[HPforGrownups] A pet theory concerning magic in the real world.

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 17984

Egg On My Head said:

<<This is a pet theory I have been harbouring for some time, and have tried
out on a few people and developed.  Basically it is an
 explanation for those who insist on believing that J.K. Rowling must  have
got her ideas from somewhere.  Basically, my problem is that we  are never
told how the muggle killings that characterised voldemorts reign were
explained - memory charms cannot surely destroy memories  of loved ones.  My
idea is that as the muggle prime minister is in contact with the minister
for magic, the magic minister (mm) aranged  with the prime inister (pm) so
that all the troubles in northern  Ieland of the seventies and eighties were
invented - therefore any  killing was as a result of magic - and the
troubles were invented as an excuse - to stop any muggles getting
suspicious.  The few  terrorist activitis were commited by death eaters -
unwilling to  admit defeat - the recent rise of voldemort would explain the
recent  upsurge in terrorist activity.>>

Hi Egg on My Head (I hope that isn't your regular name!),

Welcome to the group.

I think that JKR may have drawn on her general knowledge of terrorism and
intolerance in the world in her portrayal of the Death Eaters, but I doubt
that she would have consciously used Northern Ireland as a specific example
in the way you imply.  The troubles in Northern Ireland have brought very
real death and destruction to that part of the UK and for anyone living
there (or in the UK as a whole) it remains a sensitive subject.

The level of terrorist activity in mainland Britain has been quite low
compared to that in Northern Ireland.  If your theory were true, which is
unlikely, IMO, there would have to have been a disproportionate number
'magical' deaths in Northern Ireland and I don't see anything in the books
that suggests that Voldemort's reign of terror was focused there.

[Admin note:  We can't get too deeply into the political element of this, as
there is still a ban on politically-sensitive discussions on this list].

On the general point you led with, I'm sure that most writers are influenced
or inspired by the world around them.  An interesting aspect of fantasy
writing is how much of the real world creeps in and how much is left to pure
invention (if there is such a thing).  I'd say that fantasy writing
generally has its anchors in the real world and I like the way JKR uses this
connection between fantasy and reality as an opportunity to explain the
magical causes of mysterious or even actual events in the real Muggle*
world.

Neil

* Ahem - not associated with Real Muggles [TM]
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