Muggle World, Wizard World

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 82489

<snip> Laura:

I'm cool down to here. This was like a very quick intro anthropology 
class-nice work, Ffred! You do have to assume that magical abilities 
are an evolutionary mutation.  Just as there was a connection between 
the growth of permanent communities and the growth of conventional 
technology, so it should work for magic technology,  But...

Ffred:
<snip> When the temples began to communicate with their rivals in 
other
> cities, they discovered that the same was true for them: what they 
had in
> common far outweighed any religious doctrine that divided them.

Laura:

Another thing that could have been going on was that magic was being 
distinguished from religion.  That is, as monotheism took root and 
belief in one all-powerful God became the norm, people didn't look to 
other human beings to control nature, read omens or channel divine 
power the way they had before.  We can see that in the Potterverse 
magic isn't the manifestation of religion.  What it is, exactly, is 
the nature of Kneasy's question.  

Ffred:
> 8. As wizard blood became more concentrated, another discovery was 
made.  Occasionally a child would be born who had no innate magical 
ability, but was not a muggle either. These children could use 
certain magical appurtenances though they could not do magic 
themselves. They had a far greater psychic ability than muggles did, 
including an ability to communicate with animals, particularly cats. 
They also had a far greater perception, and were able to see the 
world as it really is, undeterred by spells and other glamours.
<snip>

Laura:
I'm not sure about the squib thing-I don't see any evidence that 
either Figg or Filch is especially gifted psychically.  And where do 
they use magical devices?

Ffred:
> 12. Although wizards agreed that they should divorce themselves 
from the important role in the muggle world that they had originally 
played, they did not all agree about how they should act towards 
muggles. A minority considered that the muggle world was there to be 
manipulated and used for their convenience. They developed dark 
magics to control the minds of others, on occasion provoking violent 
reaction against wizards from their muggle neighbours.
> 
> 13. Eventually a climate of more general persecution developed. It 
is tempting to identify this with the development of the "world 
religions" of Christianity and Islam, with their ambivalent shading 
to hostile attitudes to wizardry and witchcraft, but it would be 
equally tenable to see it as bound up with the development of 
feudalism and the refusal of monarchs to contemplate a group within 
their country who did not owe them allegiance and obedience. <snip>

Laura:

Well, I would suspect that the hostility was very much a mutual 
thing.  People being the jealous creatures we are, it's easy to see 
that non-magical types would be very envious of those who had powers 
they did not have-and couldn't (or wouldn't, according to your point 
of view) explain where those powers came from or how to get them.  
Envy could all too quickly morph into anger, then into violence and 
persecution.  When the magical people defended themselves, 
understandably, with their powers, muggles would , inevitably become 
fearful and even more hostile...and so on and so on.  It seems that 
when faced with people differently abled than the norm, we either 
celebrate (as with professional athletes) or shun them.  

Also, I have to say that laying the onus for the persecution of 
witches on Christianity and Islam isn't fair.  They got that from us, 
I'm sorry to say.  Not to stray too far off topic, but I looked this 
up in one of my Torah commentaries, and basically it said that 
witchcraft (the Hebrew specifically uses the feminine form)was 
prohibited because it was considered to be the practice of seeking to 
gain power over others so as to raise the practitioner above her 
victims-in other words, setting yourself up as a god.  It's a 
prohibition against idolatry, in essence.  

All this, however, doesn't really get to what Kneasy was asking: is 
the WW a physical place or something metaphysical or both, somehow?  
I think it has to be metaphysical.  It seems like an overlay onto the 
muggle world (remember overhead projectors?).  Magical power inheres 
in the people who possess it rather than in any place or thing.  
Wands don't perform magic by themselves; buildings are ordinary until 
enchanted. You might say that wizards and witches have a different 
understanding of reality than muggles do-on the other hand, magical 
people have to hand-write all their books and letters, so maybe we 
each have our perceptual shortcomings.  And just think how much grief 
a telephone could have saved Sirius and Harry in OoP...

If magic ability is a sort of energy, I wonder if it would be 
measurable somehow.  We can measure people's physical strength and 
certain mental abilities.  JKR seems to suggest that there are 
varying degrees of magical power in witches and wizards-not everyone 
is selected to attend Hogwarts, and we must assume that that has 
something to do with ability.  Still, it's a personal thing-it 
doesn't increase exponentially with the number of magical people 
around.  Sure, more magic can be done but the magic doesn't coalesce 
somehow to become that much more powerful.  At the QWC, the things 
that happened, both good and bad, were pretty much within the bounds 
of what we already knew to be possible.  The vast numbers of magical 
people didn't, say, cause time to stop or suddenly become able to 
travel at the speed of light.  

There's more to be said on this topic, but I'm too tired to think 
what it is...this list has kept me up too late again!  :-)