some replies which are direct but off topic

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186193

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" <catlady at ...> wrote:
>
> Frank Dadds wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186157>:
> 
> << I've noticed that JKR is a _woman_ and a _human_ and I've seen
> evidence of those influences in her writing. On the other hand, I haven't seen any evidence to indicate that she might be another type of life form. Ho hum! >>
> 
> That could be an interesting topic to discuss: if we had only the books and no author bio at all, what in the text could lead one to think that the author was a woman or a man?
> 
> BAW wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186172>:
> 
> << Therefore it is impossible for a [committed] Christian to produce a work that has nothing to do with Christianity. >>
> 
> Not even a chemistry textbook?
> 
> Carol wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186176>:
> 
> << You can't imagine a color invisible to the human eye or a creature whose form you have not encountered. >>
> 
> I believe that some people, who have good visual imaginations, can indeed imagine a color invisible to the human eye. I would suppose that they can imagine it only because they already have the experience of color, but there ARE colorblind people and maybe I should let them speak for themselves.
> 
> Definitely people can imagine forms previously unknown, and formless creatures, or the particle physicists, unable to imagine what they have discovered, would be unable to describe their discoveries.
>
Carpl responds:
But they would understand and describe those creatures in terms of know concepts--color, shape, etc. If, for example, I've never seen a plesiosaur (and, of course, I haven't), I can nevertheless imagine what one must have looked like because the scientist describing it would describe it in terms that human beings can relate to. By the same token, we can imagine protoplasm without ever having seen it because it can be described in known terms ("shapeless blob" perhaps being one. And even if we can imagine colors we haven't seen, which I still don't think is possible, we're still using the known human concept of color.

To return to HP and JKR before we go too far afield here, almost everything in her books is taken from some aspect of Western civilization (extended to include ancient Egypt which Europeans learned about via the Greeks). Can you think of anything that she invented from scratch? Sure, she invented specific spells, but she didn't invent the concept of spells or wands and she gave them quasi-Latin names. The genres she writes in are known genres of Western literature.

My point is that JKR, like every other author, writes about what she knows from experience or is familiar with through reading or the mass media (ahich I forgot to mention before), and adapts to her own creative purposes, much as Tolkien adapted Norse mythology, Icelandic saga, and other influences to his. (Even his invented languages are based on known languages.) 

As I said before, I can clearly see at least four sources for JKR's themes, motifs, plots, characters, etc.: universal human experience, Judeo-Christianity (largely secularized), Greek and Roman mythology, and fairytales and folktales (along with the Arthurian legends). A few other elements like flying carpets creep into the story as they have crept into Western literature via the Arabian Nights.

Like all Western authors, JKR's writing reflects her experience with Western culture. An Asian, African, or Native American author would have written a different book. Even if he or she had carefully researched British culture past and present and spent a year or two living in England or Scotland, the book would not have the same very British flavor. For that matter, an American or a French person could not have written it even though they share the Western cultural heritage of Britain. We are the sum of our experiences (and our genes, but I won't go there). And even if we write about a different time, place, and culture than our own (as JKR wrote about the imaginary Wizarding World set within our own Muggle world), that work will reflect our education and our values.

Carol, afraid that we're wandering from the point by focusing on minutiae