evil, print run and population size

[hert0661]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C6922
From: hert0661
Subject: evil, print run and population size
Reply To: [Yahoo! #6882] Re: HWGA -- Number of students
Date: 8/15/00 4:52 pm  (ET)

"I think what JKR is doing is important. Kids need to know that the bad
guys are *bad*."

In a recent interview (I believe the one on Radio 1) JKR stated that
children could only understand how good the good side is if they see
how evil the evil side are.

"I will skip my std NY Times rant (I know you're all breathing a big
sigh of relief on that one!)."

Maybe you could put a link to the relevant message in the archives. It
might get boring if you do not remind us about this frequently!

"I was in Wallgreen's (drug store chain) this weekend, and checked to see
which printing they were up to by now - they had a 4th printing there -
has anyone seen a 5th yet?"

In the UK I have seen anything from 2nd to 10th printings when out
shopping today.

"Without having gone farther into the numbers, a student body as
small as 300 argues a society so small with a birthrate so low it isn't
sustainable. There wouldn't be enough wizarding people to support Diagon
Alley and the Leaky Cauldron and Quality Quidditch Supplies and Bertie
Bott's and so on if there were only 300 some odd new members a year."

It is mentioned a few times that the wizard population would have died out
if some had not married muggles. A more important thing to keeping the
population going would be that wizards move around lots. Thus spreading
the gene pool further. They definitely have the means to travel easily
but we do not seem to have met anyone from outside the UK, except at
the World Cup and the visiting schools.

A population of 4,000 in the UK (10 pupils per house per year on average,
with 100 year life expectancy) would equate to a world population of
4,000,000. I am not sure how viable this is but I think it would be
enough. We are given the impression that Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are
the only wizard shops in the country. This seems fine when you consider
how many shops there are for the normal population of the UK.

Simon