.... and muggle inventions

[Brooks R]

No: HPFGUIDX 1527


> --- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Sister Mary Lunatic" 
<klaatu at p...> 
> wrote:
> > What I find interesting are the contradictions that exist in
JKR's 
> wizard> world/muggle world interfaces.  For instance, why should 
> Hogwarts, built > over a thousand years ago, have a thoroughly 
> modern, even luxurious > (prefects' bathroom) plumbing system, and 
> yet have no electricity?  

Plumbing is a luxury that could be got from the Muggles, and from a 
sanitation/aesthetic quality of life standpoint is a desirable
upgrade 
-  - plus, the Roman system is a good thought.  Modern plumbing is 
MUCH nicer, and more comfortable than open hole privies or outhouses.
And the sanitation benefits, given a modern form of sewage, are very 
good at reducing diseases.  If sewage does discharge into the lake,
as 
we have discusses, I'd bet there is a magical transfiguration system 
of sewage into non-offensive fertilizer that the mer-people use on 
their aquaculture farms!

  Electricity is less relevant, less of an necessary upgrade, and is 
an actual aesthetic loss.  If your candles are magically bright,
never 
burn out, are never a fire hazard, and you have house elves to do all 
the cooking  - and they probably prefer flame-based cooking as well - 
electricity is not a worthwile improvement - you don't even need 
computers, as you can work out advanced math with an enchanted
abacus; 
you don't need electric-eye sensors when magic eyes will do, and you 
don't need anything particularly motor-driven when you can magically 
animate most things.

In short, there are valid wizardly reasons to go to modern plumbing, 
but not to bother with "ecleckticity".

-Brooks