Voldemort as History

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 2912

Steve Vander Ark wrote:

> Of course, it's strange to think that kids in the Wizarding World
> don't know the details about this very important aspect of their own
> history.

A couple of relevant (I hope) factors, rather jumbled up: Remember this
is a relatively small community. We've, through Harry's experience,
bumped up against the ignorance factor before--things that "everyone
knows," that no one thinks to explain, that everyone just assumes
everyone else knows. Since information dissemination in a smaller
community is often just as much word-of-mouth as formal instruction,
perhaps the events of recent years and their aftermath were so immediate
that people are only now beginning to realize that *some* people will be
around who didn't live it and *don't* remember it.

When you add the fear factor, I'm not surprised it's not taught yet.
Voldemort's supposed to be *gone,* that's why Harry's famous, the threat
is over. The adults don't want reminding, and the children who were
babies then are only now getting to be old enough to start asking.

I'm in much the same place with the Vietnam War, that Harry and his
age-group are with the Voldemort Years--I remember "make love not war"
patches on little 1st-grade classmates' coats, hearing that the war was
over, etc. But I was little, didn't know what was going on, and never did
properly understand it until college, when it had finally made it to the
history books. But in all the interim it was spoken of and referred to by
all of society like everyone knew all about it. Maybe only now the
"assumed knowledge" gap is starting to be perceptible.

Boy, I hope some of that made sense. I still know what I was trying to
say, but I'm not sure I said it.

--Amanda