What with dorm life and new friends and new abilities that were not available before, many people (according to Facebook statuses) have been comparing themselves to Harry Potter. So that got me thinking.
Why didn’t anybody just bring in a ballpoint pen or a Nintendo to Hogwarts and freak everybody out? All anyone is ever using are quills with ink and crap. Who needs that? Just bringing a pack of Bics will make your bag lighter. Just because they can do magic shouldn’t mean they need to haul ink pots around. And screw scrolls. Why not notebooks and binders? And has anyone invented the typewriter yet?
Okay. Hogwarts has no electricity and batteries with infinite battery life probably violate some sort of muggle artifacts interference legislation. But I don’t think anyone thought to ban hand-cranked generators or solar panels. Just charge up a stack of car batteries on a sunny day? Unfeasible? Not if all the equipment can fit in an enchanted duffel bag.
And how do they mow lawns and such without internal combustion engines? Unless they can somehow magic the grass to halt mitotic cell division… ? Well that makes the other stuff look easy. If they can affect biological processes, why not affect individual electrons or other subatomic particles and induce electricity?
Join me next week for a brainstorming of the economy of Middle Earth.