hot and dry weather & The Ministry Battle: Anti-Ship

[hp_lexicon]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pennylin" <pennylin at s...> 
wrote:
> Hi --
> 
> Catlady asked:
> 
> <<<<<What was the weather of the sumner of 1996 in Surrey, 
England? A 
> couple of people on Main List have presented quotes about the 
summer 
> of 1995 being a heat wave and drought season with a hosepipe ban 
in 
> RL UK, leaving me to ask whether the summer of OoP was hot and 
> droughty because of the nigredo stage that John Granger mentioned, 
> or because it was commenting on RL summer of 1995.>>>>>>>>>>>>

The drought of 1995 continued into 1996, although it wasn't quite as 
bad. 

> 
> Well, I think we've proven time and again that JKR is not 
consulting the calendar or an almanac or any other source of RL 
information when she throws in dates/days, etc.  Bonfire day doesn't 
occur on a Tuesday in RL 1981, etc.  I'm sure Lexicon Steve could 
pipe up with all these discrepancies, but I think it's fairly clear 
that Rowling isn't writing to a specific real-life timeline (or if 
she is, she needs to have her editors do more thorough proofing!).  
OTOH, I think it is certainly possible that she is writing in the 
alchemical literary tradition and therefore used the hot, dry 
weather to further those objectives.  

There is a new page on the Lexicon about various timeline questions 
and problems, including the drought, the Playstation, etc. It's at 
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/timeline-facts.html

My own idea of why she is so vague about dates is that she's trying 
to maintain a sense of "now" to the stories. She knows that her 
books will be read for years to come as classics and she doesn't 
want to have them appear dated or become "historical fiction." She 
sees her writing as a way to get her social ideas accross and 
doesn't want the message to be lost as the years pass. She's not 
trying to preach, but the message is pretty darn clear all the same. 

On the other hand, she has created a world with a past that 
is "dated," in the sense that we know the year of Grindlewald's 
defeat and of Dilys Derwent's years as Head at Hogwarts. There is a 
definite timeline to her universe. She just avoids filling in the 
dates within the story itself.

Steve