The Irony of Parseltongue

[readerravenclaw]

Despite the fact that they have no outer ears, and contrary to the old myth that snakes are completely deaf, snakes can actually hear. For those of you who will recognize these terms, a snake's hearing range is about 50 - 1,000 hz. (1,000 hz is about mid-range for humans.) That is, a snake generally hears only the lower-to-mid frequencies, and

Comments

[conuly]

Snakes also can't, apparently, blink. That whole scene irritiates me because of that detail.

[readerravenclaw]

That I would classify as a real mistake, because the blink is so insignificant that there's no reason for the anatomy to be wrong.

Parseltongue is a bit of a different issue, because hissing is linked so strongly to snakes that the effect and the "sound" of it is right, even if physiologically speaking, it doesn't make sense. But then, snakes understanding such complex language, equivalent to a human language, doesn't make physiological sense either, given their intelligence, so I'm willing to group the whole hearing high-frequency sounds with the rest of the magical modifications.

[cavalaxis]

I would argue (as a writer and creator of fantasy creatures) that this would be your first clue that you're not dealing with an ordinary snake. :)

[pitchblackrose]

Ah, but the snake is completely normal - it's the boy that isn't ;)

[atalantapendrag]

The explanation I've had to use to keep from running through the Valium too quickly is that Harry's mind saw it as a blink, and human ears hear Parseltongue as hissing, but to the snakes' senses, it's entirely different.

[ap_aelfwine]

The explanation I've had to use to keep from running through the Valium too quickly is that Harry's mind saw it as a blink, and human ears hear Parseltongue as hissing, but to the snakes' senses, it's entirely different.That makes a lot of sense, really. Parseltongue meant that Harry experienced the snake's communication as humanlike speech, facial expressions, and body language whilst the snake (presumably) experienced Harry's speech, facial expressions, and body language as their serpentine equivalents

[cavalaxis]

Point taken.