[HPforGrownups] WW Technology V Muggle Technology

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 100885

Susan (teilani) wrote:
>In trying my hand at fanfic, I've been wondering exactly what people
>like Molly Weasley do all day.  She doesn't have a job.  Granted, she
>has kids, but even the youngest of them is at Hogwarts for months at
>a time.  Once she's swished and flicked her wand a few times and
>gotten the dishes to wash themselves, the beds to make themselves,
>the Christmas sweaters knitting themselves, what does she do?  Does
>she have to supervise as the dishes magically wash themselves?
>Probably not.  So, all the household shores are probably done before
>noon.  What now?

Probably all the things that we do our best to get through the household
chores to be able to do!

(Or in Molly's case, she zips over to Grimmauld Place and starts over again
on another set of chores...)

More seriously, the Weasley household (we don't know whether it's typical of
a rural WW household, but it may be) does seem to have more involved in it
than a contemporary Muggle household, there's a hint in the books that it
has some sort of a smallholding attached. All of which leads me gently
towards the conclusion that a WW village household is more like a real world
household of some centuries ago, with access to some land and the advantages
that that brings, and with a lot of food produced at home. Maybe Molly also
has to deal with her own breadmaking, cheesemaking, brewing, and so on. Even
so, I'd agree that there seems to be a charm for the purpose which would
take most of the drudgery out of it.

>Another question I have re: the Weasleys, magic, and money, though
>it's not related to this post so much, is how does money affect the
>size/condition of their house?  If a wizard can just magically add a
>new floor or room or bath with a hot tub, what difference does it
>make how much money they have? (I got this impression because of the
>way the Burrow is described). Who would they pay for these things
>anyways?  It's not like they'd need to hire a contractor.  I get that

Likewise from the Burrow description, I would think that a wizard house is
put together from raw materials and magic. You can't just conjure up the raw
materials, otherwise they'd inconveniently disappear when the charm wore
off, but how they are actually assembled needs someone to apply the right
construction spells. Given their folkloric abilities in that direction, I
wonder if the goblins carry out construction work for the WW?

Certainly once the spell is set up, the building seems to be secure for the
duration - Hogwarts has been there for centuries and we're not told that
there are constant construction gangs working on various parts of the
premises (as there are in my local university, which has only been there
since 1920!). The only description of anything going wrong is Godric's
Hollow: I wonder if one of the effects of the protective spell that saved
Harry was to wipe out any magical spells in the vicinity: the house,
deprived of its spells, collapses.

But another impression from the Burrow description (and indeed from the
Grimmauld Place one) is of permanence: it seems as if WW dwellings, once
there, are there to stay, rather than somewhere you fling up in an afternoon
and move on a year or so later.

One little fanficcy idea I had once was to have Arthur and Vernon standing
outside their respective abodes (and then each other's) and running over
mentally the things that made them home sweet home, and it being totally
apparent that there was just nothing in common with the two.

"You mean you have to stand on every step to get to the top?"

>they'd need money for food and clothes.  I read on the Lexicon that
>conjured items don't stay around for longer than they're needed,but
>if you really need a new robe, like Remus on the train in PoA ( in a
>robe that was shabby and had been darned, etc.) couldn't you just
>conjure one?

Only, I suppose, if you wanted to risk it vanishing at an inconvenient
moment!

>Susan (who's really curious... What's a call centre?)

Cram lots of people together in a large room, each with a telephone headset.
Then direct all calls to something like a bank, a telephone company, or so
on to the people in the room (alternatively make them phone members of the
public and try to sell them things). The function of the people in the room
is to be screamed and sworn at all day and night by callers who've waited
for hours on the phone in a queue at their own expense with a problem that
the person in the call centre can't help them with, or by people that
they've interrupted at their business trying to sell them insurance,
conservatories, mobile phones, and the like. That sort of thing. They get
paid a pittance. And have to smile all the time.

Also known as the new sweatshops.

Having set them up over here, the companies are now moving the work to
India. Where, apparently, the workers have orders to adopt English names and
to deny that they are in Delhi, Bangalore, or wherever they are...

Cheers

Ffred

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Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri