some replies which are direct but off topic

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186196

Catlady wrote:
> > That could be an interesting topic to discuss: if we had only the books and no author bio at all, what in the text could lead one to think that the author was a woman or a man?
> 
> 
Shelley responded:
> Hum... I think there might be fair evidence for the supposition that Rowling was a man, given that beyond the Hermione hero, women aren't very celebrated or in prominent positions. As a society, men are in charge, and talented women like Molly are home raising babies or unmarried in the classroom like McGonagall are. If I didn't know better, I might very well guess that Rowling was a man.

Carol adds:
Or maybe the WW is in some respects a conservative society, not surprising considering that they still use fireplaces for heat and candles fo light, not to mention quills rather than computers to write with! But it's an interesting question.

What about the narrative voice representing the point-of-view of a pre-teen or teenage boy? How well does she capture that experience? Does Harry's experience (magic aside) seem authentic to male readers? Does it become more realistic in later books? (He struck me as a male Cinderella in my first reading of SS/PS.) 

Personally, I think that JKR does a good job of keeping the narrative voice distinct from her own (and of varying it on occasion when she's outside of Harry's PoV, as in "The Riddle House" in GoF or "Spinner's End" in HBP). Does anyone hear a male or female narrative voice when they read? I don't mean a masculine or feminine-sounding voice reading the story out loud in your head, but do any turns of expression make any readers think of the narrator as masculine or feminine? If you're not sure what I'm talking about, think about Jane Austen or Charles Dickens. Austen's narrators sound female and Dickens' narrators sound male (Esther in "Bleak House" excepted).

To cite a more recent (but not very recent!) author, my brother once complained about having to read "The Outsiders" by S. E. Hinton for a junior high class because the author was so obviously a girl. (I didn't like the book, either, but not for that reason.) Another example is the narrator of "The Hobbit," who sounds like a grandfather telling a story to his grandchildren (or a kind of parody of Tolkine himself telling a story to his own children). JKR has, I think, deliberately avoided creating a similar impression. The voice telling the story is someone other than JKR who knows only what Harry knows, while JKR herself through that persona is deliberately withholding information and occasionally misleading us. But who is that persona? Could we guess from the opening words of SS/PS, or from any other clues, that the author, identified not as Joane Rowling but as J.K. Rowling, is a woman?

Comments, anyone? Does JKR's narrator sound male or female or neither?

Carol, thanking Catlady for the question and hoping for responses, especially from male list members