Now Rowling's control - It's All True

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 180493

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
 
>When JKR talks about what Ron did
> /after/, I assume she is speaking in the context of Ron's 
> lifetime. How many jobs have you had in your lifetime? I
> know I've had MANY. 
> 
> I don't see my explanation as groping or stretching at all.
> It's just common sense. 
> 
> I mean do you really think Neville instantly went from 
> Student to teacher in a day. Now that is 'mental gymnastics'.
> More likely and more logically, he work his way up to it, and
> /eventually/ ended up there. 
> 
> How is that any different than Ron? Ron stated out in one 
> place, just like all of us, and ended up in another place,
> with a transition period in the middle. Just like real life.

va32h:

It doesn't matter how many jobs I've had or you've had.  In JKR's
fictional world - do the characters ever change jobs? With the
exception of Arthur's promotion (which is not a change of job, since
he still works for the Ministry), no.  Teachers are always teachers
(even Lupin was apparently a "professor" before arriving at Hogwarts
since it was stamped on his case. The same lady pushes the food
trolley on the Hogwarts Express.  Stan keeps working the Knight Bus. 
Madam Malkin stays in her robe shop.  Bill works for Gringotts in
Egypt, he works for Gringotts back in London.  What we are shown in
the books are characters who go to school, get one job, and stay with
it til they die.

In "real life" we often fall in love with more than one person, but I
notice that in Rowling's world you meet the love of your life no later
than your late teens and if you screw up that relationship you spend
the rest of your life alone, tortured and miserable. But that's
another story. 

The point is - I don't believe for a nanosecond that JKR really meant
that Ron had two jobs or changed jobs, and simply answered the same
question, posed at two different times, with two different answers in
an attempt to explain that Ron had two jobs without actually saying
that Ron had two jobs. 

If the truth is that Ron had two jobs, why didn't JKR say "he worked
at WWW, then became an Auror."? No, she said, "he worked at WWW." Then
days or weeks later in an entirely different interview said "he was an
Auror."  To conclude that in both answers she really meant that Ron
had two jobs - is mental gymnastics, IMO. 

She makes these answers up off the top of her head. Which is perfectly
fine, really.  She just ought to admit it.  In any case, I don't feel
obligated to accept as canon something she made up on the spot.  I
care enough about these characters to seriously sit and think about
what they would do with their lives and what they would want. 

Call me presumptuous (I'm sure someone will), but I think a dedicated
reader's thoughtful consideration trumps the creatrix's off-the-cuff
remark. 

Steve, were you the listee who really wanted to know what Hagrid was
knitting on the Underground when he took Harry to Diagon Alley?  And I
said JKR probably hadn't even thought of that and if asked, would just
make something up? And you said (I think it was you) that would be
fine, you just wanted the answer from JKR, whether she made it up
right then or not. I asked then - is an answer from JKR inherently
"better" than what the reader concludes, if the reader's answer comes
after careful analysis but JKR's answer is clearly made up right there
on the spot?

I had no idea that I would actually get to answer this question. 
Obviously, I would say NO.

va32h