Christmas / World Building And The Potterverse

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 167319

> >>JW:
> That's why they call it MAGIC.  If it made any sense, they would    
> call it LOGIC.  ;D
> 
> When in doubt, blame it on Shesezso.  Why do some broken wands work,
> and not others?  Why is there so much sheepskin, and so few sheep?
> Because ... Shesezso!  ;D
> 
> JW, who as a businessman knows the Real World is often irrational,
> and so thinks it is foolish to demand a whole lot of logical
> consistency from a fantasy world in which there is no viable       
> economic or political system.

Betsy Hp:
Yeah, and that's *exactly* what bugs me.  Where does the WW get their 
stuff?  How do they manufacture it, what is their means for paying 
for it, how do they interact with Muggles if that's what needed and 
where exactly do the goblins figure in?  I agree, JKR probably relies 
on the easy and sloppy "shesezso".  Which is the cheap way out, IMO.

The more magical and fantastical your premise, the more rooted in 
logic you need to be if you've a hope of creating a viable, 
believable world for me.  JKR wants us to believe that the WW is a 
real place.  I don't.  And yes, it kills some of the magic for me.  I 
don't really care about Voldemort's effect on the WW because I don't 
buy that the WW exists.

I do understand that mileage may vary on this point.  But it's 
something that's important to me, it's something that other authors 
seem to manage quite nicely (a good example is Naomi Novik's 
Temeraire series that reimagines the Napolionic wars with dragons), 
and so therefore it's a flaw on JKR's part, in my view.

I used to think that these issues would clear up as Harry got older 
and took more notice of things.  It hasn't.  It's not a series killer 
(the characters are still important), but it is a series dampener, 
IMO.  That the WW is a magical world only makes the lack of logic 
worse, IMO.

Betsy Hp (doesn't believe in Diagon Alley; does believe in Snape <g>)