Well, skinwalkers aside that section was horribly thought through. If only for not answering the question of if immigrant wizards were all chummy with the American Indian populations where did all the Native wizards go? It's like they're props, and their soverignity is underwritten by the new arriving wizards as if that was, well, manifest destiny. It surprises me that people spend time getting offended by cultural misapporpriation, but I suppose for someone from a res it's just insult to injury.

I don't really think she does draw on very much cultural heritage from anywhere. Skinwalkers are the only thing, and that's just one tribes heritage, in a landscape where there are thousands of confederacies and cosmologies to draw from. It seems like she watched Dancing With Wolves and then wrote three paragraphs.

Personally, about what I expected. Ignorant as hell, but how could she know?

 

How's that? Grindelwald wanted wizards to rule over muggles as kind of philosopher kings/God Emperors while the North American wizards want nothing to do with muggles. I'd say the Americans would be more likely to be extremely against Grindelwald than support him.

 

I'm curious about the implications from a more stringent separation of wizards from muggles in North America. Clearly JKR is setting up the conflict for the film, and the idea of Rappaport's Law feels less like segregation and more like the treatment of homosexuality during that period. Given that the story is taking a 1920's feel, it would make a weird sense to have all sorts of hidden relationships between magical and muggle, even to the topmost leadership but all hidden in their (expanded) closets.

Then I considered what the declaration of an Eastern seaboard politician would mean for a bunch of savages in the West who happen to be integrated into their tribes... the Amerind near-genocide could then be partially blamed on the hysterical MACUSA aurors stealing away all the shamans just when the tribes needed them most- for Divination, Defense and Healing. Somehow I doubt that JKR would follow that line of reasoning, though.

 

Part 4
1920s Wizarding America
By J.K. Rowling
The wizards of America had played their part in the Great War of 1914-1918, even if the overwhelming majority of their No-Maj compatriots were ignorant of their contribution. As there were magical factions on both sides, their efforts were not decisive, but they won many victories in preventing additional loss of life, and in defeating their magical enemies.

This common endeavour led to no softening on MACUSA’s stance on No-Maj/wizard fraternisation, and Rappaport’s Law remained firmly in place. By the 1920s the US wizarding community had become used to existing under a greater degree of secrecy than their European counterparts and to selecting their mates strictly from within their own ranks.

The memory of Dorcus Twelvetrees' catastrophic breach of the Statute of Secrecy had entered magical language, so that being ‘a Dorcus’ was slang for an idiot or inept person. MACUSA continued to impose severe penalties on those who flouted the International Statute of Secrecy. MACUSA was also more intolerant of such magical phenomena as ghosts, poltergeists and fantastic creatures than its European equivalents, because of the risk such beasts and spirits posed of alerting No-Majs to the existence of magic.

After the Great Sasquatch Rebellion of 1892 (for full details, see Ortiz O’Flaherty’s highly-acclaimed book Big Foot’s Last Stand), MACUSA headquarters was relocated for the fifth time in its history, moving from Washington to New York, where it remained throughout the 1920s. President of MACUSA throughout the decade was Madam Seraphina Picquery, a famously gifted witch from Savannah.

By the 1920s Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had been flourishing for more than two centuries and was widely considered to be one of the greatest magical education establishments in the world. In consequence of their common education, all witches and wizards are proficient in the use of a wand.

Legislation introduced at the end of the nineteenth century meant that every member of the magical community in America was required to carry a ‘wand permit’, a measure that was intended to keep tabs on all magical activity and identify the perpetrators by their wands. Unlike Britain, where Ollivanders was considered unbeatable, the continent of North America was served by four great wandmakers.

Shikoba Wolfe, who was of Chocktaw descent, was primarily famous for intricately carved wands containing Thunderbird tail feathers (the Thunderbird is a magical American bird closely related to the phoenix). Wolfe wands were generally held to be extremely powerful, though difficult to master. They were particular prized by Transfigurers.

Johannes Jonker, a Muggle-born wizard whose No-Maj father was an accomplished cabinet maker, turned himself into an accomplished wandmaker. His wands were highly sought after and instantly recognisable, as they were usually inlaid with mother-of-pearl. After experimenting with many cores, Jonker’s preferred magical material was hair of the Wampus cat.

