RE - technology - Snape - Harry's trousers again

[nlpnt at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 14096

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Catlady <catlady at w...> wrote:

> 
> Pippin wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jim Ferer" <jferer at y...> wrote:
> > > So whether we're talking about "scientific" or "magical"
> > > understanding, the tools are the same. Our 'eclectricity' and 
plugs
> > > (all our science and technology) are substitutes for magic that 
we
> > > Muggles are forced to use. Magic replaces technology. That
> > > wouldn't happen in Tolkien's world.
> > Look at your words. What you describe is not magic replacing
> > technology, but technology replacing magic. And that is exactly
> > what happens in Tolkien's world when the Fourth Age arrives
> > and all that belongs to the elder eras fades and is forgotten.
> 
> The wizarding folk tell Harry that electricity and Sony Gameboys 
are the
> stuff Muggles invented to make up for our lack of magic. I feel 
that the
> real situation is more complicated. At first, Muggle tinkerers 
invented
> things to accomplish results they had seen when visiting wizards --
> indoor plumbing with flush toilets, for example. But at some point,
> Muggle inventions got ahead of wizarding magic, and the situation
> changed to wizarding folk trying to invent magic things to 
accomplish
> results that they see when visiting Muggles. For example, it is 
obvious
> from its NAME that the Wizarding Wireless Network was invented to
> imitate Muggle wireless -- they wouldn't be inspired to call a wave 
on
> in the air, a song on the wind, "wire less" since they hadn't had an
> earlier version WITH wires (i.e. the telegraph). I speculate that 
the
> transition occurred during the Gaslight Era -- gas lights were 
invented
> to imitate wizarding automatic candles and railway trains were 
invented
> to imitate wizarding self-propelled carriages. But electric light, 
an
> improvement over wizarding automatic candles (except when there are
> rolling blackouts), was an original Muggle invention.
> 
I've noticed that when wizards adopt/adapt "Muggle" items, they do so 
*once* and never seem to update or improve them, or even adopt Muggle 
improvements to these items; the Hogwarts Express is still a steam 
carriage, flying brooms use no metal or plastic in their 
construction, wizards' radios all seem to be 1930s-style wood jobs, 
etc.
  It'll be interesting to see what Riddle and Hagrid have on under 
their robes in the CoS flashback scenes; Harry wearing long trousers 
(well, sort of) at age 11 in an English boarding school certainly 
points to the policy of Hogwarts' students wearing Muggle-style 
school uniform under their robes having been adopted sometime after 
1970 or so; had they started doing this when shorts and kneesocks 
were the norm, they'd have developed a Knee-Warming Charm and left it 
at that.
   
> >To the tune of: A Bicycle Built for Two
> > [Enter Pippin, Dinah, Amanda and others]
> 
> > Snape-y, Snape-y,
> > Give us your answer do.
> > We're half crazy,
> > All for the love of you.
> > We know that you would disparage
> > A wizard-Muggle marriage,
> > But come, we entreat,
> > To the Prefect's bath suite,
> > And we'll give you a good shampoo!
  
He would certainly benefit from it! What does he use for hair gel-
used motor oil?