The Statute of Secrecy

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 158893

Carol earlier: she has to create a means of enabling those readers
> >to believe that the WW exists unseen right in London itself (among
> >other places).
> 
JD responded: 
Not necessarily. There are plenty of juvenile fantasy stories that
don't offer any "ordinary person access" to the magical world they
describe: The Hobbit; <snip> Who's to say that if Harry Potter was
written about an orphan living in a completely magical world it would
have been any less successful? 

Carol:
Apparently I wasn't clear. I meant that once she's chosen to place her
magical world in the midst of ours, she has to provide a reason why we
Muggles can't see it. That reason is the Statute of Secrecy, which
requires that the WW be hidden from Muggle eyes, whether by spells
like the ones on Hogwarts and the QWC stadium or by Obliviating charms
when Muggles see magic performed. Obviously the story wouldn't work if
Harry lived in a completely magical world. We have to have him moving
from the Muggle world into the magical one. But JKR has to have an
explanation for why Muggles in general, including her readers, and
Harry, who's not a Muggle but is raised as one till he's eleven, are
unaware of the magical world around them. That's why, IMO, she needed
to invent the Statute of Secrecy or some other reason for our lack of
awareness of the magic around us. Our belief in her world requires it.
>
Carol earlier: 
> >It seems to me that the whole premise of secrecy <snip> depends on
the Statute of Secrecy, along with the equally suspect device of
Muggles not seeing what they don't want to see ("They don't see
nuffink, do they?")
> 
JD: 
> The general denial of magic that muggles exhibit could have been
> developed so it was more believable. If all muggles were more fully
> characterised as logical, rational, dependent on science, lacking
> imagination, constantly disregarding magical events and creating
> mundane explanations for the most magical activities then their
> ignorance of the magical world would be more appropriate. <snip
alternative methods>

Carol responds:
I quite agree, but my point is that she has to have *some* explanation
for Muggles, both characters and readers, to be unaware of magic. And
since the denial of magic isn't really sufficient or believable, she
needs something else, within the WW itself, a reason for the WW to
keep itself hidden from Muggle eyes. And the Statute of Secrecy,
whatever its flaws as a plot device and whatever its unfortunate
effects on well-meaning characters like Dumbledore and Mr. Weasley, is
that reason.

Granted, JKR could have used some other device like the ones you
suggest. (Whether they would have worked for her purposes I can't
say.) But the point is, once she's chosen the Statute of Secrecy as
her primary reason for Muggle ignorance of the WW and spells that hide
the WW from Muggles and Obliviating Charms and so forth as the means
of enforcing that secrecy, she's stuck with them. And even Dumbledore
is forced to trick Mrs. Cole into thinking that she's approving Tom
Riddle's enrollment in some Muggle boarding school. (He can't tell her
that it's a school of magic without violating the Statute of Secrecy,
even if he could do so without her calling the police to arrest the
madman.)

And, of course, the Statute has other unfortunate consequences, such
as reinforcing the Wizards' perception of themselves as superior to
Muggles, so that they think nothing of altering Muggles' memories.
(The Statute does, however, protect Muggles from having magic
practiced on them, at least in theory. Morfin is punished for hexing a
Muggle, and the Twins could have been in serious trouble if they'd
given a ton-tongue toffee to a Muggle who wasn't already aware of the
existence of magic. The same goes for the pig's tail Hagrid gave to
Dudley.)

At any rate, once JKR has chosen to place the WW in scattered places
in the RW, she has to find a means and a reason to hide it from
Muggles, who have lived all their lives unaware of its existence. And
once she's chosen the Statute of Secrecy as that reason, she has to
continue to use it throughout the books. She has to find the means to
conceal Hogwarts, the QWC stadium, the MoM, St. Mungo's, dragons,
giants, and ordinary magic like that practiced by the witches and
wizards attending the QWC from Muggle eyes. (It's a wonder that she
didn't find a way to hide the Dark Mark from them in GoF.) Both she
and her characters have to keep on following or enforcing the Statute
of Secrecy, and they have to believe that it's right and necessary to
do so. Otherwise, the knowledge of magic would leak into the RW, which
would interfere with the credibility of the books, which require a
*secret* WW in our very midst.

We, her Muggle readers, are supposed to believe that we live
surrounded by magic that we can't see, including not only witches and
wizards but Fantastic Beasts. JKR must present a reason why we can't
see them. That's why she invented the Statute of Secrecy, and that's
why her good wizards abide by it. And that's why, when the evil
wizards violate the statute by harassing or killing Muggles, or a kid
like Harry uses accidental magic on Muggles, the Obliviators come in.
We have to believe that the WW exists (or suspend our disbelief that
it doesn't), but to do so, we have to have an explanation for why we
can't see it.

I agree that the denial of magic is insufficient as an explanation for
Muggle lack of awareness of magic. I find the Statute problematic as
well. But I understand the absolute necessity for Muggle Repelling
Charms and similar devices within the books. Muggles in the books must
not be allowed to see the WW, or they must have a reason for keeping
quiet about it (people will think they're crazy) because we, her
readers, live in a world that *seems* to be unmagical. The problem JKR
is facing as an author didn't exist for, say, Tolkien, whose Middle
Earth has long ago disappeared under the sea and "the shape of all
lands has changed." Frodo and Gandalf couldn't exist in the modern
world. Harry and Dumbledore do. Harry can pass as a Muggle. 
Dumbledore tried it once (his plum-colored suit in HBP), but generally
he finds other means (e.g., the Put-Outer) to keep his existence from
being known by the Muggle public. And Aunt Marge can't know that Harry
is a wizard, so the Oblivators alter her memory. Nothing of the sort
is needed in Tolkien's Middle Earth, where magic is taken for granted,
its existence acknowledged even by the comfort-loving,
quintessentially ordinary hobbits.

Carol, wondering whether JKR knew what she was getting into when she
invented the Statute of Secrecy