The scar

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182658

Barry wrote:
> Thanks for all the replies. It occured to me to Google. I got this
from www.muggle.net:
> Koen Van Der Voort: Why is the scar on harrys forehead lightning
shaped J.K. Rowling: To be honest, because it's a cool shape. I
couldn't have my hero sport a doughnut-shaped scar.
 
> So it depends on what JKR means by 'cool'. 

Carol responds:

First, rather than Googling, if you want to find out what JKR said in
her various interviews before posting on a topic here (always a good
idea if you're interested in JKR's intentions or how she has answered
questions on, say, Thestrals or Patronuses or whatever), I suggest
using Accio Quote, a website that allows you to search her interviews
and then link to the appropriate ones:

http://www.accio-quote.org/

Of course, JKR's aren't always as comprehensive as we might like them
to be (a lightning bolt scar is "cool," for example), which leaves a
lot of room for speculation, but does pretty much rule out a
connection with electricity (or runes, fo that matter). But SS/PS does
mention a "curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning" (Am. ed.
13) which indicates an open wound that later healed into a scar, which
is useful information if we want to speculate on why an AK would leave
a scar (bboy_minn and I and perhaps others think it was caused by the
AK bursting out of, not entering, Harry's forehead.

But rather than discuss the scar, since you seem more satisfied than I
am with JkR's explanation (and her interviews in general, which often
provide contradictory information), I wanted to focus on your comment
about what JKR thinks is "cool."

I think she defines the slang term pretty much as anyone would,
meaning something like "admirable" or "fashionable": the "cool" kids
are the popular kids that everyone wants to be seen with; a "cool"
broomstick is the one that everyone wants to buy. Granted, not
everyone wants a scar like Harry's (probably no one does, actually)
but people (especially Gryffindors) might think that *Harry* was
"cool" because of his scar, or, conversely, the scar was "cool"
("neat!" "excellent!' "wicked!") because it symbolized Harry's
"defeating" Voldemort as a fifteen-month-old baby. But, of course, JKR
is referring to the shape of the scar, not the scar itself, as "cool,"
so I think she means that a lightning bolt is more exciting, maybe
more manly (even though he's a kid) than a circle or a smudge or a
flower or a heart. (Think about small boys and the shapes they might
want to have painted on their faces at a fair.)

Anyway, to get back to your remark. What does JKR think is "cool"?
Lupin, IIRC, says that Harry and James were "the height of cool." I
don't want to second-guess JKR, but if Lupin is right, if most of the
students (except, probably, the Slytherins) regarded a pair of
"arrogant little berks" as "cool," their judgment is (IMO) sadly
lacking. (I know that Mike disagrees with me; possibly JKR does as
well.) Harry, sitting with Luna and Neville and Ginny on the train, is
embarrassed when Cho walks in and finds them all covered in stinksap.
Harry wishes that he were with a group of "cool" kids, all of them
laughing at something that he said, rather than a "loony" girl who
wears spectrespecs and butterbeer-cap necklaces, a forgetful boy who's
always losing his toad or carrying around odd plants, and Ron's little
sister. I think it's significant that he revises his view of them when
he gets to know them better. (Ginny, perhaps, doesn't count, because
she's popular and "cheeky" and pretty and so would count as "cool" in
the opinion of most of her classmates, but Harry learns that Luna and
Neville are much "cooler" than they appear to be, brave and loyal and
valuable in themselves, however "dotty" and eccentric or forgetful and
chubby they may be.

Just a few thoughts that came to me in response to your remark on what
JKR means by "cool."

Carol,who intended this post to be fun, not serious, but it took me in
unexpected directions