The thing is, due to their masquerade, muggle news isn’t going to help them much. Even if there’s writing that can be read between the lines, most of the time it’s not going to be of interest. Today’s headlines from the BBC News website include May calling off the Brexit vote in Parliment, the snowstorm in the US, the replacement for Kelly, a nude shoot at the Great Pyramid, Voyager 2 leaving the solar system, and new phones from Samsung and Apple.
The Death Eaters, as a magical terrorist group, are already going to be hard to explain away. More so if most of the people in charge are ludicrously ignorant of the world, and that was before the government was compromised.
Hey, there’s maybe yet another discussion for another thread. Did Voldemort really have a chance, or would the magical world turn to muggles in desperation and let technology kick his group’s ass? Especially if the group is arrogant and in denial of muggles’ power.
Well, there is a magical radio. (What makes it magical and not just a radio is left to the reader.) But even so, is it made clear that it’s a government-funded enterprise? There’s never any mention of actual news on the thing, just some music.
I seem to recall, after the Death Eaters took over the Ministry, that the WWN turned to propaganda, and that some of the protagonists started up a guerilla broadcast to counter it. Which at least suggests that it’s ordinarily government-run, though I suppose that the Death Eaters could fairly easily have just taken over an independent media outlet at the same time as they did the government.
Yes, of course. Eminent wizards (esp. Dumbledore) are sometimes mentioned as reading, or having published in, Transfiguration Today, for example. The journal The Practical Potioneer is also mentioned, and I think there’s one for Charms as well though I don’t remember the title.
Look, if you are going to look for realism and consistancy from Harry Potter, you are going to be disappointed.
Rowling is inconsistent with many things. The wizards have no idea about the non-magical world, except all the times when they do.
Wizards wear Robes(!)* and have no idea about muggle clothes (No-Maj for the Americans here), except all the times they are described as wearing what are muggle clothes.
*Robes really get me. Rowling does not seem to realise that for most purposes Robes are outerwear. They are worn over regular clothes. I know, I wear them to Court. But underneath it’s just a regular dark business suit.
Same way with stuff like Cassoks. They wear normal clothes underneath.
In a real life example, back when I was in college my friends who majored in Telecos would write viruses to block the computers in their school’s lab. Whomever could unblock the computer got to use it. The school didn’t see a problem with this: as the lab was isolated (no internet connection), it was considered a perfectly fine field in which people who were aiming for jobs as Networks Administrators and similar job titles could hone their skills both in protecting their assets (the last computer they’d used) and in repairing damage. One of my friends figured out which patterns several of her classmates used to close their own viruses: social engineering at its finest, and it’s not as if those classmates could say “but, but how? It was MY virus!”, since that would have broken the very-thin illusion that “the culprit could not be identified” and therefore would have been punished.
Slytherins are built-in antagonists for the rest; some of them may go on to become, not Baddies, but People Who Pursuit Baddies.
Andy L writes: “The wizards probably read muggle news, and simply pretend to be ignorant of the simplest Muggle-devices because knowledge of ‘those people’ is declasse.”
The thing about the Potter books which positively delights me is this situation of which JKR tells, with the wizard community being as oblivious to the Muggle one and its doings, as vice versa. I find this such a fine source of comedy, that I’m ready to do a very considerable amount of “willing suspension of disbelief” concerning it: but that willing suspension is often a difficult feat. Wizards’ ignorance of the workings of Muggle technology, and Muggle daily life in general – even on the part of supposed “Muggle experts” such as Mr. Weasley – is a feature which particularly strains my disbelief-suspending apparatus to breaking-point.
It is, again, something a child would believe. It doesn’t work at all for adults,but it does for kids.
If you were writing the books solely for adults, what would work better is if wizards and muggles failed to understand one another’s culture, values and political positions. (It is interesting to note that the wizarding world is remarkably undemocratic and authoritarian, much more so than the democratic nations most of the characters physically reside in, and that right there could be a source of great consternation on both sides.) That’s perfectly realistic; in modern society, different nationalities, and even different ethnic groups within the same nation, often struggle to understand each others’ politics and culture. That sort of thing might be over a kid’s head, though.
Like the Sorting Hat says in the first book, and Harry Potter says to his son at the end, Slytherin is about being great.
It just happened that during Harry’s years Slytherin House happened to have a bunch of schmucks – but having a class or year of schmucks is a common experience in school.
Um, I think it may be you who don’t realize that the pre-modern robes on which wizard dress is presumably based were not outerwear: that is, the wearer didn’t have a complete outfit underneath the robe.
Beginning in medieval Europe, the long robe (or gown/cassock/etc.) was what clergy and scholars wore in place of the shorter tunic of the laity. They would have their underlinen, a shirt and possibly “breeches” (underpants), beneath the robe, but if they took off the robe they would definitely not be considered fully dressed.