Colour me surprised. These days, I guess I just can't tell the difference anymore.

 

Eh, while I enjoy the idea of the Ministry of Magic being one of the Ministries of the Muggle government (I used it in Yes, Minister), that line is far from conclusive.

For all we know it can be a magical law, not a Muggle one, which was enacted not due to the magical government being subordinate to the Muggle one, but rather through simple courtesy to the Muggle government.

IMO the name, as Enembee said, is better evidence.

But even if the MoM is officially part of the Muggle government, de facto it's a separate power, as the Muggles have no oversight of it, and indeed only know of it by the will of the magical government.

 

Err...what? A HP story can never revolve around geo-politics? And why the hell are you even equating geo-politics with Tom Clancy? The reason why half of his stories took place is due to the fact that he ignored geo-politics to begin with...

Why? Just because you don't like this kind of story?

 

In a word, yes.

 

And why I should listen to you?

 

Because I'm an internet tuff gai and I have an e-peen the size of the Madagascar.

In reality I just think that in HP, foreign countries should be left largely on their own. Otherwise you get dickheads proclaiming that America is a Utopia of wizardry. I'm somewhat interested in the European aspect but only because we know a little more about Europe from HP.

The U.S and Japan can stay the fuck out of fanfiction.

 

Are we to take it that you didn't enjoy JBern's Bungle in the Jungle? Cause magical south america was pretty bomb in my opinion.

As long as people try to keep it balanced and not blatantly anti-british ministry, I think it's pretty cool.

 

It was ok at first. Then came the spelldodge. >_>

 

Hahaha-- ah well, nobody's perfect.

 

When you spend more time attending to culture and politics than to characters and story, it's no longer worth reading.

Trust me, its why no good ones exist.

 

About the Fudge quote in HBP, I always assumed that it was a magical law that the Minister had to inform the Muggle Prime Minister of anything that could affect Muggle Britain. Just what I always assumed.

As for Muggle/Magical borders...well, take this example,

In 1526 King Louis II of Bohemia & Hungary went into battle against the armies of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire at Mohacs (Hungary).

Why is this important?

Because King Louis II died in that battle.

This unfortunate turn of events led to Hungary and Bohemia becoming part of the Habsburg Empire. Louis was married to Mary of Habsburg, who just happened to be the sister of Ferdinand I of Austria (Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria at the time). When he died, Ferdinand inherited Hungary (and was crowned King of Bohemia by their Diet) because of that marriage and a treaty made with Louis' father Ladislaus V (otherwise it may have went to Sigismund I of Poland & Lithuania...but that's not really relevant).

Now, exactly why would the wizarding communities care (other than maybe muggleborns) about this? Do you think the Hungarian or Czech wizarding communities cared that Louis II died or that the Habsburg's now ruled? I don't.

The only time I can really see the muggle governments having an effect upon the wizarding world would perhaps be things like colonizing the New World. Once the wizards found out, some of them might have left for Americas and would have settled into colonies of their mother country, so as to better hide within them.

And am I the only one who thinks America may have been settled by the wizarding equivalent of Puritans? Who knows, they could worse than Britain. Maybe some came over to get away from the polluting effect of 'Mudbloods' and have built a very anti-muggle community in the New World, one that would only be furthered by the Salem Witch Trials...perhaps they were muggleborns that the pureblood bigots didn't inform of their talents? Not wanting them to pollute their communities as well?

Edit: Actually, I believe Charles V was Emperor & Archduke in 1526 (And King of Spain & Duke of Burgundy and so on and so forth), Ferdinand was, iirc, named King of Hungary and Bohemia and succeeded Charles to the Imperial and Archducal thrones when he abdicated in, what was it, 1559...with Philip II taking Spain & Burgundy.

 

Who says you need to ignore what is happening to the characters in a geo-political story?

If a geo-political story does that, then essentially it is a sucky geo-political story. That does not mean all geo-political story must ignore character development.

 

That's about how I feel about it--magical governments are going to be allowed much more flexibility since land and distance mean a lot less, and depending on how closely tied to their muggle equivalents they are, they may just ignore 'current events' in favor of the old status quo.

Now there's an interesting idea... I like it. I kind of always imagined an American wizarding world as being based on native american shamanism and all that, but it would be a neat contrast if there was also a 'puritan' element. That would be very interesting indeed.

 

You're probably the most stubborn person I've ever met. You've had a whole bunch of intelligent, well known and well read fanfiction authors tell you it won't work.

So here is a list of reasons it certainly won't:

1. Nobody in your intended readership (Ages 13-21) gives a shit about real Politics, even in their local area where it dramatically effects their real life.
2. Nobody in your intended readership (Ages 13-21) gives a shit about real Geo-Politics, even when it dramatically effects the real world.
3. Nobody in your intended readership (Ages 13-21) gives a shit about MoM politics in a fictional Harry Potter world.
4. Thus: Nobody in your intended readership (Ages 13-21) is going to give two hoots about the fictional political systems of magical communities that have absolutely no relevance to Harry Potter.

Nobody wants to read about how America and China run their magical worlds, what their foreign policies are or why they're integral to Harry Potter's defeat of Voldemort, his evil twin or G.I fucking Joe. They don't give a shit.

And now you're going to go 'ZOMG I GIVE A SHIT', 'ZOMG METHENE WRITES POLITICAL HP FANFICTION AND EVERYONE LOVES IT'

Well here's the God's honest truth: A vast minority of people give any semblance of a flying fuck about politics. Then, there are a vast minority of talented authors who could pull off something like this and make it actually readable. The vast majority of that minority couldn't manage to write something that had more than about 4 reviews.

Nobody wants to read it. They want to read Harry fucking Draco, or putting on his super shoes and sticking it to the man. Or growing up without magic and ending up as a psychiatrist that fucks Draco. Or ending up in a mental home and then going on to fuck Draco. Or whatever.

Geo-politics has no relevance to Harry Potter fanfiction the same way that Geo-politics has no relevance to ants.

If you don't believe me, write one and just see how it goes.

Now shut up about it.

 

Since when is fanfiction about popularity in the first place? Based on what you are arguing, then the only type of HP fanfic we can write about is a slash fic between Harry and Draco.

Moreover, why can't geo-politics concern Harry Potter? If Harry is put into a position where he has to deal with geo-politics, then geo-politics is essentially a backdrop for the story.

For all we know, Harry's duties as an auror requires him to deal with the Chinese wizarding goverment and their respective aurors. In this case, how the wizarding government in China works needs to be elobrated for the progression of the story.

 

I'm pretty sure enembees' point is that, no one gives a shit about stories where geo-politics do concern Harry. Whether or not they're necessary, they're just not going to be as widely enjoyed as, as he said, a story where Harry and Draco have dat buttsecks.

 

What about the Political Scientists on the board? (Gio and I) Surely we give a damn about politics...

 

What is the point of writing a story for eight people?

Also I will demonstrate why geo-politics cannot concern Harry Potter:

Two whole people?

 

Does it even matter how many people reading it?

Moreover, citing paperwork as an example is a pretty stupid example. You essentially pick the most boring aspect of a story and argue the genre as a whole is boring.

By that definition, any story that involves a war would be boring because the author must wrote tons of scenes discussing logistics.

Great, we should all stop writing any HP story that doesn't cover Harry and Draco having sex just because a majority of people enjoys such stories.

 

Seems pointless to write for nobody.