[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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