Reading the Daily Prophet
Jul. 26th, 2004 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotesseLast night I finally buckled down and bought OotP on cassette tape for my sister and I, despite the mind-bending cost. It's strange how listening to a story can help you pick up the details.
So here's my question.
Harry didn't pick up the nasty references the Daily Prophet was making to him because he wasn't reading it cover-to-cover, just the front page. His logic: anything about Voldie will be headline news. But it wasn't in GoF, was it? The whole thing with Bertha Jorkins turned out to be pivotal to Voldemort's plot for re-birth, and it was scarcely covered, if at all. All the Muggle disappearances, which were also quite relevant, were dismissed as unconnected. The Ministry is in denial, and Harry knows it. So would it not therefore be likely that they would disregard the warning signs of approaching war, casting them as just small nasties instead of joining them all together to see the plots being formed? This is the way of government. Disconnect the dots and the picture isn't so scary.
And then there's the fact that Harry is sneaking around to watch the Muggle news, hanging on all the way through to water-skiing budgies. Lying underneath open windows. Getting yelled at by his uncle. And not completely reading the wizarding newspaper being delivered to his bedroom.
Either Harry is being really dippy, or I'm missing something.
So here's my question.
Harry didn't pick up the nasty references the Daily Prophet was making to him because he wasn't reading it cover-to-cover, just the front page. His logic: anything about Voldie will be headline news. But it wasn't in GoF, was it? The whole thing with Bertha Jorkins turned out to be pivotal to Voldemort's plot for re-birth, and it was scarcely covered, if at all. All the Muggle disappearances, which were also quite relevant, were dismissed as unconnected. The Ministry is in denial, and Harry knows it. So would it not therefore be likely that they would disregard the warning signs of approaching war, casting them as just small nasties instead of joining them all together to see the plots being formed? This is the way of government. Disconnect the dots and the picture isn't so scary.
And then there's the fact that Harry is sneaking around to watch the Muggle news, hanging on all the way through to water-skiing budgies. Lying underneath open windows. Getting yelled at by his uncle. And not completely reading the wizarding newspaper being delivered to his bedroom.
Either Harry is being really dippy, or I'm missing something.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 10:53 am (UTC)Harry has been stupid in the same way before; after it's been repeatedly confirmed that Snape does not want him dead, or for Voldemort to return, Harry's still been suspicious of him. It's been clear since the first book that Snape doesn't want Voldemort back. Besides, why would he? He betrayed the Dark Lord already before his fall, and would be high on Voldy's hit list. It wouldn't make any sense. But does this get through to Harry? Noooo...
My conclusion is that the boy's controlled by emotion mostly, and has a tendency to categorise people. And that that whole bit with the news was a plot device. :D
Wasn't he listening to the Muggle news for signs of Sirius, though, rather than Voldemort? Sorry, it's been a while since I read the book.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 11:11 am (UTC)Nope, it was for Voldie. He first heard of Sirius on the Muggle news back in book 3, when he still though Sirius was a murderer.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 11:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 01:02 pm (UTC)i don't know
Date: 2004-09-19 04:16 pm (UTC)*listening to Caroline Myss' "Sacred Contracts" CDs and avoiding homework*