[HPforGrownups] Re: Things that you wish were in the Harry Potter novels

[Bruce Mull]

No: HPFGUIDX 192021

> Geoff:
> I have said several times over the years that I accept the willing
suspension of disbelief quite often when I enjoy a book and
> frequently let things which could irritate me pass me by. For
example, I am a railway fan and often wince because someone gets it
wrong - the wrong time period or the wrong location for instance,
but if it does not affect the scheme of the story line, I try to put
> it to one side. <snip>
>
> However, there are times, as I said earlier, where the mistakes are
only noticed by someone who has an interest in or is involved in that
area. I am a retired Maths and Computing teacher, having taught at a
> senior school in South London for over thirty years. One of my jobs
in latter years was being a member of the timetable team producing
each new annual scheme in time for the Autumn term. As you say, there
> are always a number of conflicts which led to a lot of head
scratching to get a final result so I can see the possible anomalies
> which you have pointed up. However, since the timetable has very
little impact on the overall story and probably goes over the head of
most readers, my feeling is to ask whether it is worth agonising
> overmuch about the problem?



Bruce:
You are completely right. I am probably nit picking on a point that
is not central to the theme of the series. And I love reading, and
re-reading them all.

I happen to be a graph theorist and now dean of the school of
information technology for the American University at Madaba, Jordan.
So scheduling is part of the job and my background makes it easier
for me than for my colleagues. It is just quite noticeable about the
scheduling problem.

There was also the "Tuesday morning" in Book one, when Halloween was
on a Saturday that year and Bon Fire day would NOT have been next
week as on the news, as that is November 5th. One of the better
fanfics tackled the former problem saying the Hagrid took care of
baby Harry for a few days before he was brought to the Dursleys while
Dumbledore spread the rumors of the Boy-Who-Lived. But there tain't
much you can do about the news except to say that all the owls had
the newspeople discombobulated.

Dr Bruce P. Mull
Professor of Computer Science
Professor of Mathematics