Happy 26th Birthday Harry Potter

[pbray]

Of course in JK Rowling's world it's still 1997, and we're waiting for book seven when Harry will turn 17.

As writers we can take note of what happens when you put specific dates in your books. When JK Rowling started writing in 1990, the dates she used were contemporary. By the time the first book was published in 1997, it referred to Harry being 11, which would place the events in 1991.

Fortunately the time gap isn't a big deal, since the majority of the action takes place in the magical world, and thus there's no need to account for the differences between 1997 and 2007. But if this were a conventional series such date specificity could be a problem.

Comments

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite series is the Young Wizardy series, which was only a trilogy, and written in the 1980s. Nina's favorite band was Reo Speedwagon, and her sisters wizard's manual was on an Apple.

Then the books started to appear on the "If you Like HP" lists, and she is now up to book 8 in the series. Poof! The characters are the same ages, but they have morhped 10-20 years in the future. Reo Speedwagon is no longer mentioned, and the Apple morphed into a laptop, pretty much on its own free will.

That said, I still manage to sell this series like crazy, with only a few words of warning about the time period in the first three books.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I remember reading those books, or at least the first three.

I'm curious, do you think it would be a good thing if the author went back and updated the dated references in the early books? Or is there something to be said for leaving the books as is, rather than trying to stay abreast of a moving target?

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

I think the books would actually be ruined if she tried to update them. I think it bests to leave them as is, and just continue to move forward. I have noticed she is being a little less time bound in the current books, not mentioning specific current events or pop culture as much.