Pottermore-

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Okay - I confess; I joined Pottermore, out of sheer curiosity. I want to know if, by any strange chance, I will sort to Slytherin, and also what sort of wand I get. Still, some things struck me at once (I've spent about 20 minutes exploring the first chapter):

When describing Number 4, Privet Drive, Rowling said that she chose the number four because she disliked that number, finding it hard and unforgiving. I believe those were the exact words! Do you suppose that feeling is limited to the number four, or might it extend to other numbers?

On a more serious note, she based the look and floorplan of the house on that of a house she lived in herself - and got wierded out because, without discussing it with her, the filmmakers got the floorplan exactly right.

And - this is fascinating! - she had to argue with the publishers, who wanted to convert all the British measurements into metric ones. She also said that Wizards can do complex calculations magically. Can they, really? Then why did we never see them doing this?

Oh, dear. Maths.

But I'm very glad that she talked the publishers into keeping the old fashioned measurements. Can you imagine a metric Wizarding World? I can't.

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

House plans are weird. The house I currently live in has a very similar plan to the one I grew up in, except the front door of the current one is where the balcony was in the old one. So I don't find it surprising that using a written description would result in something close enough to what Rowling had in mind.

The number issue is typical Rowling - her personal idiosyncratic preferences become a judgmental statement about the world. And doesn't it remind you of all those times Harry feels the world is mocking him by having weather that doesn't match his mood?

As for measurements - she could have the Muggles use metric if that matches British usage in the 1990s (but anything from previous generations should be Imperial), but the wizards wouldn't use metric. Hmm, continental wizards would though.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

You are so right! It's no wonder that Wizarding values are so antiquated if the population skews so old. Some of these people would have been born in the eighteenth century!

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

The number issue is typical Rowling - her personal idiosyncratic preferences become a judgmental statement about the world. And doesn't it remind you of all those times Harry feels the world is mocking him by having weather that doesn't match his mood?

Good point! It's not as though this (Harry's reaction) is inhuman, or even unusual. In his brilliant novel, Till We Have Faces, Lewis has the princess Orual reflect on the beautiful day as she goes to bury her sister. "Why should my heart not dance?" she thinks, and later adds, "Thus do the gods play with us. They blow us up like bubbles, to prick us for our sport." (quoting from memory - mistakes are mine!) But - Orual is feeling guilty for her joy in the beautiful day, and she is also shown, later, to be at least partly wrong. Harry is never reflective, pushes off his guilt feelings onto others, and is never shown to be wrong.

But, seriously, having such a strong emotional reaction to a common number might help explain the books' aggressive innumeracy, don't you think?

[oryx_leucoryx]

It's not as though this (Harry's reaction) is inhuman, or even unusual.

Once or twice yes, but in this series Harry wants the weather to match his level of anxiety before Quidditch matches, among other things. It just makes him look extremely self-centered.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

When describing Number 4, Privet Drive, Rowling said that she chose the number four because she disliked that number, finding it hard and unforgiving.

Four is hard and unforgiving? That is weird.

On a more serious note, she based the look and floorplan of the house on that of a house she lived in herself

The Dursley house is her house. Petunia is JK Rowling!

[kahran042]

Well, if it matters, in Japan four is considered an unlucky number due to associations with death. So it's not all that weird.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

That's interesting! Of course, some numbers have cosmic significance in all societies. But, so far as I know, the number four has no particular associations in Britain-?

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

I think that it is in China as well. I wonder if she was aware of this.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Yes! But she's also Ginny - or, worse yet, Fred. One of the things I didn't mention is that she joined the society of weights and measures specifically to annoy her sister. This society is strongly anti-metric, and she said she looked forward to how angry her sister would be. The sister did not disappoint her, it seems, and Rowling was delighted - even more so at her sister's anger at being teased.

Then there's her sister's comment about Dumbledore - Rowling reports that her younger sister said, "He's cold, like you." Interesting!

In any event, it's absolutely clear from the site that Rowling does push one rather simplistic interpretation of her books. The section on Petunia and Vernon was especially annoying to me - I think Oryx, or someone else, has already reported on that, so I won't go into detail here. Still, the good thing about the site is that it does convey some of the energy and joy I found in the early books, before I really began thinking about them. I've enjoyed shopping in Diagon alley, and I can now report that my wand is larch with unicorn hair - which I like! The quiz to get your wand was good fun.

Summing up: Pottermore seems geared to children, primarily older children who are passionate fans - rather the way I was about "Star Trek" through my teens. Rowling hasn't mentioned a single thing that would lead me to find any deeper meaning in the books.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Why would any adult go through the trouble of joining a society just to annoy their sibling?

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

A bit more about the Pottermore experience - the sorting quiz was interesting, and I ended up in Ravenclaw, as I expected. But -

If you mention Slytherin in a positive way, question anything, or say anything sarcastic (I've done all three), your comment awaits moderation. If you are straightforward, say something positive, or express enthusiasm, you get the message that your comment will appear soon. I've seen that message too.

Controlling, much?!

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Are you serious? What kind of forum doesn't allow dissent? Oh wait, one controlled by rabid fans or people employed by the author.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

I suppose that means that those who end up in Slytherin will get a real feel for how the house was actually treated with suspicion.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I continue to find that selective censorship fascinating. Both in how it's technically done - how does the computer know that your message did "mention Slytherin in a positive way, question anything, or say anything sarcastic"? Such that it knows to put it in the moderation queue?

And then, secondly, it's lovely corroboration of what was mentioned once or twice about Rowling's never-ending set of lecture-interviews post DH; i.e. that questions were submitted in advance and had to be approved.

