INDEX: Owls and Owl Post

[blythely]

[Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas. This post will remain open for discussion about these ideas. Further contributions can be made at the Topic Post.]

Comments

New Idea: Registered, Certified Owls

[gwendolyngrace]

First, I have to give another attribution: The idea of Hedwig as an owl Animagus is actually a pet theory (no pun intended) of Simon, formerly of HPFGU and still of FictionAlley fame. He's been putting that one forward since at least late 2000, possibly earlier than that.

I also want to contribute the idea of "Registered Owl" - which works exactly the same as registered mail does. This means that there's a record kept by the Owl Office of sending the post. There should also be "Certified Owl" - an Owl that will then bring a confirmation of some kind back to the sender, so they know the message was delivered. Though there might be a magical - and more instantaneous - method for this, there are any number of situations where being able to prove that a letter was sent or delivered would be useful.

Gwen

Re: New Idea: Registered, Certified Owls

[tipgardner]

Registered and Certified owls sound interesting and dead useful. I would imagine that could be done with a charm . The sender could utilise an object that indicates the task has been completed to the sender and stays with the sender, or a "transferrance," as thermidor who developed the idea calls it, could take place. Transferrance is essentially apparition by/of inanimate objects. Which in this case would be some form or object that transfers to the sender on receipt by the sendee).

Re: New Idea: Registered, Certified Owls

[tipgardner]

Oops. Transferrence is the idea of slytherinboyz, not thermidor. Sorry!

[painless_j]

Sorry, guys, I seem to have gone mad. I'm absolutely not sure that post geese are from The Mirror of Maybe. Why would they be there if Harry never travels to America, right? Of course it's Transfigurations by Resonant, as you noted. Sorry! Please, correct it (and I promise to never suggest anything at 6 in the morning!)

[blythely]

It was probably worth it just to see that icon, LMAO.

I was hoping both authors had stumbled on the same solution independently... one of the thigs that prompted me to set this comm up was seeing what kinds of ideas had real sticking power in the collective HP unconscious - the kinds of things that you really have to ask someone lse, um, is that canon or fanon.

I shall change. Cheers for picking it up.

The Constellation Bootes, the Herdsman

[leni_jess]

You say that in "A Suitable Preparation," TromboneBorges names Draco's owl Bootes, and go on it has always seemed to me that the name is part and parcel of the story's delicate endeavour to humanise Draco from canonical pasteboard bully, childish ideologue, and stereotypically arrogant aristocrat to a boy who must grow up to be more and must do it NOW. In this context, it seems appropriate that Draco Malfoy's owl does not have a classical or exotic name, but is merely Bootes. I don't know if the name has a specific literary pre-cursor
Sorry to have to tell you, Boötes (as correctly written, not possible on all sites, of course) is a classical name, and further is the name of a constellation. Typical Black family naming practice, in fact. You may like to rethink your deductions from Draco's use of the name

[leni_jess]

Sorry, in saying "you" I should have addressed this to conversant rather than to blythely, who simply compiled the lot!

[conversant]

Thanks for the constellation information. I can't tell from your post whether you speak for TromboneBorges or not. (Your citation of the name as in keeping with "typical Black family naming practice" suggests knowledge of the author's logic, but the fact that you haven't read his story surprised me at the end of your post.) It doesn't matter, of course, as this potential referent for "Bootes" is floating out there in the allusive universe whether the author had it in mind or not.

Now that I've looked it up, I'm amused to find that it doesn't wholly alter my reading of the name: it is not the most refined constellation up there.

Bootes was identified with a farmer who plows the land during spring. The Romans called Bootes the Herdsman of the Septemtriones, that is, of the seven oxen represented by the seven stars of the Big Dipper, which was seen as the cart or the plow.

For Draco's owl to be named after a herdsman strikes me as a bit common (relative to the usual Black family degree of classical hauteur).

[leni_jess]

I'm certainly not speaking for TromboneBorges; only as a reader of JKR's books who has noticed (as many people have) that all members of the Black family are named after stars or constellations (and that includes Draco, an interesting sidelight on his parents' relationship). The name is so unusual I take leave to doubt that TromboneBorges did not have the intention of Draco's naming his owl in his mother's family tradition. I am using knowledge of TB's source, not of his own story, in drawing this conclusion.

The Black family names were not necessarily grand - while Andromeda had her own legend, Bellatrix is simply a female warrior, and Draco a serpent, Sirius the Dog Star - not very impressive either. Don't forget, too, that the place of agriculture in classical society had far more import than it does for us. A herdsman, driving the seven threshing oxen across the sky, is in no way insignificant.