carsten wrote:Wow! Athena! What a post... *amazed*
Why thank you!
Wizards should be able to create both muggle and wizard clothing with more or less success. The interesting question is, what the influences are between the two fashion styles.
Yeah, this is totally confusing to me... do wizards
only wear robes? I guess I always kind of imagined them wearing robes over whatever undies, pants and shirt they're wearing.
Now we're getting into something I definately know I
do not wish to think about. Apparently, Arthur Weasley, and many like him, wear nothing underneath, but since some do (apparently Harry, Ron, and Hermione do) then... well... no, no, bad mental image.
Theatre, music and books are good examples, but since the kids only get very basic schooling before Hogwarts, their taste may not be refined enough to enjoy these. Or to say it more simply: they don't know about it, because they have never been exposed to it. They are (purposely?) kept dumb on muggle culture.
That's my point. That's wrong. It's wrong that they don't learn about that stuff. I mean, good grief, whether they're wizards or Muggles, they're all Brittons (or is it Britains, or what?), or Americans, or Germans or whatever. I can't fathom someone from Brittain never learning about Shakespeare, at least, or King Arthur, or the Crusades. It's part of their culture, just not the culture they choose to embrace.
But this is also coming from someone who has a serious beef with several issues. One of them is the education, particularly in America, but really anywhere where children from an early age are taught that their culture is the one and only best. Also, I have a problem with people who call themselves African-American, or Japanese-American, or Irish-American... I guess I feel left out, because I can either be called a mutt, or a German-Dutch-British-French-Swedish-Native-American, but either way, lots of the people who do this, while it's politically correct and I say it just to keep people from thinking I'm a total heel, it bothers me that they almost love that they're something
other than American, more than they love being a citizen of this country, except that they get to have rights that allow them to do whatever the heck they want (which is my third pet peeve in one paragraph...
) This is one of the things I like best about Dumbledore's character. It's tiny, but, even though many wizards would find lemon drops (or sherbet lemons in the original UK version) inferior to Fizzing Whizbees or other wizarding candy, he likes it, regardless of whether it's Muggle or Wizard.
Back to my point.
If I were in charge of the world, there would be a worldwide standard (don't worry all you non-Americans, it most certainly would not be based on American education) in which each child is taught to love who they are and where they're from, but to learn enough about other cultures to put things into perspective, and to realize that there's so much out there that is great, even if most of the time you prefer to listen to Brittany Spears and Usher, and watch movies like American Pie. And I don't think wizards are except from this. Yes, they should learn about their heritage, but that doesn't mean that they should turn from everything else to spend crucial adolescent years learning
only about their culture. I think this is where this superiority complex most wizards (even nice ones, like the Weasleys) seem to have comes from. However, for some silly reason, God didn't see fit to put me in charge of the world.
carsten wrote:Athena Appleton wrote:In short, I really and truly believe that if you only pursue (sp?) things that are just like you, you aren't really living. In exposing yourself to many different cultures, to different languages and music and literature than you yourself would normally be around, you are able to live a much fuller life. This goes for everyone, including wizards.
Even Americans?
(sorry, couldn't hold that one back) Of course I agree with you to 100% on this.
Yup. But then again, I'm not your typical American. It's so funny to watch people's faces when I claim to be a Communist... but we'll not get into that here.
It is interesting, that JKR likes to keep worlds apart. Wizards to the left, muggles to the right, and a fine line between them. I haven't made my mind up about what this means. Maybe this will be at stake in the last book?
This is the only thing I really dislike about the books, and it's something that I have to just force myself to not think about or it bothers me and I can't enjoy them.
I was thinking about how they would do it. What would be the spirit? Would they do it with reluctance? Dislike? More like helping a pet? Or treating the others as equals? No idea...
Yeah, this is one of those things, though, that I think Muggles and Wizards are alike in. Wizards seem to see Muggles as queer eccentrics, unless they downright despise them. It kind of reminds me of an autobiography written in the 1950's.
Baronness Maria Augusta von Trapp (yup, you've probably heard the name) was the stepmother of the seven siblings in the famous von Trapp family, and she had three children of her own, too. In her autobiography,
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, she talks in a way that, even though it's respectful, she definately thinks that her Austrian ways of doing things are
obviously the best. She was a wonderful woman, by just about all accounts, but in her book, she talks about how glad she is that she's not binded by fashions, and she really rails on "popular" music of the time, saying that, yes, it's okay, but what is really "popular" (or for the people, by the people) are those wonderful old folk songs and ballads, not the junk they play on the radio. So she sang her Austrian ballads and learned and loved American songs like "Early One Morning" (it's a folk song, the only time I've ever heard it is in the movie Pollyanna), but what turned out to really be the folk music of America, the songs most people can at least hum a few bars to, are songs like "Unforgettable" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". Another thing she does, though is without sounding disrespectful, refers to how "cute" all the little "darkies" are (
very non PC here in the US now). No matter how old a black person was, she looked at them almost as children, but in the admiring way people look at my two-year-old. Not capable of too much, in general, but amusing. This is the kind of feeling I think most Wizards have of Muggles. They see Muggles as naive, incapable, but otherwise kind of interesting to watch and know. It's not a disrespectful prejudice, but it is a prejudice. It's for this reason that I don't think they would just stand by and let a Muggle be fatally harmed if they could do something about it. The Wizards who
would do that, though, are the ones who either don't care enough (like many Muggles are), are scared (like many Muggles are) or just hate Muggles in the same way people of the KKK would probably be willing to sit and watch a black man die.
This came out of the question for common interests between muggles and wizards. Athena's ideas are excellent (as always
), but the cultural chasm may be too broad to bridge. You cannot do anything else but look down on people who's memory you might need to change and who freak out if they get to know you better.
ehhhh...
I see your point, but since I believe that human nature is the same in all the characters (they all, whether Muggle or Wizard, fall into the same certain catagories) then I don't think it's as extreme as that. But I do think that's an excellent reason as to why wizards try to avoid all things Muggle. If they liked, say, playing poker (:lol:), they'd have to spend their poker time, and any other time spent with poker buddies, being careful not to let it slip that they're wizards... don't like it, but I'll take it as an acceptable answer.
[quote="Eol"]Who's to say the wizard would use magic to help the muggle in distress? They all know the rules about revealing themselves to be magical but many muggle problems/crises could be solved without magic. The only problem here is whether the Witch/Wizard in question would know what to do. I am sure that people such as Lupin, McGonagall and even Snape would be able to think quickly in this manner (though I have my doubts about whether Snape would help) and muggle born and half blood people would know some basic first aid. It's only the Pure blooded that would not be able to respond in a non-magical way, and most of them are so reclusive that it is unlikely that the situation would occur.[quote]
I'm sorry, but I really disagree with almost everything you've said (which is odd, since usually I think your posts are excellent
)
Basically, I think carsten was talking about in situations where most wizards
would use magic. If a Muggle walking down the road trips, a wizard would physically catch him. If something was falling and would obviously hit the muggle hard over the head, I think the various above-mentioned rules would apply: they slow down the object or otherwise save the person's life, they don't care, they're scared, they're not in a position to help (can't get at their wand, etc.), or they're Muggle haters who would rather "decrease the surplus population."
