Living Conditions for Wizards
By justabloke
@justabloke (526)
United States
January 3, 2008 1:11pm CST
I love the Harry Potter series, but, I did find it amusing, almost strange that most of the wizards and witches with all that power preferred to live more in the past than the future. Even the Hogwarts train is a stream train.
If you had the abilities of the wizards and witches in Harry Potter would you use any of it for materialistic gain?
2 people like this
4 responses
@aseretdd (13729)
• Philippines
4 Jan 08
I think the way the wizards are living their lives is what made them so interesting... other than that... since they already have magical powers... they do not have any need for an advance technology... most of the things that electricity can give are already produce for the wizards and witches by their magical powers...
Like what is the need for potato peelers if they can peel potatoes in a flick of a wand...
1 person likes this
@justabloke (526)
• United States
4 Jan 08
Thanks for the response. I see your point. From the films I always found it amusing that they portrayed a lot of the characters wearing very tatty and grubby clothes and some of the rooms at Hogwarts could certainly do with a paint job.
1 person likes this
@justabloke (526)
• United States
7 Jan 08
Just wanted to add that I recall the living conditions of Snape in the Deathly Hallows book and the description of them was that they were very poor.
As to peeling potatoes, didn't Mrs Weasley have the potato peelers peeling the potatoes, rather than turn potatoes straight into peeled potatoes?
I believe there is a line in one of the last books about not being unable to conjure something out of nothing, meaning that to make food you have to have food to start with. This would explain why the house-elves worked in the kitchens at Hogworts.
@RowenaTheWitch (947)
• Italy
8 Jan 08
In "Winx Club" series magic and technology coexist peacefully. There is also a "Tech fairy" Tecna who can control tecnology.
IMHO it would be wiser for wizards of the HP world to use tecnology too. Ok they have better transport systems (chimneys, teleport etc) but you can't compare a computer or a mobile phone with an owl who delivers messages.
Maybe Rowling wanted to create a world totally different from our own so she banned tecnology, or maybe when she started to write internet and mobiles were not popular yet
1 person likes this
@justabloke (526)
• United States
8 Jan 08
When I saw the first HP movie I hadn't read the books or had any knowledge of the series. I only saw clips of the movie at first and I thought it was based in Dickens Time. The 2 worlds, Muggle and Wizard had been seperated since 1600s(I think) and it appeared as the wizarding world didn't change too much from that date forward.
Like the Amish people I guess?
1 person likes this
@RowenaTheWitch (947)
• Italy
8 Jan 08
Yeah but they don't live in different places, some of them live in normal cities and they can be in contact with muggle tecnology if they want. For example the ministry is in London.
Also there are wizard kids who are born from normal people, why they don't teach to everyone how to use a computer?
1 person likes this
@justabloke (526)
• United States
9 Jan 08
Good point. There is a great part in one book when Ron tries to call Harry on the telephone.
1 person likes this
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
3 Jan 08
Witches and Wizards live like that because electrical and other modern day appliances would just react badly to having all of that magic around.
That being said, I'd use some power for personal gain, however, I'd want to use it for other things. You can't use it too much for one thing and expect nothing to happen. It throws everything out of balance.
1 person likes this
@justabloke (526)
• United States
3 Jan 08
Why would electricity and magic have anything in common? Are you saying that Magic and electricity are related?
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
10 Jan 08
In JKR's world, I believe she did answer the question that witches and wizards living with electricy would just cause things to go haywire with all of that magic around. I'm not quite sure what she meant by that, so you'd have to ask JKR herself :)
@lucgeta (924)
• France
9 Jan 08
Guess it adds to the charm of it, it wouldn't be the same without wand, owls, trains. Furthermore we live in a world of science, witch crafts are things of the past that scientist though very hard to be dissociated from. Secondly they might just have grown used to do things for ages.
