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!

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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.