School Size/Class Size -- Local Culture - Preserved

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 153040

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ffred Clegg" <manawydan at ...> wrote:
>
> Steve wrote:
> >But Hogwarts is a very different school. JKR was wise when she
> >made muggle electronic devices NOT work at Hogwarts. That imposes
> > a degree of cultural isolation on the school and it's students
> > ....
> 
> To a degree, I'd agree. But it _is_ all about degree. If a large
> enough proportion of the intake are entirely Muggle, then you've
> got a constant reinforcement every September with a new group 
> talking about films, tv, and Muggle music, to the extent that 
> everyone becomes familiar with those (and indeed other) concepts. 
> Instead of having a very small minority who have to conform to 
> the WW culture in order to exist within it. if you have a large 
> enough minority, the WW culture itself has to change in order 
> to cope.
> 

bboyminn:

Absolutely, I agree with your 'to a degree' statement. In fact I said,
'Of course, it's is not /pure/ isolation; there is always a degree of 
 cross-cultural contamination,...'.

But in this specific case, we need to look at the DEGREE of cultural
isolation that Hogwarts provides. In a part of my post that you
snipped, I made a point of referring to Hogwarts as a Boarding School,
and that is a very important point. 

While a muggle-born's 'back home' friends are watching TV everyday,
going to the movies on the weekend, and constantly tracking and
discussing Top 40's Pop music and the latest teen heart-throb, the
muggle-born his or herself is isolated for 10 months at Hogwarts
completely cut off from all 'Pop' cultural references. In that degree
of isolation, the local wizard culture dominates because it is the
only culture that is available.

Now in the example you gave of a greater number of English moving into
Wales, we see a clear example of my point. When the number of English
become sufficiently large, they are no longer culturally isolated.
They have enough Englanders around them that they can create their own
'Englishtown', as it were, and have their own culture dominate. 

Because the number of English in Wales has grow so large, they become
the dominant culture and the local Welch culture suffers because of
it. I think, base on what I heard, that may feared the Welsh language
would die out because everyone was learning English. Fortunately, or
so I've been lead to believe, a sufficient number of young people are,
in hopes of perserving their heritage, learing the Welsh language.

So, my central point was that Hogwarts provides 10 months of near
total cultural isolation. When muggle-borns do go back home, they are
completely out of touch with the fast moving "what's hot, what's not"
 world of modern youth culture. 

I suspect that cultural isolation is re-enforced by their need for
secrecy and the ciriculum taught at Hogwarts. It's hard to get excited
by your giggly muggle chums hyperventilating over Jesse McCartney,
when you know that in the blink of an eye you could turn them all to
jelly,  and transform Jesse McCartney into a hedgehog. In view of the
magnitude of the power you carry and the secrets you know, the airhead
concerns of the modern teen would seem pretty trivial. Thereby,
contributing even more to the cultural isolation.


> ...edited...
> 
> and there we'd both agree.
> 
> hwyl
> 
> Ffred

bboyminn:

Yes, we do agree. Your Welsh example of one culture overwhelming
another is perfectly valid, and because it actually happened,
perfectly true. But in Wales, they still have modern communication;
TV, Radio, Movies, Telephone, Internet, etc..., most of which is also
dominated by English speakers. 

But Hogwarts is totally isolated, and isolated for 10 months out of
the year relative to the students. That is certainly sufficient
isolation for the student to be more likely to take on 'wizard world'
frames of reference, though certainly, some muggle culture does creep
into the wizard world as is seen in the casual dress in common muggle
clothes of young witches and wizards. Still relative to modern hip-hop
pop-culture fashions, even the best young wizard would be hopelessly
out of date. 

Just a few more thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn