[HPforGrownups] Re: When

k12listmomma k12listmomma at comcast.net
Mon Dec 17 05:26:44 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 179923

>> Shelley:
> <SNIP>
>> The Wizards clearly manipulated the Muggle environment with
>> charms that meant to confound, hide and conceal the magical
>> world, including the Dragons and Giants.
>
>
> I find the explanations regarding the hiddeness of the WW
> very unconvincing. Every magic person would spend every moment
> clearing out every muggle. But, regardless of that, I don't
> think I put my original question clearly. In the 1990s, we
> had a very technological society. Yet reading HP, we see
> virtually none of that. Especially in DH, it reminded me
> of resistance fighters in WW2. I was really wondering if
> other people had this impression. So, not the actual date
> of the setting but the feeling of it. It could often be
> medieval.
>
> Barry

Shelley:
I do get that you were asking for a date, as in a year, in your original 
question. I was just trying to explain, in the series, of why technology 
didn't work with the wizarding magic, and so why Rowling would have felt 
free to ignore it almost completely.

But yes, I also get your point about the lack of technology mentioned "very 
unconvincing". Even Vernon saw many of the witches and wizards on the day 
that Harry survived- they didn't do very well to hide themselves that day, 
and I hardly think every Muggle had their memory wiped of that day. A 
satellite image would surely catch "holes" in the ground where a large 
wizarding place was, and would catch the commotion and movement of many 
witches and wizards toward it for the World Cup, even if those images 
couldn't detect just "where" those people went. Surely, the governments of 
the world knew that there was a Wizarding world, because our spy technology 
would catch the Wizards doing things. Dudders is always watching TV, but it 
might have been more convincing if he was attached to his game console, if 
the series was to be put in modern day. And the radio program did throw the 
series back a couple of decades, I felt. The actual dating of the books, I 
believe, is due to Sir Nicholas's Death Day Party, where it mentions how 
many years he had been dead, and that then dates the rest of the story. Many 
of us feel that she would have been much better leaving that out, so that 
the series was undated. Anyhow, she got her years totally screwed up with 
the starting of school on a Monday, and year after year Sept the 1st kept 
falling on a Monday. Even her moons were off, so Rowling clearly didn't 
write the series with a calendar in mind. 





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