[HPforGrownups] Muggleborn vs Pureblood

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 168819

From: Magpie <belviso at attglobal.net>
Bart:
>>
>> You can't judge individuals by statistics. The last person who claimed
>> you could drowned in a lake with an average depth of 2 feet. One problem
>> is that many people are so afraid that individuals might be judged by
>> statistics that they deny the statistics.

Magpie:
>Who's talking about statistics? I'm talking about the Harry Potter series of 
>books (the author of which I can't imagine basing anything on statistics!) 

Bart: 
George Orwell described a phenomenon called "doublethink"; the ability to have two mutually contradictory ideas in one's head, and treat them both as absolutely true. Doublethink becomes possible if you blind yourself to the inherent contradiction. I was pointing out that JKR has fallen victim to doublethink in her novels, and includes an inherently self-contradictory idea. I was also pointing out that this form of doublethink is common in our own society, which comes in two forms: A) a belief that because one group is statistically more likely to have a characteristic than other groups, that one can accurately ascribe that characteristic to an individual, solely because that individual is a member of that group, and B) a belief that because it's wrong to ascribe a characteristic to an individual because they come from a specific group, then the statistical tendency to have that characteristic must be false. Both are wrong. To give a simple example, statistically speaking, men have more upper body strength than women, but you can't take a random woman and a random man off the street, and predict with certainty that the man is stronger than the woman. But that does not make the statistic incorrect, either. Recently, the president of Harvard University was forced out of his position for suggesting that the fact that there are fewer women in the sciences than men appeared to have more basis to it than simple bigotry, and that determining the cause was something worthy of study. 

JKR is using bigotry against muggleborns as a substitute for other bigotry, but she then sets up a system where a one-to-one correspondence does not work, so she forces in a one-to-one correspondence. 

Magpie, quoting:
>"Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone 
>else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't
>had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn 
>that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start."

Bart:
And that is where she forces it in. She gives three basic aspects to casting magic:
1) Knowledge
2) Physical technique
3) Natural ability. 

Now, had she shown #3 to be much more important than #1 and #2, then there would have been no inherent contradiction. But she does not. 

Magpie:
>As I said, you can certainly argue that this is the way it should work out 
>logically. Plenty of people in fandom have argued that some of the attitudes 
>the text seems to say are simply wrong and bad have a logical base. But 
>since this is a book and there is not real world to look at, I think the 
>words the author uses to describe the situation in the books trump most 
>other things in saying how it works.

Bart
However, if you write a novel set in an alteration of the real world, then the reasons for the differences should be explained, or given as a mystery. Doing neither is just bad writing. 

Human abilities don't just suddenly appear. We start out with basic reflexes. Neurological feedback loops form, allowing us to develop skills from the reflexes, then skills from the skills. Block those intermediate skills from forming, and the person will have a lot more trouble forming the secondary skills (it is no coicidence that cultures in which infants are not able to crawl on the ground tend not to develop written languages). 

JKR COULD have come up with some sort of explanation, the equalizer between muggleborns and purebloods. Just to give an example, muggleborns go to muggle schools, while it is implied (although never stated) that WW kids are homeschooled (they certainly appear to know how to read, write, and do enough arithmetic to handle money). Perhaps the muggleborn children's experience in learning from books and in a classroom environment is the equalizer (although it would still imply a difference, although it would be in kind rather than in degree). But if that were true, then WW families would take steps to give their kids the same advantages, in one way or another. 

And let's not forget the other direction. Somehow, muggleborn are every bit as good as WW-born kids. But what about squibs? Do squibs fit easily into the muggle world? If not (and the implication is that they do not), then this is showing another form of discrimination; that, somehow muggles are superior to the people in the WW; certainly more intelligent and adaptable. 

My main point is that, in trying to inject analogies of real-world bigotry into her novels, JKR's own prejudice is showing.

Bart