Half-Blood Prince

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183854

Carol: 
Stll, though, I find it annoying to have to search for
> explanations as to how a character could have known something. It's
> like Ron knowing that Draco had a Hand of Glory (which, canonically,
> he didn't because Lucius refused to by it for him) or trying to
> account for Sirius Black's letter being at 12 GP. Sure, we can
figure out ways that such things could have happened, but we shouldn't
have to. JKR should have reread her own stories to make them factually
> consistent and provided explanations for anything that didn't
> logically follow from the previous books.
> 

Pippin:
It seems to me that's a matter of personal taste. JKR has corrected
the text where an error in "fictional fact" makes the storyline
impossible to resolve, for example the Wand Order and
Ancestor/Descendant flints.  But where a logical explanation can be
devised even if not intuited, why not leave it to the reader? 

Some of us enjoy that kind of thing, and rather than taking us out of
the story, it leads us deeper in. It seems to me JKR *wants* us to
take those steps, for example, to imagine that Lucius was more willing
to indulge his son against his better judgment than his treatment of
him at B&B's  would suggest, or to think that Lily's letter was
precious to Sirius and he put it by safely before he set off on his
mission of revenge. Other people may of course come up with other
explanations, which is perfectly all right as it's the process not the
outcome that's important. Interpreting a fairy tale is a very personal
journey, and as with the Tale of Three Brothers, there isn't any
"right" answer.

I think compared to other works constructed as serials, HP comes off
well in the continuity department.   LOTR doesn't count, because LOTR,
though published as a serial, was already complete and  as its author
admitted, had been largely rewritten backward. JKR did not have that
luxury.

Pippin