Ribbons (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bronze_ribbons) wrote2007-11-14 04:21 pm
bronze_ribbons) wrote2007-11-14 04:21 pm
Entry tags:
notes for a later rant
Opening sentence of Quidditch Through the Ages:
Initial reaction: either the narrator of QTtA or DH is unreliable
Follow-up reaction: HP Lexicon lists the publication year of QTtA as 1952. However, the edition released to Muggles in 2001 mentions a 1994 Quidditch match (and several other events between 1952-1994, so one can't argue typo).
Watsonian interpretation: Snape devised his flying spell sometime after the publication of QTtA in the Wizarding world (1995? But it had to be available in 1991, because Snape confiscated it from Harry in SS/PS, and Oliver Wood had it checked out the previous April).
Watsonian interpretation x 2: QTtA was discreetly updated with additional chapters on more recent events in the manner of NYT obituaries and books such as Van Loon's History of Mankind (where the original author's name remains on the cover in order to sell it, but it includes chapters penned by another author after his death)
Watsonian interpretation x 3: Text of DH automatically takes precedence over text of QTtA, because DH narrator is omniscient (and therefore by default is not wrong) whereas QTtA narrator is a wizard (and therefore could be either wrong or underinformed)
Ribbons' reaction: Och, tae hell wi' it! *stomps off to write broomstick/blowtorch*
No spell yet devised enables wizards to fly unaided in human form.
Initial reaction: either the narrator of QTtA or DH is unreliable
Follow-up reaction: HP Lexicon lists the publication year of QTtA as 1952. However, the edition released to Muggles in 2001 mentions a 1994 Quidditch match (and several other events between 1952-1994, so one can't argue typo).
Watsonian interpretation: Snape devised his flying spell sometime after the publication of QTtA in the Wizarding world (1995? But it had to be available in 1991, because Snape confiscated it from Harry in SS/PS, and Oliver Wood had it checked out the previous April).
Watsonian interpretation x 2: QTtA was discreetly updated with additional chapters on more recent events in the manner of NYT obituaries and books such as Van Loon's History of Mankind (where the original author's name remains on the cover in order to sell it, but it includes chapters penned by another author after his death)
Watsonian interpretation x 3: Text of DH automatically takes precedence over text of QTtA, because DH narrator is omniscient (and therefore by default is not wrong) whereas QTtA narrator is a wizard (and therefore could be either wrong or underinformed)
Ribbons' reaction: Och, tae hell wi' it! *stomps off to write broomstick/blowtorch*
no subject
Then again, everyone in DH was very shocked that Moldy Voldie was flying without a broom in the opening chapters. One of my dearest friends and fellow HP buff,
I think he was really "flying" - but QTtA was out/published long before the events of DH, and Voldie's flying stint was a complete shock to everyone who saw it, so in this case I think there is no real inconsistency.
But it is very weird. I didn't care for that bit. Doesn't Snape have enough bat-like references already? *grin*