death to capslock

Was Harry's year unusually small?

2021-03-14T14:05:00Z

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

I must be on a "lost causes" kick this year...

I accepted for years that Harry’s year must have significantly fewer students than normal, because (a) he was conceived at or at least right before the very height of the war, and (b) we see “over a hundred” students in the Great Hall in Snape’s memory of his DADA OWL, which makes it sound like the Marauders’ year was much bigger.

I’m no longer sure that this is such a solid conclusion, however.( Read more... )

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How magical are most wizards?

2021-02-07T19:33:00Z

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

Trying to line up the contradictory statements throughout the series about average magical ability into something coherent is probably a lost cause, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

( Read more... )

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Wizarding population and education outside Hogwarts

2018-12-10T17:25:00Z

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

I'm trying to piece together some muddled thoughts about wizarding population and society. This comes in two parts: concerning the population of wizarding Britain and Hogwarts, and concerning whether we can find wiggle room for non-Hogwarts educational options.

Fair warning: I'm probably better at math than Rowling, but that is a low bar. (At least one and probably all of her population estimates are probably wrong.) Corrections and better ideas welcome!

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More grumbling about how the fans treat JKR...

2015-04-26T00:03:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

I recognize that this is several months after the fact, but as a Jew, I can't help but be a bit miffed by the fact that people felt the need to ask Rowling if there were Jewish students at Hogwarts. Surely that's something they could have inferred themselves, if they so chose? Yet, they were so thrilled to learn that Anthony Goldstein was Jewish straight from the author's mouth. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that Anthony Goldstein never says or does anything, ever, in the entire course of the series (and is a Ravenclaw, note, not a Gryffindor), to me that's a bit like a Jewish metalhead going up to the guys in Iron Maiden and asking permission, as a Jew, to be a fan. It is true that the members of Iron Maiden had said they'd welcome Jewish fans--which near as I can tell was without a prompt, and in any case didn't focus specifically on Jewish fans but was more a blanket "We're so accepting and welcoming that we take all types of fans!" thing. Either way I have never, ever, ever heard of anyone asking the members of Iron Maiden if they accept fans of their racial or cultural background, because that's simply not how it works--either you like Maiden's music and consider yourself a fan or you don't. Likewise, if you think there ought to be Jewish students at Hogwarts you're well within your rights to imagine there being, and the author's own ideas on the subject don't and shouldn't have to play into this at all.

And here's the thing: the UK is a fairly diverse, multicultural place already. Probably it has representatives of the majority of races, cultures, and creeds that have ever existed living there (granted, this is not to say that it's without discrimination or prejudice--but that's slightly off-topic). So...shouldn't it be reasonably expected, that if a group is represented by a cross-section of the UK's population (Hogwarts is the leading British wizard school, Iron Maiden are a British band and initially gained traction in the UK before going international...), that group will contain at least a few Jews by definition? Because there are plenty of Jews that live in the UK. I even met some of them when I studied abroad there.

I just think it's ridiculous that these fans can't come to their own conclusions about this, but instead have to ask the author about it. Can they not make their own decisions about anything related to the series at all?

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Upon the Matter of Britain

2014-12-11T17:27:00Z

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

By “matter,” of course, I mean earth. Land. Which is to say, geography.

You thought I meant something else?
( Read more... )

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How Many Wizards and Witches are There?

2011-03-30T22:23:00Z

Posted by: danajsparks.livejournal.com

I've been playing around some more with numbers to try to estimate the percentage of muggle-borns in the wizarding world, and one of the problems I've run into is that I can't decide how many wizards and witches there are overall. I've read two excellent essays on the matter by Jodel and Whitehound. Jodel estimates that there are between 3600 and 4800 wizards and witches, depending on the average lifespan, which she guesses is between 90 and 120. Whitehound argues that there are closer 10,000 wizards and witches altogether in the British Isles. ( Read more... )

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The Muggle-Born Population

2011-03-24T16:23:00Z

Posted by: danajsparks.livejournal.com

In some interview, J.K. Rowling apparently said that Britain's wizarding population is roughly divided into 25% muggle-born, 50% half-blood, and 25% pureblood. However, while JKR may have said that 25% of witches and wizards are muggle-born, this is not what she has actually shown in canon. ( Read more... )

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