Thursday's child has far to go

[kat_lair]

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Create: Well, my Craig/Bruno drabble for today's prompt is not quite what was requested but it's on the broad theme of relocation...

 

In thinking about the Squee prompt, I would love to read more stories set in the Harry Potter universe but not in Britain. I'm fascinated about the potential of what the magical world and life would look like in other countries. Fantastic Beasts gave us... Well, New York, which is like not even all of the potential of USA. New Orleans? Alaska? Hawaii? Texas?!?!? (o_O) The book have some terribly stereotypical representations of some European locales (Beauxbatons and Durmstrang...) but I'd love to know what the Wizarding world would be like in the Nordic countries (honestly, just the potential of Finnish mythology and folk beliefs re sauna and forests alone...!), in Greece, or Austria or... To say nothing of the rest of the world! India! Japan! Brazil and the whole of Amazon basin... In fact, how do Indigenous Peoples fit into this world, surely they are the 'purest blood' when it comes to magic? What about Africa and Oceania? Egypt vs Tanzania vs South Africa (how did apartheid impact the wizarding world?). Australia and New Zealand, Aboriginals and Maori vs the colonising European wizards and witches? Give me all this fascinating parallel history and present, the cultural variations across the globe re magic practice, attitudes to non human sentient creatures etc. *grabby hands*

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Comments

[athenejen]

I completely agree with you -- HP-universe stories set in other locations and with more of a real depth of understanding of global history would be really fascinating. IIRC I've read at least one HP fusion/AU fic that did some interesting stuff with Mahoutokoro (the Japanese wizarding school) -- I'd definitely read more along those lines!

[kat_lair]

There's just so much potential with existing mythology and folk tales from across the world. And the whole issues of Indigenous People vs white European colonisers in this setting is so interesting... Like was there even any distinction between magical and non-magical folk among Indigenous Peoples or e.g. in Africa pre-colonisation or would it not just been a wholly integrated society? Is that the feature European wizards couldn't abide, even though they must have known powerful magic when they saw it? Or did they just do the magical version of colonial attitudes toward Indigenous Peoples culture and practices and labelled it 'primitive magic'...

I also remember reading one fic that had Native American characters that explored some of the magic use in that context. The Japanese wizarding school story sounds absolutely fascinating!

[margaret_r]

That's a really interesting and excellent idea, something worth exploring.

[kat_lair]

It's not one of those ideas that you could write off the cuff though and would need a lot of research and planning...!

[verdande_mi]

I think I have heard of a Norwegian book set in the Harry Potter universe, but in the Nordic countries, but google is not my friend or my search words sucks! I understand why Harry Potter became as big as it did, but it also has many missed opportunities, and I wonder what it could have been if aimed at adults and with a grander scope re locations, people, culture.

[kat_lair]

Oh that sounds really interesting! And agreed: it's a world that fandom has done much more creative and diverse things than JKR ever did.