JKR's date-game

[iselima]

Nothing new for any of you seasoned HP-writers, probably, but for me it is all new and it baffles me: JKR's play on dates.

I needed one date in the Summer Holiday of 1995. In RL it's on a Thursday, according to GoF it would be on Saturday but according to the OotP calendar that same day is on a Tuesday. What nonsense!

I don't mind she is not following the RL calendar (yet, what would have been wrong in doing so, I wonder), but a bit of internal consistency in her series of books wouldn't be amiss, would it?
I read about the cause for it all: every school year starts on Monday September First...but why? 

Did JKR want to well and truly employ her artistic freedom? Make even the calendar magical? Or is it sheer carelessness? Now that is hard to believe: there would have been editors around to correct such mistakes.

Just a minor point of course, but it adds to the other irritations, like the changed background-facts and -stories.

On the other hand: now that I dived in to the books in order to write a fic, I am getting really hooked on them and feel an unexpected rush to write...if it will lead to any palpable result, remains to be seen though. *g* 



 

Comments

[squibstress.livejournal.com]

There are many little inconsistencies in JKRs world. I suspect the HP project just got bigger and longer than she had at first anticipated (whatever she may now say about always having planned seven books) and continuity got a bit muddled. The editors didn't have her fix the errors, for whatever reason.

Glad you're diving into fic writing! I hope to read the results before too long!

[iselima.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's exactly my feeling and it's sad that she's sort of defensive about it.

Though it won't be easy to be so very much in the limelight and perhaps she's bound by contracts too, in what she can and can't say...so where I'm tempted to be quite irritated, I should maybe just shrug my shoulders *g*

The primary result ought to come out near the end of Dysfuncentine (which is a nerve-wrecking idea).

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Well, JKR has confessed that she's basically innumerate, and it shows in several places (lol, oh, that original Black Family Tree that had Cygnus being twelve when Bellatrix was born), so I guess dates are kind of numeric, too?

It's easier to just go with the Lexicon calendars. They've done all the work of 'wtf I don't even' for you :)

[squibstress.livejournal.com]

Dear Cygnus was always so precocious.

[iselima.livejournal.com]

Cygnus? Off to the lexicon!

It's so frustrating that nearly all the names are very different in Dutch: Dumbledore is Perkamentus. Mcgonagall is Anderlingh. Cedric Diggory is Carlo Kannewasser...I'm acquiring the UK books now and listening to Stephen Fry as well. Am nearly 'there' :)

We had the books in Dutch initially, because of the age of the children at that time. HBP and DH we bought in both languages, they were old enough, by then. (They're 22, 20 and 16 now)

[iselima.livejournal.com]

If that's true, it would be understandable, though what for are editors then? :-)

Yes, I have used the Lexicon calendars and they gave a clear warning about the date-problems, which was helpful (and these calendars and so many other things in the Lexicon are great, if you lack the time or mind to learn the books by head from A to Z. Never even knew about it, before I started writing for Dysfuncentine and now I frequent the site. LOL)

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

God, I could not live without the Lexicon. Seriously. I've occasionally written for other (book, movies are easy) fandoms that don't have a 'handy guide to absolutely everything in these stories', and it's HARD, wah.

The only thing that does worry me about the Lex now is that eventually, when Pottermore is out of beta and its info is no longer 'spoilers', they're going to up and change everything - like McGonagall's dates - to 'Pottermore canon', which I would rather pretend does not exist (at the Lexicon, canon = everything JKR says, which is yay when you want to look at, say, the aforementioned Black family tree, but less so when non-book things you don't like are/will eventually be updated)

[iselima.livejournal.com]

I love the Dobby and Kreacher icon (it must be me, but it's like they're on the catwalk *gg*).

My feeling is that movies colour your characters far too much. I find it also hard to separate the film characters from the original characters in HP. So I can imagine you prefer books-fandom. Should be hard without lexicon indeed (am I not creating an impression here as if I'm a seasoned writer, while that is not the case at all? Could be that I'm a seasoned HP-ff READER then :) )