Muggles v wizards redux

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183228

Magpie wrote:
> For me, I guess that's the reason. Because the Muggle world is my
world, so I know there are people with whom to sympathize, and I wind
up being sort of indignant that "we" are always being shown as such
nothings whenever we're onscreen. Because we're not.
> <SNIP>
> 
> Alla:
> 
> But then I have follow up question, which I really should have
mentioned in my initial post, hehe. Because I do understand the 
argument that you just wrote, but at the same time I find it confusing.
> 
> What makes you believe that this IS your world? What makes you 
believe that you are the same as muggles of potterverse? Because if I
could understand it, I would have much easier time to understand 
underlying reasoning and this is really all I am looking for.
> 
> I mean, I said many times that I think that world is reflection of 
ours, but to fully accept this world as ours? I just do not see how, 
because wizards do not live near us, no? I mean, it sounds ridiculous
when I write it like this, but at the same time I do not know how 
else to write it. There is no parallel world to ours, therefore I am
just unable to see myself as muggle, you know?

Carol responds:

I'm not altogether sure what you're saying, but it weems to me that
you're identifying with the wizards rather than the Muggles because
the Muggles are caricatured and the "real people," the ones most like
the reader, are the Wizards. It's no more possible for you to identify
with one of JKR's Muggles than with an adult in a Roald Dahl story. Is
that right, or am I misunderstanding you?

I'm not sure how to respond, because I definitely consider myself a
Muggle (a nonmagical person), and I think we're rather unfairly
depicted in the HP books, but that in itself doesn't bother me. I
understand perfectly why Salazar Slytherin, in an age when Muggles
persecuted (or attempted to persecute) Witches and Wizards would want
to conceal the school from Muggle eyes and would consider Muggle-borns
untrustworthy. I understand why Snape is upset when the flying car
violates the Statute of Secrecy. I feel sorry for little Petunia
getting a rejection letter from Dumbledore, but I can also understand
that DD had no choice in the matter. The separation of the Muggle and
Wizarding worlds is a given in the books, and that makes it inevitable
that the Pure-bloods and at least some of the Half-Bloods would have a
distorted idea of Muggles (though the idea that they don't know how
Muggles dress has always struck me as absurd).  

We're seeing from the Wizard pov (with the single exception of Frank
Bryce's pov in GoF). And, to them, being born without magic seems as
abnormal as being born without a nose. They regard Muggle technology
as a substitute for magic instead of appreciating it as an expression
of human intelligence. ("Ingenious, these Muggles!" is as close as we
get.)

Also, the particular Muggles we do see are either unpleasant (the
Dursleys, Tom Riddle Sr.) or helpless victims like the Robinson(?)
family in GoF (though Frank Bryce, another victim, does show spirit
before he's murdered, and he's no more helpless than Cedric Diggory in
similar circumstances). The Muggle Prime Minister is just another
politician, and it's interesting that Fudge, his Wizarding
counterpart, is just as helpless against Voldemort as he is, the
ability to turn teacups into gerbils notwithstanding.

All this is to say, I think(!), that we have no Muggle characters with
whom we can identify. Muggles are outsiders, not fully understood by
the hidden minority in their midst because the minority lives in its
own world, which it considers superior to the Muggle world. (It would
be more believable, BTW, if they didn't have Muggle wireless and
Wizard rock bands, which shows unmistakeable WW copying from Muggles
rather than the other way around.)

And yet, despite, the Wizarding pov (chiefly Harry's) and the
implication that Muggles are inferior because they don't have magic, I
still see myself as a Muggle and the Wizards as mistaken on this
point. Being magical is no more a determinant of human worth than
being musical or athletic (or being able to see or hear). The ability
to kill or torture using a wand doesn't make Wizarding criminals any
more dangerous than Muggle criminals, who can use guns or bombs for
the same purpose. Being able to deduct House points magically, however
convenient for Hogwarts teachers, does not make them better teachers
or more effective disciplinarians. And James Potter and Sirius Black
would probably have been just as obnoxious if their motorcycle
couldn't fly and they couldn't turn themselves into animals at will.

So, on the one hand, I identify with the Wizarding characters as I
read the books because its their world and their story, but I know
perfectly well that if it were real, I'd be one of those oblivious
citizens of Godric's Hollow who didn't know that the war memorial
could transform itself into a statue of the Potters and who would walk
right by the Leaky Cauldron without seeing it.

Muggles are caricatured either because the characters have known only
unpleasant Muggles (which helps to account for the anti-Muggle
prejudice) or because they're unknown and misunderstood. (Compare
nineteenth-century cartoons of African natives, for example.) And yet
we do see encouraging signs in the books: Bob Ogden standing up for
Muggles who can't defend themselves against magic, Charity Burbage
teaching her students that Muggles are human (too bad she was killed
for her teaching before we even got to know her), Kingsley Shacklebolt
talking about all human beings having equal worth.

In short, even though I'm bothered by the use of magic against Muggles
and by the idea that Muggles are inferior, I see both as inevitable in
the world that JKR has created. I'm not going to lose any sleep over a
pair of teenage boys plotting to rule the Muggles (or a second pair
behaving disrespectfully to Muggle policemen), but, as a Muggle
myself, I'm glad that it isn't real and I'm in no danger of being
Obliviated for glimpsing their world. And exciting as it would be to
be able to fly without a broom or turn invisible or magically clean my
house, I think that the Wizards' perceived superiority is just
that--perception. If they knew and understood the Muggles, and vice
versa, neither would consider themselves superior, with the exception
of fanatics and zealots.

Carpl, thinking that this may be her stupidest post ever and wondering
if she'll agree with a single word of it tomorrrow