I have problems with most Harry Potter questions: what's the point?

Question

Usual disclaimer: this is not a rant, even if it may appear to be. I'm genuinely trying to understand if "there is a point", i.e. I may disagree with the community, but I may also be surprised and some member of the community might show me a different way to approach this.

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Every setting has its own rules, every saga has its own pros and cons. While Harry Potter saga is really great for many reasons, internal consistency definitely isn't one of them: the author herself told time and again she genuinely doesn't care and "can't do math" and that this is fine for her and for most of her fans.

On a setting such as B5 or The Wheel of Time, or even Star Trek to some extent, while there are of specific instances of contradictions or mistakes made for the sake of entertainment, they still tend to be internally consistent and "make sense".

HP settings feels very "magical", in a traditional sense, and has a very strong and beautiful atmosphere, and this is a good thing. However, to accomplish this, it tramples any kind of stability to the setting, having plenty of contradictions, plot-holes, events, behaviour, plans that plainly just don't make any sense.

What I'm wondering is what's the point of trying to force some canon into that? If the answer is "the author just didn't care, the story is great nonetheless", what's the point of forging an answer anyway?

While there are some genuine and useful questions, most of them fit into this category instead, and I always feel quite awkward reading those.

If a single episode of Star Trek messes up an established fact, forcing some explanation might make a sense, since the setting as a whole is fine anyway... but here there's no consistency, there's no stability, so I kind of miss the point.

Hope this is clear and answerable.

Answer 1

Well, from one point of view, there is no "point" to this entire site, since it is entirely about works of fiction.

So the subject covers a gamut of books, movies, TV series, comic books, etc that have wildly varying levels of realism, attention to detail, and internal consistency. Who is to say that there is some minimum level of quality that must be demonstrated by the work in question before there is a "point" to it? How would adherence to such a quality standard be measured?

A site like this is what its users make of it. Sure there are questions that seem useless to me (futurama) but there is also a great deal of interesting and useful(?) stuff.

Answer 2

"What's the point" is an amazingly good question. For me it breaks down to three main reasons:

• You'll gain enjoyment in answering the question. A well-written answer is its own reward, regardless of the upvotes gained.

• You'll gain a greater enjoyment in the HP canon by exploring it in more detail (note that most of the questions asked do actually have reasonable answers).

• It will allow you to take part in a community based around answering questions about HP.

Although it's not the done thing, I'll turn your question around and ask "Why are you looking at the Harry Potter questions if you don't think they're worthwhile?"

Answer 3

I think that there's a huge difference between Futurama-style inconsistency, where canonicity and continuity is explicitly thrown out the window, and Harry Potter-style inconsistency, where Rowling admitted, as you say, that she didn't cover every corner-case and inconsistency.

There's a wide spectrum of options between "No continuity, no consistency" and "Everything must fit, every plot hole must be retconned or fixed to accommodate a coherent canon". Harry Potter might not be on the far edge of that spectrum, but it certainly leans towards coherency, much more than many long-running serialized franchises (Doctor Who, anyone?).

As such, there's a lot of merit in delving into that world, which is mostly coherent - not entirely, but enough for most people. Compared to franchises like Futurama, the plot holes in Harry Potter are much fewer and far between, and can be clearly marked (as @Slytherincess commented) as "this is a known plot hole, try not to step in it" while focusing on the other 90%.

Answer 4

While some questions really may never be completely answerable, others are not and the understanding of another person may illuminate the questioner. Today I asked a Harry Potter question on a perceived problem I've always been bothered about and got a different perspective on the issue that changes my view. It seems like a worthy reason to ask and answer questions on the subject.

Answer 5

The point is to give you the opportunity to educate people who may be trying to force consistency about the fact that the author genuinely doesn't care, or that it is an honest plot hole, which many may not know. A good example is Is Herpo the Foul still alive?, where the (not yet accepted) answer is basically "this information does not exist" - and that is a legitimately useful answer.

If you don't allow people to ask this type of question, by sitting back and doing nothing you also do nothing to stop the behavior that you dislike, and it moves elsewhere and spreads and eventually makes it back here ten-fold. If the askers were already aware that the HP series had these qualities, they wouldn't be asking - they came here to learn something and this is a good opportunity to give them information they do not have, which is one of the main points of these sites in general.

Answer 6

With respect to Harry Potter in particular:

There is a huge amount of official canon information that is outside of the books: i.e., Pottermore.

While it's not the only work with an official website, it seems like i's one of the few where the author explicitly expands on information in the books and movies, as opposed to merely supporting a list of FAQs. Rowling has provided a lot of information as to her thoughts on things that happened between the lines, or before or after the books. And, as noted elsewhere, she's been willing to admit when something was a simple mistake.

I should note, however, that providing an explanation for mistakes in fictional works is far from unique to her. In the 1960s, Marvel Comics began awarding "No-Prizes" to fans who wrote in, pointed out a seeming goof, and provided a reasonable explanation for it. (At first a No-Prize was a literal description - all you got was a reference in the letter column. However, as people found that confusing, they started to send out empty envelopes (giving people some physical proof of their feat beyond the letters page).)

People enjoy sharing in the act of creation of their favorite universes. Some do it by writing fan fiction; others by finding vaguely reasonable ways to legitimize errors, instead of just saying, "Don't step in the plot hole."

Answer 7

If it were impossible to find any form of continuity, I would agree it was pointless. But the numerous questions with canonical answers indicate there is continuity. And, if it exists, it has the same point as the continuity of any other series discussed on the site.

You say that some answers are just "It's magic" or "JKR doesn't know how to do math." But what questions have that as their answer? With Pottermore and the various interviews, Harry Potter has a lot more canon than quite a few works. Questions people have that were not canon are answered by Word of God, making them canon.

I cannot see how questions that can be answered within the scope of this site could ever be considered pointless. Your premise that they can't be answered is, I believe, false.

Answer 8

The point here is that this a place for people to goof off from work (unless they're SF writers).

This site is like a big book store and all the people there: I don't like every book that gets published and don't understand other people's fascination with those, but I respect the fact that the other people read at all (instead of shoplifting or joining the Djihad or whatever people do for relaxation).

The whole point to the HP questions (and everything else that relates to any books) is that it is civilized, yet fun. Or in other words: the point is that no one dies when such a question gets asked.

Reading the newspaper each day has made me extremely tolerant of anything that does not involve dead children.