That's much like your above comment about people's reaction to stitches. I think that in immersing ourselves into the story, we (well, some of us) take on the protagonists' viewpoints so completely that we forget that we do, in fact know more than they do, much less that we would, as you pointed out, be *part* of that decidedly uncool and actually oppressed minority class.
I just used Google Earth to trace a slightly roundabout path from Scotland to the south of France, then northwest to central Austria (the giants are in the mountains? I don't remember Hagrid clarifying, but I figured that was sort of the distant Alps). Roughly 1700 miles -- I used to go to school 550 miles from home, with nearly half the trip at a 55 MPH speed limit. It took us 10 hours to get there. Based on that, let's estimate that, if they pick an unusually slow method of getting there, it should take, oh, four days. Admittedly, finding Muggle transportation that will *fit* two 9-10 foot tall people is difficult, but it can be done. They could probably use magic to stretch a car's inner dimensions and *not* have that visible as "using magic", in order to keep hidden.
I was confused about the hurricane bit. Fudge said a giant was involved -- just one? Was it really a giant plus random destructive curses (like Reducto) that got interpreted as a hurricane? Did Voldemort actually manipulate the weather, and *also* bring in a giant? I will say that his destruction of a bridge was one of the few interesting moves we've ever seen him make in terms of being a real threat to Muggle society.
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Date: 2006-04-27 01:17 am (UTC)I just used Google Earth to trace a slightly roundabout path from Scotland to the south of France, then northwest to central Austria (the giants are in the mountains? I don't remember Hagrid clarifying, but I figured that was sort of the distant Alps). Roughly 1700 miles -- I used to go to school 550 miles from home, with nearly half the trip at a 55 MPH speed limit. It took us 10 hours to get there. Based on that, let's estimate that, if they pick an unusually slow method of getting there, it should take, oh, four days. Admittedly, finding Muggle transportation that will *fit* two 9-10 foot tall people is difficult, but it can be done. They could probably use magic to stretch a car's inner dimensions and *not* have that visible as "using magic", in order to keep hidden.
I was confused about the hurricane bit. Fudge said a giant was involved -- just one? Was it really a giant plus random destructive curses (like Reducto) that got interpreted as a hurricane? Did Voldemort actually manipulate the weather, and *also* bring in a giant? I will say that his destruction of a bridge was one of the few interesting moves we've ever seen him make in terms of being a real threat to Muggle society.