Assyria and Wizardly Geography

[Liz Muir]

No: HPFGUIDX 99153

Replies to two messages in this one, so stay tuned.

The Sergeant Majorette wrote:
>Maybe JKR was assuming nobody would look up stuff like that. If she
>had said "Iraq", a lot of people would be too distracted wondering
>what she meant by it to absorb the story.

Now this is an interesting and valid point.  JKR does tend to avoid 
anything too controversially modern in the WW.  With the current war 
in Iraq and the controversy surrounding it, she may have not wanted 
to mention it.  This could lead to a whole other discussion of the 
medieval character of the wizarding world.  I won't go into that now, 
since I need to stew on it a bit, but you have given me a very 
important point to cover.

>Victorian English travelers were notorious for wandering around
>political hotspots infallibly armored by obliviousness; the WW does
>seem to have the sensibilities of an earlier century.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by this statement, though it 
sounds interesting.  Can you elaborate for me?

>And as for confusion, come to my city sometime and ask for directions
>to Rockefeller Center. The street signs have said "Avenue of the
>Americas" since shortly after Assyria became Iraq, but no New Yorker
>ever calls it that. Even typing the offending phrase makes me feel
>like a traitor to my homeland...

Although I doubt it could literally be `shortly after,' since there 
was no New York in 586 AD, I get the point.  The stigma of using the 
term "Iraq" in a book is interesting in this day and age.  Just 
saying the name brings up a whole controversial image.

But it does still seem a weak justification for the term.  Why not 
just pick a non-controversial location?  Perhaps India (I know there 
still is some controversy, but not as large) or Egypt.  Did it have 
to be this geographical location?  If it didn't have to, that 
invalidates the "Iraq" issue.  If it did, why is that region 
particularly important to this plant?

Another reason against this arguement:  "Fear of a name increases 
fear of the thing itself," yes?



Neri wrote:
>I'd like to see a research on Wizard geography. Don't miss QttA,
>FbaWtFT and the Lexicon. 

Yes, I've already checked the Lexicon, but have so far found very 
little pertinent information.  Anything specific?  As for QttA and 
FB, it wouldn't be a researched essay without them!

>However, regarding this specific Assyria, I
>think it was simply meant to go well with Mimbulus mimbletonia. That
>is, a weird plant with a name that practically means something-
>undecipherable-but-vaguely-latin-like should just come from a-land-
>that's-not-on-the-map-but-sounds-vaguely-biblical.

Hmmm, interesting theory, but I wouldn't be truly obsessive if I let 
JKR get off with that excuse, now would I?

Rowen