The Pottermore censorship is no doubt there to protect the kids, and that's fine ... but your criteria isn't exactly inimical to children. Just the HP canon. :-)

[600ants.livejournal.com]

I think that all comments "await moderation" after you post them. Even comments as innocuous as stating your wand's wood and core. At least that's MY experience. :)

Speaking of wands, this made me shake my head in sad disbelief (quotting Pottermore): "However, abnormally short wands usually select those in whose character something is lacking, rather than because they are physically undersized". IOW if you have a "short wand" (crooked teeth, shoe size too small, a wheelchair...), apparetly there's something wrong with your character... sums up the attitude of HP books nicely... (Yeah I know it's already been discussed a million times over :))

[the-bitter-word.livejournal.com]

I just read this lovely thought on Ta-Nehisi Coates's blog, and thought I'd share. He's speaking of his own writing:

The art I love is open, and I think this what we mean when we say "timeless." It does not foreclose the imagination. You don't need to have lived in Poisson's time to understand the horror depicted above. And what I see may not be what you see. I have no idea what he intended me to see. Does it matter?

When I go out and talk about my memoir, I'm always interested in other people's read. I made that book with some specific things I wanted to say, but with little thought of what I wanted you to hear. Once it was published, it no longer belonged to me. It probably was never mine in the first place.

This is the problem of didacticism. It is a dishonest selfishness. It pretends to give you something. But what it really wants is to make hostage of your imagination and march you at the point of a bayonet down some predetermined road.

[granatapfelrot.livejournal.com]

she joined the society of weights and measures specifically to annoy her sister
Well, that might explain Lily putting her sister down in that weird letter to Sirius.
Being this vengeful can't be healthy. Everyone who ever even thought about maybe annoying Mrs Rowling a little bit has to 'get it' somehow. Scary.
The number 4 thing is simply not something I understand. I find the concept of sorting numbers into nice ones and not nice ones totally weird.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

On a more serious note, she based the look and floorplan of the house on that of a house she lived in herself - and got wierded out because, without discussing it with her, the filmmakers got the floorplan exactly right.


Presumably they copied the very detailed floorplan derived from the books by the Harry Potter Lexicon - chance of a countersuit? ;) http://www.hp-lexicon.org/atlas/britain/atlas-b-privet.html

[pearlette.livejournal.com]

When describing Number 4, Privet Drive, Rowling said that she chose the number four because she disliked that number, finding it hard and unforgiving. I believe those were the exact words! Do you suppose that feeling is limited to the number four, or might it extend to other numbers?

This phenomenon can be described In one word: synesthesia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

JKR would seem to be a synesthete.

[kahran042]

I think I have that, to a degree. Specifically, I've always seen the lowercase t as being sort of a bright purple/magenta color.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Huh- I think you might be right. The most famous synaesthete I know of is Olivier Messiaen - a superlative artist and, from all I know, a good, humble man. So I guess I'm programmed to think of syaesthetes as smarter than average. I would also expect some more tactile description from Rowling if she had this condition. OTOH, the author of Ultraviolet a rather good SF/Fantasy crossover for YAs, writes her synaesthetic heroine as a rather normal teen. She (= R.J. Anderson) also mentioned that a child she knew perceived of some numbers or letters as male and others as female. She realized the little boy had a mild form of synaesthesia.

So it's quite possible that Rowling does, too. It might even explain her innumeracy, since having emotional reactions to numbers must make it difficult to use them in equations!

[radicalhighway.livejournal.com]

The Measurements backstory rubs me off quite thoroughly.

The whole thing opens with quite that bitchy retort you mention, where JKR says witches / wizards can magically calculate whatever they want so this isn’t a problem, implying only Muggles can be so stupid as not to know how to count, the reason why they had to change in the first place, and because they’re not special. Still, this is relatively minor and not most blatant WTF you’ll ever encounter on this particular piece.

At some point JKR explains says she agrees Britain should have switched to the metric system and believes the imperial system is indeed, out-dated and superfluous. However, she explains she kept the imperial system because while the British Muggles shifted to the metric system, wizards / witches are traditionalist and archaic, and it does give a feeling of old society that is isolated. So far, so good, and hey, this is quite a thoughtful detail that I personally enjoy too!

This is where the major WTF for me starts though. JKR goes on, telling a personal anecdote. At some point, she received a letter from some old group that supported the imperial system, inviting her to join them. She was going to decline, because she had not kept the imperial measurements out of some kind of political statement, and furthermore, because she disagreed the switch was wrong to begin with. Again, so far so good! But then... she didn’t decline the offer, and accepted it instead. Why? Because she thought it over (someone please hold me) and realised joining would anger her sister (thoroughly against the imperial system for some odd reason that isn’t explained).

Where to even start on this mess? This is blatantly antagonistic of JKR towards her sister, someone from her own family. Is it just me who looks at this and looks at the Dursleys and isn't so surprised that it all turned out that way? I assume the two sisters don’t have a bad relationship, but even if they did, what does JKR get off at, humiliating her sister this publically? Because she gloats about angering her sister as she had expected, and there’s the added penalty that JKR is quite famous, so she humiliated her sister in front of everyone that knew and didn’t know the both of them. Furthermore, JKR pretty much folded on something she believed in and mocked an otherwise genuine organisation’s beliefs (which should be respected), just so she could get a cheap shot at her sister. I’d say again that she goes on and gloats on this behaviour. You know who JKR reminds me of? Lily Evans, a character portrayed as forever inconsiderate of her sister's feelings, in fact, being quite narcissistic all about herself, even though JKR never planned for that bitch to come out that way.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your comment! I hadn't wanted to bring it up, originally, but I did mention her teasing her sister, and you might find the conversation that followed interesting.

Basically, I agree that having the wizards retain a complicated and old-fashioned system of measurement is a nice bit of world-building. But I, too, am rather freaked out by everything Rowling said afterwards. Why would you tease your sister this way in public?!