broomsticks vs. flying carpets (was: It's all Lucius Malfoy's fault....)

[Tom Wall]

No: HPFGUIDX 55339

Wow – so much going on with the Fudge discussions, but
I just wanted to chime in here on this transportation
topic.

Replies to Steve and Patricia are in this post.


Steve wrote:
<snip>
In fact, unlike usable carpets, magic brooms are absolutely
worthless for sweeping.

Brooms - make by wizards for wizards with no appliable
muggle use. In fact, if a muggle found a flying broom, 
the only thing they could think of using it for would be 
kindling for the fireplace.
END QUOTE.

I reply:
Well, on the first point, we don't know that. I mean,
it's never stated in canon that a flying broom
*couldn't* be used for sweeping. <Chuckles at idea of 
Ron and Harry finding out that this is actually happening.> 

I don't think it's ever mentioned that they're even *not* used
for sweeping. I do think it's reasonable to assume that a
magical family wouldn't use an expensive broomstick for this 
purpose, but we don't know that they *couldn't* be used that way, 
and we don't know what muggles would do either.

As for the carpet situation, let's see what canon says:
---
"Ali Bashir's on the warpath. He wants a word with you
about your embargo on flying carpets."

<snip Arthur's sigh>

"I sent him an owl about that just last week. If I've
told him once I've told him a hundred times: Carpets
are defined as a Muggle Artifact by the Registry of
Proscribed Charmable Objects, but will he listen?"

"I doubt it," said Mr. Crouch, accepting a cup from
Percy. "He's desperate to export here."

"Well, they'll never replace brooms in Britain, will
they?" said Bagman.

"Ali thinks there's a niche in the market for a family
vehicle," said Mr. Crouch. "I remember my grandfather
had an Axminster that could seat twelve – but that was
before carpets were banned, of course."
(GoF, US paperback, Ch.7, 91)
---

So, what we have is a situation where *Britain's* MoM has
defined the flying carpet as a "Charmable Object," and that the 
carpet is not currently "proscribed" for that usage. I'd be willing 
to wager that somewhere else in the world, another country might 
have defined the broom the same way.

We don't have any evidence to suggest that flying
carpets are all created by charming a regular muggle
carpet – for instance, I wouldn't be surprised to
discover that there were indeed companies/people that
made carpets *expressly* for flying, along the same
lines as the Nimbus/Firebolt. And what's to say that a
flying carpet could even be used as a regular carpet?
For all we know, after all, stepping on the thing
could make it lift into the air, which would be most
inconvenient for in-home usage, if you see what I
mean. ;-)


Patricia wrote:
I've thought about this too. It's rather inconsistent, 
but I think the inconsistency is on the part of the MoM 
and the ww, not JKR. The ww seems a bit obsessed when it 
comes to Quidditch. I doubt anything could convince them 
to give up their flying brooms, which would essentially 
outlaw Quidditch, even if it would be in line with their 
general legal reasoning. Basically, I think the ww makes an 
exception for brooms because they want to keep playing 
Quidditch, not because the exception makes any sense.

I reply:
"Allowing the carpet" is not necessarily the same
thing as "prohibiting brooms." Don't we have canon to suggest that
Quidditch is played worldwide? If that's the case, then I'd bet
that there are places in the world that do permit both carpets and
brooms as legal methods of transportation.

Anyways, I personally interpret this stuff as JKR's
own little jab at economics – sort of like the
sticky way nations impose tariffs and restrictions on
foreign goods – not necessarily to comment on the
nature, quality, or utility of the goods themselves, 
but to encourage domestic prosperity for domestic companies.

Anyone think that there's some kind of lobby from the 
Nimbus/Firebolt people against the flying carpets? Now that'd be a 
laugh. ;-)


Steve wrote:
<snip> I base this on the fact that portkey are very
convinient, but they are not used that often. Logically, there must 
be some reason why they are not used that often. My logic leads me 
to think that it is a long and difficult process; to long and 
difficult to make it practical. I also suspect, if there were a 
program them as you need them portkey story,
the cost would be too expensive for everyday use.

I reply:
I don't think that we have any evidence to suggest
that creating a Portkey is a tedious process – after
all, we know that Crouch!Moody was able to turn the
Triwizard Cup into a Portkey during the trip from the
Great Hall to the Quidditch Pitch prior to the Third
Task. So, I don't think it could be *that* difficult.


-Tom