollhouse (I'm thinking of the stamped metal kind I 
played with as a child.) It has two stories but no staircase
to connect them -- you have to pretend that it's there.

The architect's model would normally show you
where the stairs are. But suppose you make something
that combines elements of both. Now it's not certain
what the missing staircase means. Did the architect
hide it? Did the dollhouse maker leave it to your 
imagination? Is it some kind of mistake?

Or is this a house of the future where everybody teleports,
or a fantasy house where they apparate, or a house in the
past before stairways were invented, and what you should
be imagining is a ladder?

See, I think the confusion is inherent in the genre-bending
and it's part of the fun, but also part of the message. We
rely on convention and stereotype far more than we think,
just like the characters in the books.

 In reading HP, we don't know whether to apply the conventions 
of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, bildungsroman, satire or 
whathaveyou. But in the end they're all artificial. The Mirror 
contains neither knowledge nor truth. If you want that, you 
can't lose yourself in what it shows you.

Pippin