[HPforGrownups] World Building (was Why did Snape _really_ hate Harry?)

[No Limberger]

No: HPFGUIDX 187091

>Jerry wrote:
>Sure, there were occasions when the WW didn't make logical sense,
>when numbers didn't add up. Little things had Nick been dead 400 or
>500 years, had there been modern type plumbing "1000 years ago"
>or so, when the Castle and Chamber of Secrets had been built.

No.Limberger responds:
I'd like to address the comment about plumbing.  Plumbing actually
goes back quite far into antiquity.  The Minoan palace of Knossos on
the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea, which was built circa 1700 B.C.E.
had four separate drainage systems that emptied into sewers made
of stone.  (Reference: http://www.theplumber.com/eng.html).  The
palace even had flush-able toilets.  Greeks developed cold & hot
water systems.  Public baths in ancient Rome received their water
via plumbing.  In fact, the term 'plumbing' comes from the Latin word
"plumus", which means lead.  To get water into ancient Rome and
other Roman sites, ancient Romans built aqueducts, the ruins of
which remain in any locations around the ancient world.  Thus,
it's entirely feasible, imo, that 1000 years ago, a group of wizards
could have installed essentially modern plumbing into Hogwarts.

>Jerry wrote:
>How many students at Hogworts, how big was the WW, how
>does the economy work, how come G. didn't win the house
>cup when the "legendary Charlie Weasley" was seeker? And how
>long ago was that anyway?

No.Limberger responds:
JKR probably didn't regard providing answers to questions such
as these as being suitably relevant to the overall story.  Could
JKR have made the descriptions of the WW much more detailed?
Yes, but I think that she did a very good job.  No author answers
absolutely every question.

>Jerry wrote:
>I have come to the reluctant conclusion that JKR wasn't a
>"world builder".

No.Limberger responds:
I disagree with this statement.  Yes, JRK built the WW.  If
her descriptions leave some things up to the readers'
imaginations, there is nothing wrong with that.

>Jerry wrote:
>She created very compelling characters and put them into
>interesting and adventurous situations. But as far as the
>Wizarding world and rules of magic, too much of the time,
>in spite of all those years of planning and charts and stuff,
>she seems to have been "making it up as she went along",

No.Limberger responds:
Every author of fiction makes things up.  That's the point of
fiction.  A story is a set of ideas dreamed up by an author
who is able to put them into written form.  The more interesting
the characters and settings, the more interesting the
stories become.  If JKR believed that she needed to sit
down and explain all possible rules of magic (for example), how
much time would that have taken and would that have been
more a distraction than something that would have contributed to
the overall plot?  JRK, imo, wrote enough about the WW in
order to convey the story within what comes across as a
very plausible world of magic and wizardry.

>Jerry wrote:
>I could list many, many more places where the canon
>doesn't make logical or mathematical sense.

No.Limberger responds:
Personally, I don't find it necessary to obsess whether each
and every element in a story is completely logical or whether
each and every aspect of a fantasy universe is explained to
the smallest detail.  Instead, I enjoy the stories, characters
and WW for what they are.  Sure, I'd enjoy it if I knew a bit
more about particular characters or the WW at large, but
I can certainly fill in some of the blanks in my own mind
from what is conveyed.  The encyclopedia that JKR is
working on will probably fill in some of the things that she
didn't include in the books.

-- 
"Why don't you dance with me, I'm not no limberger!"


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