Hogwarts, & the Magic World (was:... students ARE there at Hogwartz?)

[sigurd at eclipse.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 191573

Dear Steve

Steve sez:
"Edwardian" is probably pretty close.

Otto:
You know that may be a misconception on my part. I did not get the sense that Rowling had made them look Edwardian in the books (though obviously at times color-coordinationally challenged) but the movies certainly did.


Steve Sez:>
When discussing 'mudbloods' and 'purebloods', Ron point out that without inter-breeding with muggle and muggle-born, the wizard world would have died out long ago.

Otto:
I remember that too. I suppose that could very well be true. Somehow there seems something wrong with the statement but I can't get my head around whatever is that is wrong. If it IS true then "magic" is a genetic variation that can be passed along, or arise spontaneously, or skip a generation or any of the variations genetics can do. This begs the question of how many wizards do you have to intermarry with before you turn into a drooling idiot-- or -- on the other hand, produce enough genetic variation just in the wizarding community so that the deleterious effects of close inbreeding can be avoided. An interesting technical question but not really worth the candle to pursue it.

Steve:
And in a sense, aspects of the (more or less) ancient world, we a lot more magical than they are now, so I suspect the heyday of magic was several centuries ago. In short, while on one level the wizard world might be flourishing, they are not at the numbers they once were. At least, not as a percentage of the general population, though of course, I speculate.

Otto:
This is I believe Heinlein's thesis that as technology becomes more and more incomprehensible to the average person, it assumes more and more the aura and mystery of magic. Or, contrawise, we have the case of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." where advanced technology of the 19th century is magic to those in the 5th century AD.

Steve:
 One must also remember that technology very much shapes the world. Muggle are who they are and do what they do very much based on available technology. Where would we be, and how different would our world be, in the absents of the Internet, computer, Television, modern transportation, etc....

Otto:
True- we are creatures of our technology.

Steve:
Yet, the Wizard World has its alternatives that shape its world. For example, think how easy life would be if the modern world had the Star Trek Teleporter/Transporter. You could go from Chicago to London in a few second with little expenditure of energy or general cost. Think about having flying brooms, how easy it would be to commute to work. Think how easy it is to heat your home when you can conjure up fire at not cost? Fireplaces are general horribly inefficient, even modern fireplaces fall short. But why care about efficiency when the fuel is free, and I mean completely free?

Otto:
Again agreed. There's no need to progress beyond the magic-- if one has magic. It would be like inventing a light spell twice, or inventing the electric light twice. But there are limitations to each world. As I said a few Muggle machine guns would have helped wonderfully at the battle of Hogwarts.

Otto:
But I think we miss something here if we assume the Muggle and Magic world is too separate. Again, this is complete speculation and not available to be found "in the canon" without teasing out facts from inference (always dicey).

In our real world-- right now-- as we see it-- I am going to submit that magic DOES have a presence, and DOES have an effect on it, and if we only let our mind free a bit, to wander and speculate we can think of and SEE all sorts of things that suggest that the calm, quiet, obedient, logical Newtonian-Einsteinian universe around us may not be all we see. That there may be more to it than that which is apprehendable by the five senses. This goes from the realm of superstition and taboo (step on a crack, break your mothers back, don't walk under a ladder) to ideas of cosmic balance (the rubber band theory of causation- any good thing that happens to you should not be rejoiced in because it is sure to bring a reaction like a stretched rubber band, that will balance out the joy with hurt and restore the cosmic balance) etc., and on and on, but even to the really eerie and emotional.

Now I am NOT saying there is a Hogwarts or there are magical people running around posing as people just like us, but even if one is rigorously scientific, believing that there is nothing but "atoms and the void" we as human creatures are sensitive to the IDEA or even the myth of magic. Indeed, it would be hard to see how we could not be for our whole mental construction seems to be one which is built to take facts and make connections between them to produce useful generalizations.  Sometimes we may get over energetic in making connections and think there is some other force at work, but that tendency is a force I think just as strong as magic.

Otto