posted
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?
Posts: 332 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 803 | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
1) Yeah, that seems to have been a continuity error. I did not get the impression that Quirrell was a new professor.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
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"
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
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?
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
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.
Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 571 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
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. Posts: 208 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
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?
posted
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.
Posts: 35 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
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?
Posts: 484 | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 1515 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 79 | Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
