Time-turning

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 167511

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> > Ken:
> > 
> > ...
> > 
> > ... We are coming up to the point where Harry is about
> > to get his first kiss .... Because time travel exists 
> > in the Potterverse and conforms to the self-consistent
> > ... model, a future Harry Potter either will come back
> > and save the day or Harry's life will essentially be
> > over, ... The decision has to be made right now, not 
> > some time later by Dumbledore or Hermione in the 
> > hospital wing. Who or what decides or even causes the
> > decision to be made? I don't think there is an answer
> > ....
> > 
> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> To your last point, you are totally right, there is no
> answer, at least not one that doesn't have some degree
> of inconsistency in it because that is the nature of
> ALL time travel, and here is why.
> 

Ken:

With all the words that have been written here about this
in the last few days it is obvious that either there is no
way to make time travel consistent, as you say, or else
know one here knows how to explain it. I don't see any 
way to resolve all the paradoxes. Fixing one just creates
another or two if you are unlucky.

And that is my objection. There is *no reason* to have 
time travel in POA. It is gratuitous. Rewriting the plot to
eliminate it would hardly change anything. A story that
embraces time travel fully and lives or dies by it has at 
least a chance of impressing me. If it is part of the 
Potterverse then it is and it should be used every single
time it would be useful. Throwing it in once to impress
me does not impress me. 

At this point the only possible reason to have time travel 
in POA is that it is needed in DH. I pray not but the ink is 
on the paper and won't be changed now so prayer is as 
useless as a time turner at this point. 

Magic aside the Potterverse seems familiar and normal.
You can find real prototypes for just about every non-
magical element and character in it. Even the magic
is almost normal. Reading the Potterverse is a bit like
watching the Flintstones, they have everything we do
except their version depends on magic/little dinosaurs.
Time travel always introduces an element of absurdity.
If there was a point to the absurdity it would be acceptable
as in absurdist theater. In this story the absurdity is just
ignored, it signifies nothing, it accomplishes nothing,
it has no place being there at all.

The only thing that can change this is the text of DH
and all I can say about that is if time travel is a feature
of DH it had better be good. Much better than POA.

Ken