Hmmm. What's your favorite *now*?

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 183042

> > Lynda:
>> Every time I watch the movie or read the book though, I do 
> make
> > numerous comments that Harry should have been able to grab at least 
> ONE
> > letter!
> > 
> > Lynda
> 
> 
> Potioncat:
> But all this lays the ground work for imformation we'll need to know 
> later. We need to see that Harry is a mediocre kid--who can't seem to 
> get even one of the letters. We need to see that the Parseltongue is 
> something he just knows how to do. Yet it's without any real control 
> or intention. I think for him to have gotten a letter and proceeded 
> on to Hogwarts without any help would have made him too strong for 
> the role of Every-kid. We need to see he's an ordinary person 
> responding to extraordinary situations.
> 
> Once I'd made it this far, I was hooked.

Montavilla47:

My only problem with the beginning of the first book was with the 
first chapter--which stopped me the first time I tried to read the 
book.  

But I disagree with the idea that we needed to see Harry as unable
to read a letter in order to make him an Everykid.  Every kid in the
world would emphasize with a boy who wanted to read a letter
addressed to him--and, with the hundreds of chances and days 
that the letters kept arriving--even a mediocre kid should have
been able to get hold of one.

I don't think the point was to keep Harry from being normally 
curious and adventurous.  I think the point was to provide humor
through hyperbole.  It's absurd how hard the Dursleys try to avoid
the letters, and that the harder they try to avoid the incriminating
evidence of magic, the more it manifests.

In the meantime, we just have to exercise patience with Harry as
a character so that we can enjoy the joke on the Dursleys.

But, I can't quite see other kid characters waiting around that 
long for Hagrid to come rescue them.  Lyra would never have 
rested until she and Pan had stolen that letter.  Likewise any of 
Frances Hodge Burnett's heroines, or Joan Aiken's.  

Although any attempt on that letter would have been preceded 
by a four-way debate, Amy March would have knicked it within
a day (probably with Laurie's help).  There'd also be a four-way
debate with the Pevensie kids, but once they realized that the
letters were sent by a higher power, they'd be on it like dragons
on gold.  

Later on in the book, Harry proves himself to be more curious
and proactive than he is in the beginning of the book.  I think
we tend to forgive him for his passivity at first, because he 
hasn't figured out that he's the hero yet.  We'd probably be 
a lot less forgiving had he done that sort of thing in later
books, though.

Montavilla47