Okay, that's one way to look at it. I don't really need an encycIopedic catalog of the relatives of every minor character, but characters without relatives are insubstantial.
Or maybe it's just that when I was in high school, I knew who of my classmates had brothers and sisters, and who was living with one parent, and who was living with two. I even knew things about my classmates' grandparents, and that included people with whom I was not particularly friendly. A cultural difference between me and JKR? Or a sign that the novels are from Harry's perspective and that he's not particularly perceptive?
I should also add that my favorite novel is A Suitable Boy (http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Seth.html) by Vikram Seth. It was originally 2,000 pages long, but he pared it down to a mere 1,349 pages. (!@!) He fleshed out EVERY character. So that affects how I think about this.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-11-16 02:15 am (UTC)Or maybe it's just that when I was in high school, I knew who of my classmates had brothers and sisters, and who was living with one parent, and who was living with two. I even knew things about my classmates' grandparents, and that included people with whom I was not particularly friendly. A cultural difference between me and JKR? Or a sign that the novels are from Harry's perspective and that he's not particularly perceptive?
I should also add that my favorite novel is A Suitable Boy (http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Seth.html) by Vikram Seth. It was originally 2,000 pages long, but he pared it down to a mere 1,349 pages. (!@!) He fleshed out EVERY character. So that affects how I think about this.