Magic R&D / Wizard Wear / Godric's Hollow / LOTR Shades of Gray

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 33776

Cindy Sphynx wrote:
<< It makes sense that there ought to be a department at MoM developing
new 
spells and magical aids. >>

When Arthur is pointing out people from MoM to the kids at the QWC, one
of them (I forget the name) is from the Committee on Experimental
Charms; 'he's had those antlers for a while now'. Gilbert Whimple. I
checked the Lexicon.

In CoS, Arthur says: "Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some
extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms,
thank goodness" which implies that there are laws against experimenting
with magic, at least on ferrets. 

Personally, I **HATE** the idea of the government having a monopoly on
research!!! Let them hand out grants and otherwise keep their noses out!
Let every wizard do research who wants to, and the peer-reviewed
journals or the marketplace decide which research was worthwhile.

Cyndysphynx wrote:
<< I can't imagine one could make a great deal of money off of such a
potion, as the target market consists of werewolves who can't find paid
work.>>

Maybe MoM pays for Wolfsbane Potion, via the Werewolf Support Services
office of the Beings Division of the Department for Regulation and
Control of Magical Creatures (according to FANTASTIC BEASTS).

Ronald Rae Yu wrote:
<< The typical (and only?) 'wizard wear' is robes. What do they wear
underneath them? I only could think of muggle clothing. But wizards seem
to be not too accustomed to it. A good example is during the Quidditch
World Cup. A lot of people dressed awkwardly as muggles, and there's
this guy who insisted on wearing women's clothing.>>

That guy explained his preference for a dress by saying he liked 'a
healthy breeze' around his 'privates', which suggests that he wears
NOTHING under his robes. When I read that scene, I thought that JKR had
put it in to answer all the people who asked her what wizards wear under
their robes.

I prefer to believe that wizards born before around 1910 don't wear
drawers, those born after around 1975 wear Muggle-style underwear, and
the ones born in-between (the parents of our school kid characters, and
most of the teachers) wear non-Muggle style underwear: drawer that are
like knee breeches with drawstrings at waist and knees, chemises that
are like "peasant" blouses with drawstring necks, and something like
corsets instead of brassieres for the females. The drawstring underwear
could have become fashionable as a result of a hit play (wizards have
pop groups, surely they have theatre as well) with a scene of the
romantic hero or heroine getting dressed, and heesh couldn't very well
be accurately NAKED on stage, so the costume director dressed himer in
something hastily invented for the purpose. The later change of fashion
to Muggle-style underwear, correlating with the Muggle-style jeans that
the Weasley kids wear but the Weasley parents don't (except Arthur at
the QWC), is some kind of result of the upheaval caused by Vold War I
(VWI).

Ed Blanning wrote:
<< Katze suggests (I think) that Godric's Hollow is (or is in?)a muggle
community. I always assumed there was something significant in this name
clearly suggestive of Gryffindor. Any ideas?>>

I always thought that Godric's Hollow was a wizard place, until someone
explained that the new scene added to the movie, the one that JKR had
written for the book and then removed, was the scene of V attacking
Lily, which revealed that the Potters were living in a regular Muggle
house.

In re the Kimball essay, Alexander Lomski wrote:
<< Well, that proves that both CSL and JRRT worlds are idealistic ones.
There a character will never face a moral dilemma.>>

My friend Lee and her husband are two of the only three people I know
who didn't love the FOTR movie. Lee and her husband have been huge
Tolkien fans at least since 1961 (when Lee was 20 years old and in grad
school in English Lit). One of their loud complaints against the movie
is that it did not show that Boromir was a good man with a viewpoint
worthy of debate: he argued that the Ring should be used to FIGHT
Sauron, thus saving Gondor and all the Light Side. At least at first, he
would have been happy for Gandalf or Elrond to have used the Ring for
that purpose, not insisted on himself being the Ringbearer. That's one
example of a moral dilemna at the heart of LOTR.