Tolkien screwed up his astronomy, too, so it’s hard for me to hold that against Rowling. Though I do like it when a non-scientist writer gets something right, like Swift correctly applying Kepler’s laws in Gulliver’s Travels.
Oooh, yet another chance for me to recommend Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, far and away the best (and basically only) piece of fan fiction I’ve ever read. Among other things, it delves into almost every question discussed in this thread from a scientific point of view… and manages to strike a balance where it’s clearly respectful of the source material but still willing to call it on BS when it’s BS… truly a remarkable read.
I like to recruit new readers to this fanfic.
It’s pretty long (85 chapters so far) but I think it’s worth delving into. And the first few chapters are really fun.
Heh. I left this on preview while I treated myself to a re-reading of the first few chapters, and look what happens…
I don’t think the phrasing is particularly awkward, or at least not more awkward than the way race has been talked about in the real world. “Pureblood” has been used to refer to the pedigrees of both humans and animals. “Mudblood” seems to be a term Rowling invented, or one that was at least not previously in wide use, but “half-blood” was once a fairly common derogatory term for biracial people, especially those who were half white and half Native American.
Rowling makes it clear in the series that “blood purity” makes no difference when it comes to magical ability, but it’s unfortunately all too realistic that there would be prejudices based on differences in people’s family backgrounds.
Whether she did or did not, she clearly has no idea how genetics works, and it’s best to accept this upfront and avoid thinking about it.
And she also has no idea how physics works, given that her books are full of, yanno, magic. I think saying she doesn’t know how genetics works in a fantasy world with only some relationship to reality is being a bit tough on her.
But how prevalent are “magical fields”? Around Hogwarts, but not in most places where muggles and wizards live with each other.
WTF? I can’t find where it left off last time, where Hermione hears the call of the phoenix and knows it’s not for her. Does the author actually change the story when he updates?
Tolkien was trying to recreate myth, not an alternative reality.
I’m into the 60’s of Methods, and loving it.
Don’t be foolish like I was, waiting for the fourth or fifth mention before going and reading the thing. Go now. The first couple of dozen chapters are hysterical and it’s a very good read all through.
There was a (non-canon) hint that Hermione had magical ancestry, though DQM, I could be wrong about that.
Um, no. Leaving aside that magic being inherited is difficult to compare, most things that are inherited we don’t know how they work. Intelligence would be the most obvious - we know there is some correlation to family, but how much is nature and how much nurture? Thinking that everything should be simple dominant/ recessive Mendelian when so very few things are single-alleles in real life would be a (common) mis-understanding of genetics, because that’s how far you get in basic biology in school.
Is the ability to play a musical instrument inborn or nurtured? How would you define “ability” in the first place? The same for magic - some kids are strong in magic, some weak, and very seldom a mutation is born as squib. And if during most of history a lot of children (born into muggle families) wouldn’t get any training, they wouldn’t know of their talent.
This is hinted at when it’s mentioned that things changed at Hogwarts with Dumbledore becoming Headmaster. It’s possible that admission criteria to Hogwarts changed from “at least one parent a wizard (and therefore knows about the magic world)” to “anybody with magic that the magic quill detects, even if both parents are culturally Muggles like Hermione and thus need an explanation when the letter arrives”
The author does occasionally change passages after they have been posted. Off the top of my head, the first chapter originally had Harry reacting a bit more emotionally after the owl picked up his letter (as opposed to the flat “What.” that he says now). Also, in his first Defense class, Quirrell originally listed the Adult Wizard as the most dangerous magical creature rather than the Dark Wizard.
The author occasionally joins in on the discussion of his fanfic on lesswrong.com and he had this to say about that edit at the end of Ch. 84:
[QUOTE=Eliezer Yudkowsky]
I’m very sorry about this. It referred to a part of Ch. 85 that I simply couldn’t work out in time for the posting deadline. I’ve removed the corresponding lead-in from Ch. 84.
If I get Ch. 85 to work as originally planned, I may put it back in later.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for that, because I intentionally didn’t read the last section because I wanted to wait until it was finished. I was afraid I’d missed something cool, even if it were no longer canon.
Now that I know where there is discussion, I’ll be sure to ask my questions there.
You’re preaching to the converted, my friend. The issue is that Rowling didn’t know that, and said some rather stupid things on the matter until it was pointed out to her.