a lot of Names, interrupted with a lot of Traitors, Lily's Crush, McG/Hooch

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154924

Carol earlier:
> > Carol, convinced that the date is no coincidence and thinking that
she may not be aware of the vast numbers of people who actually died
in> the European persecutions
> >
Gerry responded:
> You mean that she would be more aware of something happening in some
far away country than something happening in her own country? Or in
her own city? Don't you think that rather arrogant? America is not
that fascinating to the rest of the world you know.
>
Carol responds:
There's no need to get personal here. As it happens, I have a PhD in
British literature because I share your preference for British
literature and history over American history, but even if I preferred
American history and literature, or dared to state that a certain "far
away country" has had some influence on world history, that would not
make me arrogant any more than it would make an Englishperson who
spoke of England's influence an Imperialist. I would hardly be proud,
by the way, of the history of witch persecution in either country, any
more than Spain should be proud of its Inquisition (and, yes, I know
that there were other inquisitions).

I do sometimes wonder if JKR is a tad xenophobic, considering that she
wants only British actors in the HP films and confines the WW that we
actually see to England and Scotland, but that's home to her and what
she's comfortable with. I have no objection whatever, in part because
I hapen to be an Anglophile.

At any rate, while I reserve the right to consider America fascinating
if I so desire, it has nothing to do with the matter at hand (except
that I confess to a personal interest in the Salem Witch Trials
because one of my ancestors was hanged as a witch). I'm quite sure
that in RL my ancestor, Martha Carrier, was innocent of killing
people's cows by giving them the Evil Eye as she was hanged for doing,
but in the Potterverse, I'd be quite surprised if she wasn't a real
witch, unfairly maligned, persecuted, and murdered, along with many
others, by magicphobic Muggles of the Cotton Mather variety. I don't
think that all witches and wizards in the WW escaped persecution or
there would have been no need for the Statute of Secrecy.

*Something* happened in 1692 to prompt the Statute of Secrecy. In RL,
a famous event involving persecution of witches and a few warlocks
happened in Salem in that year. JKR, however limited her knowledge of
history may be (and I'm guessing it's a bit shaky given Sir Nickolas's
Elizabethan ruff), is clearly familiar with the Salem Witch Trials or
she would not have had a contingent from the Salem Institute at the
QWC. And no doubt she also know that in 1692, Massachusetts was not "a
far away country" but a British colony. Or so I would hope.

Carol, who again asks anyone who opposes her suggestion to present a
plausible alternative rather than implying that the idea of presenting
a bit of shared British and American history in a post is somehow
"arrogant"