Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Witchcraft and Wizardry
On Monday, when we were asked for examples of contemporary examples of witches, my very first thought was Harry Potter. Contrary to the perceptions of witches during the post-renassaince and Salem Witchcraft Trials era discussed by Palmer, Harry Potter portrays witches and wizards in a very appealing way. They are shown to be (mostly) good beings, a higher almost reserved society, and secretive. In a way, they could be interpreted as "dangerous" to the muggles, but I think it was meant to keep the muggles safe. Almost like a government conspiracy theory of alien cover-ups. If muggles would have found out wizards exist, they would most likely freak out and be afraid for their lives and freedom. Almost as a societal control of muggles, kind of reminiscent of Palmer's argument that the idea of witches being promiscuous and of a different religious belief being a societal control of the masses. In reality, Harry Potter is a more realistic viewpoint of a witch/wizard culture if you think about it. If these beings somehow communicated with the devil and had supernatural powers, and knew they were being hunted, you'd think they'd be more careful about being caught. Thus developing a secretive culture of their own, away from the normals and using their spells/powers to hide themselves. Not hiding in plain view.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with your concluding argument. I've thought something similar in the past before. As you've said if witches have the power that they do then they wouldn't have been captured and killed so easily. Although I've never thought about them forming a secret society as you've mentioned. To me it's a rational conclusion. I know if I was going to be targeted and killed by all the people in my society that I wouldn't hide among them either. Even after the witch hunts ended it still wouldn't be safe to return and live among them as they could do the same thing again. I think that's a very interesting explanation for why Hogwarts was hidden from the "muggles."
ReplyDeleteJust like the other person who commented, I completely agree with how you ended this. I don't know why someone would openly tell people they are in contact with the devil or have powers. What if that information got out, of course people would try to find you and either kill you or have you captured. In today's society if someone was found to have some super natural power, I can only imagine what kind of tests people would want to perform on them to see what causes the power. I mean it would be cool to show off your powers, but what would come after that would not be worth it at all. The Harry Potter world would be much more realistic than our readings, just as you said.
ReplyDelete