1) In HBP it says that since voldermort tried to get the defense against the dark arts job, no teacher has had the post for more than one year, but after recently watching SS, Percy tells Harry that "Snape has been after quirrells job for years".. This confuses me...
2) This is more of a comment but yeah.I enjoy the books more, when he's not fighting Voldermort. I think that just his everyday school life is much more interesting. Anyone with me?
Posted by Beanny (Member # 7109) on :
1) Just a bug. JKR's got lots of them, including a spectacled one called Rita.
2) I agree! This is why the third book is so fun - because it has almost nothing to do with Voldemort! The third's my favorite. Thirdy.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
1) Yeah, that seems to have been a continuity error. I did not get the impression that Quirrell was a new professor.
Posted by mothertree (Member # 4999) on :
For some reason a cross between Dirty Harry and Harry Potter seemed funny to me at 4 this morning. I mean, wasn't the thing about Dirty Harry that he colored outside the lines when the law was wrong?
"go ahead, muggle, make my Dies Irae"
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
It makes perfect sense to me; he refers to it as "Quirrell's job", which isn't very good English, but all he's really talking about is the job, he doesn't say it has belonged to Quirrell all that time.
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
I think because a time frame (for years) is assigned to it, it's easier to assume that Quirrell has had the job for years instead of Snape wanting the job for years. I agree with everyone that it's not very good English.
Posted by Tresopax (Member # 1063) on :
What's wrong with a teenager saying "Quirrell's job" instead of "the Defense Against the Dark Arts job", which is much longer and more annoying to say? If the characters in that scene knew that Quirrell was only there for one year, then they'd know exactly what Percy meant when he said that. It is only misleading to the reader, which is good, because the reader is meant to be misled into thinking the whole "curse" on that job is only a myth. So, I'd argue it is neither a continuity error nor bad English, but rather exactly how Percy would have spoken in that situation.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:Yeah, that seems to have been a continuity error. I did not get the impression that Quirrell was a new professor.
My copy's at school, but isn't Quirrell introduced as the new DADA teacher when Hagrid and Harry meet him in the pub?
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
Yeah he is Dag, and they say he just travelled around. But I got the impression he was replacing someone who had been there a while till the 6th book. Lanfear said the problem was in the movie, so that could be different.
Posted by Tresopax (Member # 1063) on :
quote:Tres there are too many other english issues for it to be just exactly how she wanted to word it. JKR happens to use the language in a way that is confusing and in most cases there is not other reason than just plain bad english.
If third graders can read and understand her novels, I doubt it could be too confusing.
Posted by firebird (Member # 1971) on :
I'm with Tres here. I never found this to be ambiguous in any way. As an English person, but not a student of english grammar, I found it completely clear that Quirrel had only been the DADA teacher for one year. No history had been given for previous years.
Betty10 .. other quotes, websites would be of interest.
Posted by firebird (Member # 1971) on :
[Double post ... strange]
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
It could be some form of odd British English. Who knows? I understood what she meant.
Posted by Hitoshi (Member # 8218) on :
I agree with Tres. Although I won't pretend for a second to be any sort of grammar expert, it was clear to me that his statement was referring to Snape's wanting of the job for years, not that Quirrel had had the job for years.
In retrospect, this seems like a sentence that is grammatically ambiguous and therefore can be understood either way. I heard it the way she meant it, probably because I've been around high schools long enough to realize what they mean when they say something, even if they never say it correctly. Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
For the record, I didn't. I thought Quirrell had had the job for years, was on sabbatical when he encountered Voldemeort, and that Snape had spent years wanting his co-worker's job. It explained why Snape didn't seem to socialize with the other teachers - that's a weird position to be in. I had also been very impressed that Hogwarts would let the teachers take sabbaticals, and may or may not have had daydreams of teaching at Hogwarts as a result.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I had the impression from the book that Quirrell had the job for only the one year. It said that he had been traveling and returned from his travels different and strange. Didn't they say he acquired Voldemort while he was out in Albania or something? I don't remember the details, haven't read the first two books in a couple years.
My Snape theory was that he wanted the job so bad to save other people. This goes to the "Snape is good theory." He knew the job was cursed, and figured if he could hold the job, nothing bad would happen to him and others would be saved as a result.
Posted by Bean Counter (Member # 6001) on :
This jumped out at me as well, since it implies that there were at least 20 DADA teachers before Quirrel, however here is a possible solution, what if Voldemort was with Quirrel for several years, growing stronger only slowly? That might have negated any curse eh?
BC
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
I thought Quirrel picked Voldy up when he was off on his expeditions.
Posted by Cr1spy (Member # 8407) on :
OSC in his book signing in Carmel talked about as a playwrite he had lines butchered by actors. He then learned to write so that it could not be misunderstood. I think if there is the potential for misreading it, and there is in this case, then it is the sloppiness of the author.
Posted by Ramdac99 (Member # 7264) on :
My question is how can Tom Riddle be Mugglborn? I thought Slitherin got the most pure, Griffindor got the most brave, Ravenclaw got the most clever and Hufflepuff got everyone else. How the hell can the heir of Slitherin be a mudblood?
Posted by Foust (Member # 3043) on :
I'm inclined to pass it off as a continuity error. The HP universe is far from airtight. It's obvious Rowling isn't a sci-fi nerd.
Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
Beat me to it.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Thanks, Kat.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Slytherin House gets the most ambitious.
And an heir is an heir. He was the one who had the talent to figure out the Chamber.
Posted by t-lee (Member # 1326) on :
Maybe I'm dense and I've missed the answer to this everytime I read the books, but . . .
How did Voldemort get his wand back after the failed curse? or How did he carry it with him without a body? If someone retrieved it for him who was it? He had it in book 4 after Wormtail returned.
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