Comments on: The Boy Who Lived

By: Dalida

Dalida — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:18:01 +0000

The reason Hagrid took so long to get Harry to the Dursleys was maybee because he was supposed to meet Dumbledore at that time?:)

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:24:04 +0000

I can’t believe I just discovered this amazing site! The amount of work you must have put into this project is really overwhelming, and I just want to say a big fat THANK YOU for everything you’ve done here.

That said, I’ve got a bit of childish excitement going and I think I’m going to reread the series and follow along with your companion pages. It’s almost like having an entirely new book series! (Even though I’ve read and reread these enough times that I can practically rattle off the first chapter by heart. :/)

Thanks again!

By: John Kearns

John Kearns — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:09:05 +0000

Emma, I see where you’re coming from, but I don’t think that Harry’s dreaming that sequence means it’s written from his point of view. Think about the beginning of book four, where we have the Riddle House chapter that Harry is also seeing in his dream – it’s told not from Voldemort’s perspective (which is the one Harry would see), but from Frank Bryce’s, which Harry would have no way of knowing. It’s the same thing here, in a sense. How could he dream Dumbledore and McGonagall’s interactions when he wasn’t even present for them, any more than he could have dreamed Frank Bryce seeing the light on in the Riddle house? These things clearly are meant to have really happened, so he didn’t make them up. Which means that we’re seeing these stories from another perspective.

The fact that Uncle Vernon’s bad day is also told from a non-Harry perspective, to me, makes it pretty clear that this whole chapter is meant to be third person. Rowling later does the same thing with the opening chapters of books 4, 6, & 7.

By: Emma

Emma — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:22:46 +0000

Ah but it is written partly from Harry’s point of view and not his fifteen month old self but his ten year old self, he’s having it as a dream or at least thats how I’ve always read it because in the next chapter he’s confused and doesn’t remember the rest of the dream apart from the flying bike, which is he same as he beginning of book four, he has the dream which introduces all the stuff about Voldemort’s family being murdered but Harry only vaguely remembers the part about a plan to attack him. Harry always has dreams which tell him loads but he doesn’t remember properly.

By: John Kearns

John Kearns — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:44:36 +0000

It seems overcomplicated to me to suggest that the actual name of the object changed at some point in time from Put-Outer to Deluminator. I’m not sure I buy the argument about Harry’s POV, either, as this chapter is very much not written from his point of view (he’s fifteen months old, and not present at any rate). There are lots of examples of things happening in the first few chapters of this book that don’t make sense from the perspective of someone who’s read all of the books, but which are clearly there for the sake of new readers. Think of Ron’s spell to turn his rat yellow, Molly’s asking for the platform number, and so on. If Rowling had used the word ‘Deluminator’ here, it would seem jarring and strange for people reading the book for the first time. So she calls it something that makes more sense to unenlightened Muggles, and figures if she needs the device later on she’ll name it properly then. It’s not like Dumbledore ever refers to it by name or anything like that.

By: Emma

Emma — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:25:04 +0000

In my opinion about the Put-outer, deluminator bit. The book is written from Harr’s point of view, he is is the one who refers to it as a put-outer until the time that he finds out it’s true name in the seventh book from then on he refers to it as a the deluminator. In the first scene here he’s a ten year old having a dream (“I HAD A DREAM ABOUT A MOTORBIKE, IT WAS FLYING) and it’s not the first time his dreams seem to provide more information, most of which he forgets (as in book 5 and later in this book when he dreams about Quirrels turbin etc.)

By: Electa

Electa — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:31:19 +0000

Regarding the deluminator – maybe the change in use was really down to Dumbledore! He left the deluminator to Ron in his will, and being the wise and knowing person he was, realised that maybe in the future Ron would need to find a way back – perhaps, as the inventor of the object, he then added this extra function so as to facilitate Ron’s return. So in the start it was a “Put-Outer” only but the use was extended later on, not as an after-thought by JK Rowling, but as a deliberate extra help for the person to whom it had been given.

By: May

May — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 06:29:13 +0000

The manner in which Jo wrote this first chapter is beautiful, complex, and groundbreaking; in a way, as Muggles taking their first dip into the wizarding world, we are forced to be humbled regarding the many complexities of the world of magic. Jo mentioning the “silver thing” as not by its real name but only as a Put-Outer is, most likely, for our benefit. She’s cushioning our first plunge into the wizarding world – taking us through the world step by step, slowly but surely. In many ways, this chapter revealed tons of stuff we do not understand at first read (“Muggles”, for instance), yet we are forced to digest. As such, the analogy between us Muggle readers and Harry is quite astounding – like Harry, who is only beginning to grasp the world he now belongs to, readers, such as ourselves, are also forced to grow and learn alongside Harry.

By: MartinTenbones

MartinTenbones — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:17:46 +0000

re: Timbus Christ

But there’s a fallacy in your argument…you assume that Ron leaving the Trio was planned by Jo all along. Even “With the five years of planning that J.K. spent on the Septology” she ran into problems with (at least) Book 4. She has talked in interviews about a large (and mysterious) plot hole that caused her to rewrite large chunks of that book, so advance planning doesn’t solve all problems. Things may look different during the actual process of writing.
It is possible that Ron’s leaving was something she came up with while writing Book 7 (or sometime before she began) that caused her to have to devise a means for Ron to return.
I think the fact that the device changed its name suddenly says a lot about how she writes.
And if she had always planned for the device to be used as it was in Book 7, why not call it the Deluminator from the get-go? Again, a change in the name belies a change in the function.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 16:42:01 +0000

I’m rereading the books along with this site and it’s really interesting doing it as I go along.

@Timbus Christ, there weren’t any street lights but there must have been light from the moon. It may have seemed pitch black to start with but your eyes adjust to the dark (given there is some light) after about 10 minutes. Since McGonagall was sitting right next to Dumbledore I’m sure she would have been able to make out when he bowed his head or nodded.

In response to the talk about the man Vernon bumps into and Diggle. Well McGonagall mentions Dedalus Diggle later on suggesting he was the cause of the shooting stars in Kent. If he was planning a celebration in Kent why was he walking down a street in Surrey earlier in the day? He could have had friends there and it would be easy to apparate home but there is still the fact that the man is described as old. I like the idea that the man is Diggle Senior. Perhaps Dedalus had sent him out to invite friends to his party. I quite like that idea.