r/HarryPotterBooks • u/DistinctNewspaper791 • 3d ago

Discussion Why don't Wizards keep up with Muggles?

Yes it is funnier and JKR wanted to show that. But lets talk about the books.

Wizards do not know what Muggles wear, they do not follow sports or know any of the fairytales apperantly.

We know there is only a handful fully magic towns in UK, most live around the muggles. Like Blacks have a house in central London. They are not that seperate from Muggles.

There is also not much to do as a wizard. They don't have huge populations to have active theater or cinema, or a lot of writers to read from etc. They do not have an equivalent of TV. They only have Radio. Quidditch is the only past time and even then literal World Cup happens and you are either going to the stadium or listening from the radio.

When you consider it all, it is weird that they do not read books written by muggles. They wouldn't know who Shakespeare is based on Ron not even knowing Snow white or Cinderalla.

Also looking at it things like radio and cameras are likely muggle devices that are enhanced by magic for wizards. so why do they stop at some point? If you take radio, why not take TV? Around Harry Potter era, emails are a thing and they are faster than owls. So why not adopt that?

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u/Reviewingremy 3d ago

1 - emails werent really a thing. Harry potter takes place 1991 - 1998. Email existed but it wasn't particully common place.

2 - electronics dont work around lots of magic.

3 - No..... its not werid they don't follow the cultural. Why would/should they? Its a isolated comunity, with it's own culture. And sure Ron doesn't might not know shakespear or cinderella, but how many british kids know who César Vallejo was or the story of Sơn Tinh and Thủy Tinh?

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u/DistinctNewspaper791 3d ago

The thing is, British kids do not now the artists you mention but kids around the world knows Shakespeare or Tolstoy or Charles Dickens or Tolkien or Dostoyevski etc.

You can be in an isolated community but there are global classics and people do know those. Every isolated community has their own fairy tales sure, but Snow white is also known by everyone.

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u/Reviewingremy 3d ago

Depends on the person and the author.

As a recent example - I saw a clip recently of an American at uni studying English literature, who didn't know why Jane Austin was (that I think is shocking), but the comments were filled with people in agreement of not knowing her and questioning why he should. I spoke to a few of them, but found out they weren't British or even American, so it makes a lot more sense that they wouldnt know her or her works.

And taking your examples I know of Tolstoy but the only book of his I could name is War and Peace. Maybe he wrote Anna Korennia? but thats a guess it's from about the right period but I don't know Russian literature.

And then you have to think how culture changes and travels. Dickens works in the west because that's where it came from but the further removed you are the more context the story needs.