Squib!Harry in the WW (was:Re: The Scar)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 160416

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > Now, I'm not mathametician, but even I can see that you have no 
> > proper statistics to play with here.  JKR has not given us      
> > enough information to make those sort of judgements, IMO.

> >>Ken:
> I figure it from the fact that of the small number of marriages
> described a sizable fraction are mixed. No, in the real world this 
> is not a large enough sample to draw precise numerical conclusions 
> from nor is it a scientificly chosen sample. But even in the real 
> world a fraction of 10% or greater even from such a small sample   
> does imply that the true fraction is significant unless some bias 
> has been put into the data.

Betsy Hp:
Ah, but I think a bias *has* been put into the data.  Harry is best 
friends with the son of a man devoted to Muggle rights.  The 
information Harry receives (and we receive) is therefore going to be 
skewed.

> >>Ken:
> It is very unlikely the intermarriage rate is as small as 1% given 
> the data we have seen. But this isn't the real world, this is an   
> author painting a picture of an imaginary world.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Exactly!!  I like to say that this is not anthropology.  We may 
safely draw conclusions based on one tiny little scene because we 
*know* the author sees that scene as important and therefore 
defining.  (Something an anthropologist can not, or should not, do.)

Therefore I do think it's important that of the tiny amount of 
Muggle/Wizard marriages we've seen, all of them involve some sort of 
deception, and the bulk of them include an *incredibly* unequal 
power distribution.

> >>Ken:
> <snip>
> I think we all hear about some pretty awful behaviour between     
> romantic partners on the nightly news.

Betsy Hp:
Yes, but they're in the news *because* they aren't the norm.

> >>Ken:
> Each of us who are married or in a live in relationship hold the   
> power of life and death over our partners as they do over us, how 
> much more control do you want? 
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Ken, your wife hasn't forced you to become a coffee table, has she? 
<g>  *That's* the kind of power I'm talking about.  You could kill 
your wife, she could kill you: you're both equally powerful there.  
In a wizarding marriage I suppose either spouse could turn the other 
into random pieces of furniture: they're both equally powerful.  But 
in a Muggle/Wizard marriage, the wizard has powers the muggle could 
never match.  

And in the few Muggle/Wizard marriages we've seen, that power has 
been abused.

> >>Ken:
> Betsy, all a pen does is put ink on paper, even in the WW. The
> exceptions I can think of are Rita's Quick Quotes Quill which is
> hardly an asset to a responsible journalist and the spell-checking
> functions of Ron's pen.

Betsy Hp:
Okay, so Harry wouldn't be able to guarantee a proper quote.  
(Unless he learned short-hand... somewhere.)

> >>Ken:
> The act of writing, editing, or commentating is not a             
> fundamentally magical act, it is an exercise in human             
> intelligence. Harry has the training to edit magical books, he can
> write or report as well as Rita Skeeter or Gilderoy Lockhart, he   
> has the Quidditch experience to be a commentator.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Right, only how many book editors or journalists can get by today 
without a computer?  How many could get hired today if they 
explained that due to some horrible experience computers refuse to 
function for them?  That's what Harry would be facing.

> >>Sherry:
> Speaking as a disabled person, I believe that Harry *could* learn 
> how to live as a muggle in the WW. However, I do not believe the   
> WW would accept him. I also don't think he'd have a very easy      
> adjustment. I think the WW would turn its back on him, as easily   
> as the so-called able bodied world turns its backs on disabled     
> people.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I completely agree.  And I honestly think the WW would probably have 
the kind of fear and superstition that would lead them to shun and 
possibly even harm squib!Harry.

> >>Ken:
> I am sorry that your Harry is only a pale imitation of the Harry I 
> read about.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
You know, I don't think I'm really talking about Harry though.  I'm 
focused more on how the WW would receive him.  Sure, Harry could 
figure out how to function.  But the WW still wouldn't accept him.

Betsy Hp