Muggle vs. Magical (SS/HG Exchange Brainstorming/Research)

[m_mcgonagall_65]

Muggle vs. Magical -- What if Hogwarts had a club to introduce Muggle things to the students?  What things would Muggles do just as well at or better than the Wizarding World and why?  At what things would the Wizarding World excel?  For example, Muggle vs. Magical cheesemaking?  Chocolates?  Wine-making?  Literature?  Theater?  Entertainment?  Medicine?  Other ideas?

Comments

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Music - I think Muggles have the market cornered on better music - I mean, the most popular Wizarding band has a bagpipe player? Give me Led Zep any day!

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

Didn't ACDC use bagpipes in "Long Way to the Top"?




Wasn't Bon Scott a cutie?!

Perhaps ACDC are wizards!

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

Cool bagpipes! I had forgotten about them in this song.

[lady-rhian.livejournal.com]

~nods~ I explored a similar vein in Sage.

Tho' I think wizards probably put on a better show. :-)

I'm wondering if there are any particularly unique or ethno-specific instruments you could appropriate as being from wizarding culture?

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

Now you're talking research. 8-0

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

We certainly don't hear a lot about music in the books--just teeny hints here and there.

[droxy.livejournal.com]

Muggles organize better than wizards- computer/net/email no owl droppings and no soot.

Literature and even art I think would be a tie. Ditto with knitting, muggles have machines to do it, wizards use magic.

Wizards beat muggles on apparation.

Wizards have house elves. A win on their side.

Muggles beat wizards on entertainment. Muggles have more sports, more events, cons, amusement parks, games, movies, music vids, much broader range of music and bands, pinball-arcades, parades, MArdi-gras, TV, movies on demand, theater, planetariums,etc.

Muggles may beat wizards at interior design.

Muggles may beat wizards at advances in astronomy and space exploration.

Telecommunciations- the mobile phone, ipad, ebook.

Muggles have more variety of office supplies- pens, post its, pencils and erasers, more paper product than I can name. Wizards just seem to use quills and parchement. (I am not counting the movie where there were standard compisition notebooks)

Divination- wizards have a slight edge, but it's still mostly hocus pocus.

Housework- I think wizards win here, as one could clean and organize a house very fast with spells.

Wizards win on the banking system from what I know of it.

Politicans- draw. No matter what they are, policians and govt officals are the same.

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

I totally agree that housework, either using charms or house-elves, must be way easier in the Wizarding world.

And I also liked your spin on the telecommunications (trust you to think of that), paper supplies, computers and telephones. And entertainment. We really don't hear much about that in the books, but then, everything is from Harry's point of view.

[droxy.livejournal.com]

Entertainment seems limited to: Quidditch, organized parties, reading, games(exploding snap), going out eat or drink (the leaky, and the wizard radio.

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

Just think how much longer the books would have been if they had to discuss what the teenagers did on the weekends. :)

[severely-lupine.livejournal.com]

I think it'd be pretty even on any of the arts. There's no magic involved there. Though the Muggles might have a slight edge just due to the breadth of knowledge they have to draw from, since there are far more Muggles throughout history than wizards. Though wizards who are well-versed in Muggle art/lit/etc. would have the advantage of drawing on not only Muggle examples but also wizarding ones to learn from.

Really, I think anything that didn't require magic would probably be pretty even. Medicine--Muggles have science, wizards have magic, but they generally cause the same effect. As long as the curing gets done, it's even. Though magic seems to work faster and cure things Muggle science can't, so that may go to the wizards. Anything that does require magic goes to the wizards by default.

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

The Wizarding world seems to have potions and spells that can cure more efficiently than the Muggles.

We just don't hear much about the arts at all in the books--not even literature, which is surprising since the world came out of a writer's imagination.

