One wonders how many of the wizards, purebloods in particular, even remember why they try so hard to stay hidden. How many of them, as Hagrid claims, honestly believe it's because the Muggles will bother them for silly things if they don't, or slightly less benignly, because they don't want to mix with that riffraff?
The separation of the two worlds has all sorts of interesting implications in Muggle-Wizard relationships, both in their joint history and the present attitudes of wizards towards Muggles. For instance, linguistics would suggest that Muggles, having long since forgotten the reality of wizards, would have a few words left over from the magical word based on those which were most relevant, most strongly associated, or which retained relevance after the separation. It could hardly be coincidence that "the magic words" in Muggle society (besides "please") are barely distinguishable from the Killing Curse.
Two things immediately come to mind in terms of present attitudes -- one is the insistence of wizards that Muggles "don't notice nuffink", to use Stan's terms, but a commonly expressed sentiment, implying that Muggles are blind and/or stupid, when any time a Muggle *does* notice sumfink, it's immediately removed from his memory (and his brains are helpfully addled with it). This strikes me as a perculiar sort of bigotry, wherein the wizards' sense of superiority essentially requires them to blame the Muggles for their own opression.
The other is that wizards don't seem to have noticed how terribly far behind they've fallen, technologically (and our Muggle-raised protagonists seem to have forgotten). Face it, Muggles have slower but relatively fast and far more comfortable means of transportation over long distances, much smoother and more convenient forms of communication, and vastly wider selections of entertainment. Oh, and the thing you touched on that made me start thinking in this direction: better weaponry. Wizards seem to consider the Killing Curse the worst possible form of attack -- witness Harry, Ron, and the twins trying to guess what "the weapon" might be in OotP. By Muggle standards, that's pretty wimpy. Sure, it's efficient in killing, rather than injuring, and there's no defense if it hits, but you can only attack one person at a time, you have to be in sight and have a clear path between you, and unlike a bullet, it's slow enough that it can be dodged.
And now that I have wandered entirely off-topic, I'm going to bed, like I meant to an hour ago.
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Date: 2006-04-26 05:02 am (UTC)The separation of the two worlds has all sorts of interesting implications in Muggle-Wizard relationships, both in their joint history and the present attitudes of wizards towards Muggles. For instance, linguistics would suggest that Muggles, having long since forgotten the reality of wizards, would have a few words left over from the magical word based on those which were most relevant, most strongly associated, or which retained relevance after the separation. It could hardly be coincidence that "the magic words" in Muggle society (besides "please") are barely distinguishable from the Killing Curse.
Two things immediately come to mind in terms of present attitudes -- one is the insistence of wizards that Muggles "don't notice nuffink", to use Stan's terms, but a commonly expressed sentiment, implying that Muggles are blind and/or stupid, when any time a Muggle *does* notice sumfink, it's immediately removed from his memory (and his brains are helpfully addled with it). This strikes me as a perculiar sort of bigotry, wherein the wizards' sense of superiority essentially requires them to blame the Muggles for their own opression.
The other is that wizards don't seem to have noticed how terribly far behind they've fallen, technologically (and our Muggle-raised protagonists seem to have forgotten). Face it, Muggles have slower but relatively fast and far more comfortable means of transportation over long distances, much smoother and more convenient forms of communication, and vastly wider selections of entertainment. Oh, and the thing you touched on that made me start thinking in this direction: better weaponry. Wizards seem to consider the Killing Curse the worst possible form of attack -- witness Harry, Ron, and the twins trying to guess what "the weapon" might be in OotP. By Muggle standards, that's pretty wimpy. Sure, it's efficient in killing, rather than injuring, and there's no defense if it hits, but you can only attack one person at a time, you have to be in sight and have a clear path between you, and unlike a bullet, it's slow enough that it can be dodged.
And now that I have wandered entirely off-topic, I'm going to bed, like I meant to an hour ago.