Identifying with Muggles in Potterverse WAS: Re: DD at the Dursleys:

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 158054

Tonks:

> I think of Muggles as those humans who don't see or don't 
> want to see that there is a world outside of the world of 
> matter as experienced by their 5 senses. I see the WW as 
> similar to the world of the mystic or the spiritual world. 
> It is just that the Muggles don't want to know about the 
> world of the wizards. But the wizards know about both 
> worlds. Some even live in Muggle areas and appear to be 
> Muggles to the Muggles around them.

houyhnhnm:

I think I thought of the WW that way in the first book and 
about halfway through the second, then one little thing after 
another began to grate.  I gradually became aware that I was 
uncomfortable because there was something missing.  I would 
have to say now that I agree with Betsy

Betsy Hp:

> Hmm, see I have it as exactly opposite.  The wizards are 
> the insular xenophobes, with little that is beautiful and 
> soul enriching surrounding them.  They know nothing of art 
> or music or literature.  Their schools concentrate soley on 
> that which is practical and pragmatic, thriving on and 
> encouraging cut-throat competition with little love or mercy 
> for their fellow man.

houyhnhnm:

It would be interesting if the aesthetic insensibility, the 
lack of creativity, and the absence of the numinous were all 
part of the price paid for magical ability, but I don't see 
any evidence that that was Rowling's intent.

I also like to think of wizards as humans who never 
experienced the breakdown of the bicameral mind.