Rowling's Knowledge (was: Two Plot Problems)

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 187626

geoff_bannister wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "zfshiruba" <zfshiruba at ...> wrote:
>
> zfshiruba:
>   
>> Harry may even have an incorrect visual of what the spell will do; the first time I read the incantation, I thought of Rictusempra. 
>>     
>
> Geoff:
> Depends on how good Harry's Latin is. '-sempra' is merely a form of 'semper' 
> = always or forever. Rictus is a fixed grin or grimace and 'Sectum-'is derived 
> from the verb 'seco' = to cut. So the only real link between the two is a sense 
> of continuous action.

Bart:
    I believe I've mentioned this before, but years ago, the late Isaac 
Asimov wrote a rather interesting essay on why he believed that 
Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's plays, and not one of the other 
prominent Elizabethan figures sometimes theorized to have written them. 
His logic was based on the beliefs, expressed in the plays, on 
scientific and other factual matters, and, more specifically, what 
Shakespeare got wrong. Asimov pointed out that the mistakes were what 
would be expected for the level of education that Shakespeare received, 
but would not have been made by someone as educated as, for example, Sir 
Francis Bacon.

    The point is that it also depends on how good J. K. Rowling's Latin 
is. When trying to tie in what happens in the books to real world 
knowledge, we have to remember that we are looking not at the current 
state of knowledge, but the then current state of Rowling's knowledge. 
Consider, for example, the mental illness of Voldemort. He may or may 
not be sociopathic/psychotic by psychiatric standards, but if you look 
up the illnesses in an encyclopedia and base it on that, Morty has all 
the symptoms of one, with the exception of his ability to stick to a 
long, complex plan.

    Bart


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]