Thiago Quintana caused ripples through the magical world when his sleek and usually lengthy wands began entering the market, each encasing a single translucent spine from the back of the White River Monsters of Arkansas and producing spells of force and elegance. Fears about over-fishing of the monsters were assuaged when it was proven that Quintana alone knew the secret of luring them, a secret he guarded jealously until his death, at which point wands containing White River Monster spines ceased production.

Violetta Beauvais, the famous wandmaker of New Orleans, refused for many years to divulge the secret core of her wands, which were always made of swamp mayhaw wood. Eventually it was discovered that they contained hair of the rougarou, the dangerous dog-headed monster that prowled Louisiana swamps. It was often said of Beauvais wands that they took to Dark magic like vampires to blood, yet many an American wizarding hero of the 1920s went into battle armed only with a Beauvais wand, and President Picquery herself was known to possess one.

Unlike the No-Maj community of the 1920s, MACUSA allowed witches and wizards to drink alcohol. Many critics of this policy pointed out that it made witches and wizards rather conspicuous in cities full of sober No-Majs. However, in one of her rare light-hearted moments, President Picquery was heard to say that being a wizard in America was already hard enough. ‘The Gigglewater’, as she famously told her Chief of Staff, ‘is non-negotiable.’

 

Bigfoot confirmed!

 

Sweet, sweet information.

Also, Gigglewater :awesome now that's a funny sounding word.

 

Thunderbirds and super wands confirmed. No seriously, custom wands with special wood and core just became actually possible.

 

Add a little Gigglewater to the mix and you are the most powerful wizard in the world.

 

I think it's not surprising that American wand-makers would use different wand cores. After all flora and fauna of magical world varies as much as that of muggle one and wandmakers are probably not eager to share their methods.

Wandmakers are sort of artist in magical world, trying to be unique rather than copying competition also makes more sense for handcrafted products like wands

 

I don't think those are super wands, just wands with different cores/woods than Ollivander's. And I think I'd prefer a core from a phoenix/unicorn/dragon rather than from some swamp dog.

Also, didn't Rowling write that wizards weren't allowed to participate in WWI, which is something Henry Potter protested? I find it really hard to believe that wizards took part in muggle wars, because they all have war-ending powers.

 

My biggest problem with these new wandmakers is that the source creatures weren't in the book 'Fantastic Beasts'; the Sasquatch is mentioned as a warm woodlands Yeti, but the rest are glaringly absent... even though Newt has supposedly been updating the guide over the years in new editions.

 

I thought that was the local law for British wizards. The international law states that wizards can't reveal themselves to the muggle world. Which American wizards didn't they just fought other wizards.

 

Thunderbirds....

Yeah. That just happened.

Well, let's hope the movie ends up actually including them so this doesn't become a throwaway line giving credence to all the glorious awful Thunderbird animagus fics.

 

I'll be honest. This bit that most rubbed me wrong was this:

I'm having flashbacks to every shitty soul bond or creature fic ever.

 

I'm fairly sure the entire point of Pottermore is simply to pander to fanon.

I shall ignore Pottermore until the day I die.

 

That's retarded.

Whatever makes you happy, friend.

I bet you like magical cores and notice-me-not charms.

Though I think you'll miss out on a lot of new and interesting information.

 

I don't ignore it, but I don't go out of my way to find out things either. I don't personally consider it canon either. That said some stuff has been interesting.

Also whether you call it canon or not doesn't really matter or not in the end I guess, ideas are ideas.

 

I think Pottermore is an example of the best and worst aspects of Rowling's Worldbuilding: a lot of good, little details, but kind of bad with the big picture or really thinking things through.

 

Random rant.

Pottermore, especially in it's current form, it's basically a constantly updated setting guide. And those are generally considered canon, especially if written by the author of the original work. I will go even further and say that it's more canon than books, due to it being later work, and thus retconing previous material in cases of inconsistencies.

The argument that some entries aren't well thought-out is quite absurd, as this was already the case with the books. Honestly, I'd say that Pottermore material is on average better in this regard, no doubt due to Rowling having more experience.

But I understand why some are deny Pottermore's canonicity. After all it ruins their precocious headcanon. Astoria was prejudiced about muggleborns and not a bubbly, cute and innocent girl? Wizarding America isn't perfect land of FREEDOM? Only few Potters were on Wizengamot? Oh, how cruel of Rowling to shatter the dreams of poor fans.

 

Sataniel

That is my exact position as well. I view Pottermore as having a higher canon status than the books themselves.