Fiction and entertainment in the wizarding world

[trucoolsg]

No: HPFGUIDX 31132

>>>I don't agree with the bulk of this message, because one of the 
>>>things I like about the books is that all the children aren't 
>>>obsessed with their Gameboys and TVs. etc.

I agree, I like this about the books too. Also, to clear up an 
earlier point suggesting that life at British/European boarding 
school must be boring if it is without TV's and videos...this is not 
the case now, most boarding schools have a television in their common 
rooms, as far as I'm aware!! I would be surprised if many didn't.
As far as evening entertainment at Hogwarts is concerned I think we 
are far underestimating the  capacity of everyone owning a wand that 
can do magic creates for having fun. From what I understand, wizard 
children only get their first wands when they're going to wizard 
school, so there must be anovelty in this that doesn't wear off 
straight away, owning something you've not been allowed to get near 
before (" 'How many times Kevin? You don't - touch - daddy's - wand' 
" - GoF pg 75) What about Exploding Snap? Fred and George's canary 
creams? And I bet there's a damn good wizarding version of Snakes and 
Ladders out there somewhere, if only we knew about it! Actually I 
find this whole "How else do the Hogwarts students spend their time" 
debate rather interesting. Anyone got any ideas about how they might 
spend time other than in ways JKR's told us?


>>>An omission which does concern me though, is lack of fictional 
>>>reading material. AFAIR, the only reference to fiction in the 
>>>Wizarding World is the "Mad Muggle" comic books which Ron has in 
his 
>>>bedroom. 

>>>Does it exist? It must do, surely. I would have thought that 
>>>Hermione in particular would be interested in reading novels 
>>>>(particularly historical ones) by members of the Wizarding World.


I am certain it exists, we just haven't heard it mentioned at all 
yet. Certainly "Witch Weekly" if it is anything like the muggle 
alternatives aimed at muggle housewives of a certain age will contain 
stories and entertaining literature - Ron says his mother "buys it 
for the recipes" in GoF. It sounds rather scarily like "My Weekly" or 
"Woman's Weekly" to me! 

 We know Hermione reads and re-reads her textbooks, which are non-
fiction. It is true that fictional literature is not mentioned as 
part of her reading, but I would be surprsised if it didn't exist. 
Just because "Fantastic Beasts and Where to find the" and "Hogwarts: 
A History" are all we hear about doesn't mean other fictional books 
aren't in the well-stocked school library or in the bookshop on 
Diagon Alley (name escapes me just now). Think how much time Hermione 
in particular spends there, researching and working. Occasionally I'm 
sure she picks up something a little less high-maintenance to keep 
herself occupied. The truth is, it would interfere with the plot if 
Hermione read other things frequently, as she would be far less 
likely to stumble across a useful piece of information about the 
current emergency whilst immersed in a fictional novel by Melissandra 
Drinkwater (or whoever). It also, at first at least, makes her 
character a little more clear-cut. There can be no doubt of her being 
the bookworm of the trio when she picks up tomes on Alchemy as "light 
reading", can there?! In the context of the novel she can't be seen 
to be reading light-hearted things too often. 

Just one last thing...fictional writing certainly plays a good role 
in HP - Harry and Ron's divination homework and the works of Gilderoy 
Lockhart seem two particularly sparkling examples!!