Chapter Discussion Chamber of Secrets Ch. 8 The Deathday Party

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 188965


> > 3.	 500th anniversary of Nick's death is one of the few dates (or is an only date?) that can help us place Harry Potter in time. And we debated the timeline many many times in the past. Do you feel that JKR made a wise decision to actually place it in time or would it have been better to let the reader place the action in time as they see fit and not give any definite dates in the book?
> 
> Geoff:
> Yes. I find it very useful to be able to anchor the events in a given year - I can cast my mind back and remember what I was doing at that particular time.
> 
> In any book, I like to have a visible and accurate timeline.
>
Carol responds:

Too bad JKR herself is confused about it. She still thinks that Dumbledore died in 1996, not 1997. I think she forgot that the calendar year changes in the fourth month of the school year, just as she seems to forget that most students have a birthday during the school year and speaks of Tom Riddle killing his parents in his sixteenth year when he was actually already sixteen and therefore in his seventeenth year.

But, still, I agree that it's good to have an accurate and visible timeline. I only wish that hers were more accurate and more visible!

Carol, now wondering how DD's age changed from (roughly) 150 to 115