An Instaflint?

[snorkackcatcher]

When looking up a scene in DH just now, I was struck by one of those oddities in which JKR seems to say something and then immediately contradict herself -- an Instaflint, if you will. It's ch24, The Wandmaker, when Harry has just finished asking Ollivander about the Elder Wand; he then asks him about the Hallows:

'Mr Ollivander, one last thing, and then we'll let you get some rest. What do you know about the Deathly Hallows?'

'The -- the what?' asked the wandmaker, looking utterly bewildered.

'The Deathly Hallows.'

'I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Is this still something to do with wands?'

Harry looked into the sunken face and believed that Ollivander was not acting. He did not know about the Hallows.

Fine. Except that Ollivander has just told Harry he's studied the history of the Elder Wand carefully, and even referred to it as the Deathstick. This particular Tale of Beedle the Bard seems to be a well-known one. How can it be that Ollivander has never in his long life heard of it or made the connection?

As I say, an Instaflint. I can see why it might be written that way -- probably to avoid giving the reader a red herring, by immediately putting a damper on further speculation about Ollivander's role -- but the only get-out clause I can see here is to say that Harry was wrong and Ollivander was acting because *handwave* he was ashamed and scared to admit it. Although even then Harry should have been more suspicious, given how obsessed he'd been with the Hallows. Can anyone think of a better one?

Comments

[gloryforever.livejournal.com]

Throughout the books there are a few times in which Harry's perception is off ... maybe he just it wrong this time too? That's the way I read it, anyway. And I agree, Olivander wouldn't necessarily want to spill all the beans about the Hallows.

[snorkackcatcher]

Yeah, I think that's about the best we can say. After all, Harry has other things on his mind at the time. :)

[quietliban.livejournal.com]

I've always considered these things to be the result of a lack of editing.

I've seen it in other late series books of other authors where the demand to get it out is so great that they skip on the editing process, and really, HP and JKR is a prime example. (The other book I'm thinking of is the most recent Obernewtyn chronicle, where there is just a clear lack of editing, (big things, not little things like this...) and that was because readers had been waiting about 10 years for it...)

[snorkackcatcher]

Very true -- I think that happened with both HBP and DH. It's just odd when no-one in the editing team notices an immediate contradiction (although to be fair, since it only just struck me I'm probably not in a great position to complain).