Switched shifts

[conuly]

so now I'm spending some part of my evening with another coworker instead of by myself, which means I can't just summarily turn off the TV. Other people are weird when they want the TV on even if they aren't watching it, but since they think I'm weird for preferring blissful silence I guess sometimes I have to compromise.

Which means that the other day my entertainment choices were either a long and frankly tedious piece on the JFK conspiracy theories, or HP1. Welp, JFK won't get any deader, and practically speaking, JKR won't get any richer. The choice wasn't really very agonizing, is what I'm saying. I feel like maybe it ought to have been, but no. (That place does not have enough channels. If I'm going to be stuck watching TV for even part of the night I really need to figure out how to get my phone on the screen.)

All this led me to realize something that I somehow don't think I ever thought about before, which is that the plot of book 2 doesn't make any fucking sense, like, right from the start. How exactly did Lucius set it up so that he'd happen to bump into the Weasley family? What if they hadn't gone shopping that day? There clearly was a lot of planning that went into this, so what was his backup? Really, none of those plots hold together if you look at them too hard. And that's not too unusual for fiction, but I'm not particularly inclined to be charitable about it.

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Comments

[calimac]

I call this the Arlington Road trick, after a conspiracy thriller movie of that title, which relied on it a lot. The Arlington Road trick is when the conspirator knows beforehand exactly how the patsy will behave, and how respond to a conspirator-generated stimulus, especially when the stimulus is carefully designed to be as inconspicuous as possible so that the patsy will not realize it's been planted. But of course they won't overlook it.

[conuly]

I see you're not the only one to notice how easy it all is for the conspirators.

[the_siobhan]

My ex-husband used to walk in the door and turn the TV on immediately. Drove me nuts.

Then he would pick up his guitar and start noodling along to the music on the TV. That would make him think of some other piece of music and he would find the CD or album and put it on the stereo and start noodling along with that.

That would lead to him thinking of a third piece of music and he would start playing that from memory. I would walk in the door and the TV, the stereo, and the husband would all be blasting at full volume - and all playing something different. The most shocking part of this story is that I didn't immediately turn around and walk right back out.

[conuly]

What's really shocking is that you are not now a widow.

[the_siobhan]

It was close a couple of times, not going to lie.

[watervole]

I note the apropriate use of the 'ex' in that title.

Silence is so undervalued, but noise pollution is really bad for people.

I'm typing in blissful silence.

[pedanther]

It's been A While since I read Book 2, and obviously I haven't got a copy handy to check, but my recollection is that it's established at some point that giving the diary to the Weasleys wasn't actually the Plan, it was something Lucius decided to do in the moment because he was feeling particularly annoyed by the Weasleys that day, and Tom Riddle improvised from there. I don't recall what the original plan was supposed to be.

[conuly]

If that wasn't the plan then we never found out what the original plan was. But there was definitely an evil plan afoot, because Dobby just Dobby'ed all over it.

[cimorene]

Oh, yeah, that's right, I've definitely read that since in fanfiction (which I read much more recently than canon).

It's pretty funny though if they had so little plan at that point that they just dropped it.

[watervole]

Oh Lord, I Loathe background TV! It's so intrusive - and very rude to my thinking.

[conuly]

I don't mind having it on when the residents are awake. It's their home. But after bedtime, if I'm upstairs, off it goes.

[conuly]

(They each have a TV in their own room anyway.)

[cimorene]

So is this a TV that's in a common area when they're awake and that's why it has to be on but you're in control of the channel?

[conuly]

I mean, anybody who wants to hold the remote is in control of the channel. Coworker didn't mind me changing channels, he just didn't want it off. It *is* a late (but not overnight) shift, it's reasonable enough to want some aid in not drifting off.

[cactuswatcher]

I translated book II (The Chamber Pot of Secrets as we all know it), so I can assure you that in the original there was no back-up plan. Either Lucius spent days in Diagon Alley waiting for the Weasleys to show up or he cast the well-known Sucker Is A-Comin' spell every morning early to find out when he should get his bigoted butt to London. Solid logic is not one of the strengths of JKR's writing, even with all the magic she can think up at her finger tips, she still left many plot holes. And no, unless she comes out with new "corrected" editions of the HP books in print, nothing she says now on-line matters about what happened in the books.

[thewayne]

I've never understood people who require the constant noise. They can't be alone with their thoughts? They can't read books? Our TV can literally go a month or two without being turned on.

Our computers/laptops, however, that's a different story. But again, we don't watch TV/streaming programming on them as a rule.

[brokenallbroken]

The tinnitus in me recognizes the silence in you.

[thewayne]

Man, I would so love to be rid of my tinnitus!  I could live so much more easily with my hearing loss without the constant buzz.

[brokenallbroken]

Mine is actively painful in total silence, so I do need some level of constant noise.

[jessie_c]

There's a really simple explanation: She Who Must Not Be Named can't write worth a hill of beans.

[conuly]

Yes, but this is when she had editors.

[hamimi_fk]

I'm ashamed to say I need background noise. I spend most of my day listening to either music or YouTube podcasts (sometimes Spotify podcasts, too!). I can totally be in a silent environment, but eventually I'll end up singing - either songs I know, or made up ones. Or I start talking to myself, my cat, or my nephew if he's in the next room. I can't help it. I've been suspecting ADHD but I haven't gotten checked out yet. =/

As for Lucius, it isn't that odd that he happened to show up where they were at on a day they were there. As I recall, he was pissy at the Weasley dad over something and likely devised his plan in advance. He wouldn't need to be hanging out in Diagon Alley waiting for the Weasley's to show up, he likely would've used a house elf to keep an eye on them and let him know when the family showed up in the Alley. He likely knew they would have to show up for back-to-school shopping, especially with it being Ginny's first year starting at Hogwarts. The rest would've been coordinated for him to just wait for an opportune moment to slip the diary into the items of one of the kids. In my opinion. I don't think he specifically targeted Ginny for this either, just happenstance either chose a Weasley child at random or figured a young girl would be more likely to use a diary. And no, I don't think he had a backup plan, but if he had failed, he likely would've made his son slip the diary to one of them instead, or at least that's my guess.

[conuly]

> but if he had failed, he likely would've made his son slip the diary to one of them instead, or at least that's my guess.

Man, that'd make a grimly hilarious fanfic plot, culminating, as they always do (at least for me) in some hijinks and Drarry.

[maju]

I'm one of those weirdos who prefers silence, but now I'm living in a household with people who prefer the background of TV (or shows streaming on a computer), plus one child who walks around almost all the time listening to a audiobook without headphones. If I'm down in my basement bedroom the noise isn't too obtrusive, but upstairs it's almost never completely quiet.

[frandroid]

> practically speaking, JKR won't get any richer

She's still funding lots of anti-trans groups and lawsuits, and she should be cast into the sun. Even consuming HP when not paying for it is legitimizing her trans hatred, and should not be done. Why the fuck is Hugh Laurie involved in this garbage? Goddamn it.

[conuly]

she should be cast into the sun.

What'd the sun ever do to you!? Anyway, it's probably easier and cheaper to find a volcano somewhere.

[frandroid]

I worship the sun's /all-consuming/ heat. :)

[conuly]

I've heard of Sol Invictus, but this is absurd! Volcanoes are classic for a reason.