Keeping Secrets (was Re: CHAPTER DISCUSSION: PS/SS 2, The Vanishing Glass

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 187772


 
> Carol responds:
> I think it's both. JKR is secretive, too--she likes to withhold information to surprise the reader or to give us partial information (a la Dumbledore and Snape) so the that we "know" what Harry does and sometimes leap to the same wrong conclusions. Sometimes the partial information is just foreshadowing, as in the reference to "young Sirius Black" in chapter one. But I think that the breakdown or failure of communication is also a persistent motif--withheld information, misinformation, interruptions just as someone is about to reveal important information. Just to take one example, look at Harry's and Hermione's interpretation of Tonks's and Mrs. Weasley's behavior in HBP. Hermione thinks that Tonks has survivor's guilt; Harry thinks that Mrs. Weasley is trying to interest Bill in Tonks and that Tonks was in love with Sirius (the big, four-footed Patronus must be Padfoot, right? Wrong.) Anyway, that's just one example of many throughout the books. To give an example more closely related to SS/PS, Harry later hears DD tell Petunia "We have corresponded" and thinks he's referring solely to the Howler. The reader at that point knows about the letter left with baby Harry on the doorstep, but neither Harry nor the reader yet knows about the correspondence that will be revealed in "The Prince's Tale."

Potioncat:
I didn't snip of this because I love the examples--they've reminded me of why this series was so much fun. We were always second guessing everying because we could never be sure if a character was telling the truth, or the truth as he knew it, or if the character was really who we thought he was. Great fun.

Several years ago a thread was running about the comparison between JKR and Agatha Christie. Two books were recommended at that time, and I'm goinng to re-recommend them now. The first is Christie's autobiography. It gives a good look at how an author sees the process of writing and how she reacts to fans' interpretations. The other is one of her mysteries, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd." Something about the book aroused cries of outrage from fans. (But I'm not telling.) That book particularly reminds me of JKR. I'm not sure if she ever read Christie, but they are very similar.

Getting back to canon discussion, I'll pull a line from Carol's comments, "But I think that the breakdown or failure of communication is also a persistent motif..."

Motif! That's the word! Not a theme really.

We used to bemoan and complain that Harry never asked the right person the right question---or hardly ever asked questions at all. Yet JRK tells us very very early that Harry learned not to ask questions. On those rare occasions when he asked a question, he usually got the wrong answer.

I think JKR did a very good job of keeping "her" secrets, and of giving the characters the right backgrounds and motivations for their secrecy and behaviors. So whether we approve or not, we can understand where DD gets his secrecy, why Snape automatically distrusts Harry's actions, and why Harry doesn't go to adults.