-
Medieval in More Ways than One
We have seen that the demographics of the wizarding world resembles pre-industrial Britain between the late middle ages and the early modern period. I have discussed the burden of infectious diseases on wizarding society but traditionally disease is not the only problem facing pre-industrial societies.
Where death stalks the land, it does so in the ( Read more... ) -
The Missing Babies
Exploring:- Infant mortality in the wizarding world and why there is so little evidence for it
- How wizarding society functions
- Why having a large family is beneficial
- Why wizards/witches may have a very different attitude to family planning
In previous essays, I have explored how infectious disease can create high death rates in wizarding society. This ( Read more... ) -
Fantastic Beasts and Gruesome Disease
A discussion of- Purely magical diseases
- Ways in which infections can jump from magical creatures to wizards
- How the magical world controls the spread to muggles
- Why the magical world doesn't use modern medical techniques
-
Snape and Sirius
Cut: An analysis of Severus Snape and Sirius Black ( Read more... ) -
Why Lily chose James
I'll just say up front: This is pro Jily, and more specifically pro Lily. So spare me your Snape-and-his-achy-breaky-heart stuff. You're wasting your time. I'll always ship Jily. Snapewives comments will just get you snarky response ( Read more... ) -
War and Plague (continued from Demographics of the Wizarding World)
High death rates in pre-industrialised countries reflect a large disease burden. Mostly this disease burden is due to infectious diseases that are endemic and also circulated as frequent, regular epidemics. With modern medical care, developed nations like Britain have managed to cut both the disease burden and death rate from infectious diseases ( Read more... ) -
Demographics of the Wizarding World
Throughout human history the demographics of our societies has changed as we have developed. Today different societies are at different points along this demographic transition. For example developed nations like Japan and the UK, typically have a low birthrate and long life expectancy making children only a small proportion of the population, ( Read more... ) -
Unsung Heroes: Colin Creevey & Frank Longbottom
An exciting and informative pasttime as a Harry Potter fan is to ruminate the details of characters and storylintes; to dissect the meaning behind author JK Rowling's story. Throughout the web are great multiple analyses of minor and supporting characters which challenge the importance of their small roles. For example, science fiction website Tor. ( Read more... ) -
Tom Marvolo Riddle Era Timeline
I have written this out for my own amusement and as a resource for those who write Tom Riddle school fic and Tom Riddle Time Travel fic, of which I have read a lot lately. And that has made me ask the question, what do we know, canonically, about Tom Riddle’s school days?
Tom Marvolo Riddle's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and WizardryHappy Easter ( Read more... ) -
The Noble Sport of Warlocks: notes
I just participated in the 2012 Harry Potter Interhouse Fest on LiveJournal. This was prompt 73:
Characters: Heidi Bell, Katie Macavoy
Female bonding over being two women in the British and Irish League. Despite the presence of an all-female team (which neither of them play for), professional Quidditch is still very much a man's world. Friendly ( Read more... )