[HPforGrownups] Re: Muggle Mingling

[Carol Bainbridge]

No: HPFGUIDX 43588


>Carol Bainbridge wrote:
>
><major snip>
>"...but it wouldn't explain why wizards and witches living among
>Muggles would be so clueless about the way Muggles live."

K. said:

>I've thought about that too, and it makes me wonder if maybe wizards
>and witches don't really *want* to know how Muggles live and operate.
>They almost seem to go out of their way to perpetuate self-imposed
>ignorance. They have set up a barrier, a thick black line of definite
>separation between themselves and Muggles. To have a clue, so to
>speak, of how Muggles are would make the black line more vague.
>Which, perhaps in their collective mind, would bring them one step
>closer to being 'known' by Muggles, which they are desperate to avoid.
>
>But that's just one of my many trains of thought.

That's a pretty good train.  I hadn't thought about that.  Still, it 
strikes me as odd that wizards could miss the basics of Muggle daily 
life.  If they live in a Muggle village, among Muggles, how could they 
avoid seeing/hearing Muggles on telephones?  I assume public phones are 
available and certainly wizards would notice that Muggles weren't shouting 
into them.  It's funny to read about Ron yelling in the phone, but it would 
have made more sense if wizards and Muggles lived in separate areas.  But I 
think what you say makes a lot of sense for the more minor details of 
Muggle life.

Megan added:

><snip> It seems to me that all the wizards don't *want* to be like Muggles.
>
>I point to proof as Arthur Weasley. He's obsessed with Muggle things, to 
>the point that it affects his professionalism and his home life 
>negatively. And he seems to be of the minority. Most in the WW see him as 
>"eccentric" or at least odd for his obsession with Muggle things.
>
>I believe that for Wizards, Muggles are just another necessary in the 
>world and are treated as things to be avoided and not dealt with unless 
>necessary.

I think you're probably right that all wizards don't want to be like 
Muggles.  I don't think any of them want to *be* like Muggles.  However, I 
was thinking more about wizards *knowing* about Muggle life rather than 
*participating* in Muggle life.  I don't need to want to live like my 
neighbors to know that they drive cars, have a telephone, etc.

You do make an interesting point about the attitudes of wizards toward 
Muggles, though.

Carol Bainbridge
(kaityf at jorsm.com)

http://www.lcag.org