Why didn’t Harry Potter use magic to fix his eyesight?
I got into bed the other night with a pot of tea, a book, and my glasses, ready to settle in for a couple of hours of indulgence. The book was printed with a smaller font than the average bear, so rather than squinting, up I got and toddled off to the study to rummage for a stronger pair of glasses.
Once I was all snug again I looked at the page without my glasses and saw nothing but a blur.
I’m so used to looking through glasses these days that it was a bit of a shock. I’m sure it was only a few years ago when my eyesight was perfect.
I reflected, with a sort of enigmatic melancholy, on the passage of time and how I would if I could, and without a moment’s hesitation use magic to fix my eyesight.
And so I wondered … why didn’t Harry Potter use magic to fix his eyesight?
Not having immediate access to JK Rowling, I put the thought away, poured myself a cup of tea (after I put my glasses on) and got on with my book.
Turns out the question is answerable via the ‘magic’ of the interwebz, a reddit thread, and ‘beatskin’ who posted this six years ago …
When a fan asked J.K. Rowling why Harry Potter wears glasses, Rowling answered: “Because I had glasses all though my childhood and I was sick and tired of the person in the books who wore the glasses was always the brainy one and it really irritated me and I wanted to read about a hero wearing glasses. It also has a symbolic function, Harry is the eyes onto the books in the sense that is always Harry’s point of view, so there was also that, you know, facet of him wearing glasses”.
There you have it.
My glasses all have wire or black plastic rims. I would rock a pair like these!
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