Unrelated Thoughts on Geography, Pottermore, and Other Stuff

[danajsparks]

I have a few things floating around in my head, none of which really warrants its own post....

SwythyvIs anyone in touch with her? If so, could you please let her know that we're thinking of her? I know she's had some ups and downs with her health, so I hope she's ok. I'm missing her essays. Most of her older ones are still available on hp-essays

Comments

[vermouth1991]

1. It really saddens me when people on forums and blogs lose contact with one another

[sunnyskywalker]

And it really seems like the wizarding government being a subservient Ministry is a polite (or not so polite) fiction, since we see that the usual pattern is that wizards sometimes inform the PM of what they're doing and the PM has no effective authority over them. So it shouldn't be too surprising if the wizarding nations don't have the same borders as the Muggle ones, though the Muggle ones might influence them. (Maybe the original 13 American colonies are still British, and other parts within the Muggle US are American? Or still part of France and Spain and Russia and Mexico and...?)

[danajsparks]

You got me thinking about what Wizarding America might look like. Since European immigrants wouldn't have centuries of ties to particular land, I think they would more likely live in magical enclaves, rather than scattered amongst Muggles. I also imagine there to be more magical settlements in Canada than in the U.S., and the U.S. and Canada may not be separate countries in the wizarding world.

[sunnyskywalker]

Yes, it probably would have been a lot easier to set up hidden magical towns on this continent. There's so many good places to hide them, too--multiple big mountain ranges where a little town tucked into a valley could go unnoticed, huge stretches of grassland with no roads or people nearby, vast swamps, all those cold bits of Canada with extremely sparse population... If Seclusion was formally instituted roughly the same time in the North American colonies as in Europe (and why wouldn't it be), any magical communities in the French Canadian areas probably didn't later switch to British government when the Muggles did, so there's probably at least two Euro-descended magical governments operating there, and the Muggle border might not be a factor to them

[nx74defiant]

Molly Weasley works as the author for much of the content.

I really like that idea.

[danajsparks]

I can't decide whether it's amusing or creepy that Rowling often seems to view the potterverse through the same lens as Molly Weasley.