[HPforGrownups] Re: Is there anything in the HP world that bothers you?

[Patricia Bullington-McGuire]

No: HPFGUIDX 56602

On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Serena Moonsilver wrote:

> I think that the wizard world is constantly surrounded in magic and 
> it becomes harder and harder for them to understand all the 
> contraptions and stuff that muggles use(need).  The best comparison I 
> can make is when Europeans began exploring the world and came accross 
> what they called "primitive" cultures.  These cultures weren't really 
> primative, but different.   It was just a different way of life and 
> the explores couldn't wrap they're minds around that anyone would 
> want to live that way.
> 
> I also think that as one spends more time in the wizarding world, the 
> more they forget about what life was like in the muggle world.

Even for muggle-born wizards, I think it goes beyond just forgetting what
it's like in the muggle world.  The muggle world changes *fast* -- much
faster than the wizard world seems to.  20 years ago VHS recorders were
cutting edge technology, but who buys a new VCR now?  The standard has
rapidly shifted to DVDs.  How many people had PDAs 5 years ago, and how
many of those people can't live without their Palms now?  Fashion changes
just as fast.  If Lily Potter were still alive and tried walking through
London in clothes that were at the height of fashion when she entered
Hogwarts (early '70s), she'd be a laughing stock.  

If a muggle-born witch or wizard only interacts with the muggle world a
few times a year when they visit their family, it's no wonder they have
trouble keeping up.  Imagine how much harder it would be for a pureblood
who has never had any intensive interaction with muggle ways.  

----
Patricia Bullington-McGuire	<patricia at obscure.org>

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered
three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the
purely hypothetical.  They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each
nonexisted in an entirely different way ... 
                -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"