In the Harry Potter books the British wizarding comunity is duscussed in detail. Fair enough, the books take place in England after all. Rowling however has said little about the wizards here across the pond.
We do know:
There is a witches school in Salem (GOF)
Quiddich is not as popular in America as it is in other countries (kind of like football/soccer). Americans prefer a game involving an exploding ball, the name of which escapes me (Quiddich through the ages)
So, what do dopers think the American wizarding comunity would be like. A few thoughts of my own.
Americans would not have the mudblood/pureblood thing. Why? most if not all American wizards would be, like the muggle population, decended from immigrants, and a fair amount of intermixing would occur. American wizards would be almost exclusivly mudbloods. Not to say that they would be without class divisions, but this would tend to be based on wealth rather than blood.
Enchantment of muggle artifacts. It was said in GOF that wizards can’t resist showing off whenever they are together. American wizards would, I think, be more prone to this. Tricked out, flying, '57 Chevys and Harley Davidson motorcycles would be the norm rather than the exception.
Goverment. The Bureau of Magical Affairs would replace the Ministry of Magic.
Just thought this would eb a good moment to mention that my junior high math teacher was a direct lineal descendant of the judge at the Salem with trials. Or at least that’s what she used to tell us.
I tend to think their would also be a school on the West Coast as well. Perhaps in the State of Jefferson (extreme Northern California)…where there is a lot of open land. I think the western USA wizard community would be much more laid back than the east coast school.
In general, I think American wizards would be much more intergrated with the muggle world than in England/Europe. They would know how to use a telephone, shop at the mall, etc. They would most likely hold muggle jobs, especially the ones on the west coast who don’t live near out center of governments. They would be less likely to go about in their robes except for school or formal occasions. I doubt you’d find a town like Hogsmead in the USA.
I was thinking about this while reading…was it Goblet of Fire ? The scenes at the World Cup encampment. I thought there oughta be:
[ul]
[li]a New England school*[/li][li]a “Hotel California” West Coast school[/li][li]and a Southern Gothic/New Orleans/voodoo school[/li][/ul]
Speaking as a Midwesterner, the Midwest is just not magical. Too down-to-earth normal (you betcha!).
*unless you want to look at the history of the Salem witch trials in the light that of course they really weren’t witches at all – that’s why the trials were so horrible – that there never were any magic types in that part of the country.
There would so be witches and wizards in the Midwest. It’s just that the charms and spells and such would specialize in agricultural fields or practical applications – charms to make novelty cheeses or something. Spells to reduce the occurence of root parasites in corn. Studies on the effect of different types of cow dung in potions – Guernsey, Holstein, or Swiss? Can’t you see a magical UW-Madison? I’ve always had my suspicions about State Street . . .
I mean, look at Molly Weasley – she’s about as down-to-earth as you get while still maintaining that certain swish-and-a-flick je nais se quois. There’re definitely loads of Mrs. Weasley-types in the midwest. Without the magic, of course.
I can also see a network of magical state schools – a little like the college/university system in the real world. Some would become more prominent and well-known for different fields of research, with the equivalent of Ivy League private schools established in the East, etc. In other words, the formal structure of the American wizarding commnity would be decentralized and mainly in the domain of the states, with minimal national framework.
Additionally, I think that maybe there would be mudblood prejudice yet, but the majority would have been dealt with in the civil rights movements of the '60s. The members of the American wizarding community who still adhered to the outmoded concepts of pure-blood superiority would be dying out while their children and grandchildren moved.
The fact that I’ve put more thought into this than most of my other posts scares me a little, quite frankly.
The American experience includes human slavery, the Civil War to abolish it, and all the aftermath of that. And we Americans have an old tradition, going back to the Puritans and Quakers, of taking self-righteous morally absolutist positions on public issues. Therefore, the de facto slavery of non-human magical creatures such as elves might be a hotter issue among American wizards than Old World wizards – Hermione might find some zealous allies here for her Elf Liberation Front. Also, relations with muggle society might be a hotter issue here – there might even be American wizards who want the whole magical community to abandon its ancient secrecy and “come out of the broom closet.”
‘coming out of the broom closet’ doesn’t necessarily have gay connotations. I know that some modern day witches refer to revealing their religious leanings to their families as such.
As to avoiding basic gay characters… well that’s a shame as I am sure there are gay people within the wizarding world.
At an SF convention last year, I met a woman who had a button with a picture of Harry and Draco in a soulkiss. She was a fan of slashfic – you know, Kirk/Spock, etc.
Hey, we aren’t the only ones who’ve had slavery. It was abolished in Britain only about 30 years before it was abolished in the U.S. (Granted, they didn’t have to have a civil war to do it across the pond.)
Anyway, I’m guessing that U.S. Wizardry would have incorperated a lot more non-European magical arts, over the years. Probably a lot of Voodoo and Cajun magic in the south. Probably a lot of Asian magic on the west coast (Hippie wizards…shudder). I’d imagine that at least some Native American magic would be used, too. (Maybe American wizards all know how to “Rain Dance”?)
