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

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 191580

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 3:03 PM, <sigurd at eclipse.net> wrote:

> 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.

[Arthur C.] Clarke's Third Law:  "Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic."

But I don't think that's quite what Steve is implying.  What he's
saying sounds more to me like another SF writer, Larry Niven, with
"The Magic Goes Away."  Steve, yes or no?


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean56 at gmail.com>