[morethansirius.livejournal.com]

A part of me thinks that the use of magic could lead to a certain amount of impatience with things that take nurturing. Somehow I expect wine and cheese to be better in Muggle form. Medicine is way better in the Wizarding world. We never saw much of the Wizarding entertainment world, but based on Celestina Warbeck and the Weird Sisters, I'm going to give the Muggles another win when it comes to music! I wouldn't be surprised to discover some great authors and playwrights were wizards and witches, but I think the Muggles would have the edge in Theatre. The goblins excel in silverwork and probably jewelry. Wizards can grow anything Muggles can and then some, so they win at gardening. Cooking and baking is probably a toss up. Wizards may have the edge in speeding things up, but Muggles look at food as an artform. Then again, there might be a tendency to depend on the house-elves for food and there may not be much change in Wizarding food. As for candy and chocolate, I'm giving that to Honeydukes, hands down!

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the cheese. From my understanding of the process, it's the milk and the aging that does the trick--not much Wizards can do to improve on that.

Is elf-made wine a canon or fanfiction invention? I wondered if there was magic to control all the conditions (temperature, etc.) if Wizarding wine might consistenly be better, but I don't know enough about wine-making to know.

I wonder about chocolate. Do you think that Honeydukes has all the different kinds of chocolate that Muggles do? Why would Honeydukes chocolate be better than Muggle chocolate? I agree that the candy is more imaginative in the Wizarding world, both good and bad. :)

[morethansirius.livejournal.com]

Elf-made wine is canon as Snape offers it to Narcissa and Bellatrix in Spinner's End. Maybe it's just the elves that make wine as the only other reference to wine I recall is the nettle wine in Snape's first year logic puzzle. Though the wizards definitely do other stuff like butterbeer, gillywater, red currant rum, Single Malt Whisky and Ogden's Old Firewhisky.

Hmmm. You have a point about the chocolate. We Muggles do rather obsess over it. I think Honeydukes may be more creative on candy in general, but maybe Muggles should have the edge on chocolate, especially dark chocolate.

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

I don't know enough about either wine making or chocolate making to really know if there is anything that would favor Muggles or Wizards. I was thinking that the quality of chocolate mostly depends on the quality of cocoa beans.

[talloakslady.livejournal.com]

One could argue that handmade puts more love into something; magic places a barrier between the thing: food, art, clothing. Wizard radio, though we have to remember that the books took place about a decade or more ago, sounded inferior. We never saw or heard if there was a wizard version of television or movies. Their newspaper had a quaint(again the movie version) 19th century look to it, for all the movie photos.

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

I was surprised that there was so little about the arts in the books. I guess it's because the books are from Harry's point of view, and he doesn't have much exposure to the Wizarding side of things.

[morethansirius.livejournal.com]

The fact that we only see things from Harry's point of view is a rather good point! Harry had a rather neglected childhood, so his view of Muggle entertainment was probably limited to television and radio. Heck, the Dursleys didn't even willingly take him to the zoo! His experience with Wizarding arts would be limited to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and the occasional jaunt to Diagon Alley. Who knows what's going on out in the great big Wizarding World that Harry doesn't even know about! You are officially given free rein to explore Wizarding Arts and other things through Hermione's eyes or Severus' eyes for a change!

~Squees in anticipation.~

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

*grins*

[talloakslady.livejournal.com]

You are right; they mention the band in GoF, radio, moving photos and paintings, but little else of cultural nature.

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

Weird, isn't it?

[lady-rhian.livejournal.com]

The comments above are fantastic and I haven't anything to add atm, save that it is perhaps pertinent to remember that we experience English wizarding culture very influenced, for all appearances, by 19th cen. English Muggle culture, etc. I think you'd have a *lot* of freedom when it comes to expounding on American or French or Australian or Chinese or what have you wizarding culture.

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

Do you suppose English wizarding culture is like 19th century England because the statute of secrecy keeps them from interacting and changing like the Muggles? In that case, wouldn't the whole Wizarding world be like that, since (I think) it's the International Statute of Secrecy? Of course, there were still many different cultures in the 19th century, so it would be an interesting exploration.

[blueartemis07.livejournal.com]

I think Muggles would excel at long-distance communication (phone, internet, etc), they would excel at entertainment, and travel. Otherwise, I'm certain the Wizarding world wins at medicine and things that need an organic or small-industry touch.

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

Interesting take with the organic and small-industry touch. I've been pondering this for a few days.