"Flatscan".
Harry Potter: Muggle = No-Maj?
- Thread starter Mojochi
- Start date
If I understand it correctly Rowling didn't want any association with anything in the 'real' world. She wanted everything to be completely made up
I do too, but I was under the impression that American Magii in the Wizarding World have a largely Native American influence. "No-maj" or any other English-derived word wouldn't make any sense in that context. I would more expect some kind of NA-originating word. The Navajo, for example, have a whole mythology around the "Witchery Way", its sub-branches, and ancient magical usage. The Iraqois, Cherokee, Sioux, and all the major nations have some understanding and general acceptance of magical practices in their respective cultures to varying degrees.
Just because you don't believe in magic doesn't mean there isn't an actual *community* of people who do - you connected the word "actual" to the wrong word, methinks.
Also, don't be a hater, yo. I invite you to read the book "True Magick" by Amber K. I think you'll be surprised to find that to the serious practitioner, magick is more of a psychological tool and conceptual thing, rather than anything like what you have been shown by Hollywood.
I had heard that before and just wasn't thinking about it. Excellent point.
You're OLD. (Also, I'm old, because I got that.
)I think I agree with Mr. Adventure that No-Mag sounds better.
There's another kind?
That almost sounds worse! I don't mean to insult you or your group, but to me the word "mundane" implies "boring." I'm sure you don't intend to describe people that way, but that's kind of what it sounds like, to be honest...
^ But it's not exactly the same thing...a muggle is anyone who can't perform magic, but a mudblood is a magical person who is born to non-magical parents.
No insult taken. And yes, I can see why it would be taken as "boring" and maybe a bit of an insult. It isn't usually meant as an insult, but rather to describe people who are only aware of "the mundane world" and not "the spirit world" or "the magickal world". But sometimes it IS meant as an insult - especially by what we used to call "fluff bunny witches" (basically, the sort of usually new practitioners who actually sort of seemed to believe that the religion WOULD lead to Hollywood magic if only they learned the hidden secrets). And the fact that sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't is what made be think it might work as an American version of Muggle. Until stardream made that very valid point.
Reminds me of X-Men's fictional slurs against mutants like Genejoke, Genefreak or Mutie as much as humanphobic slurs are flatscan.
Resurrecto zombiethreadum!
Just my 2-cents: but I always saw "muggle" as an equivalent term to "negro", in that it wasn't originally intended as a slur but a literal description. However, over time it took on a negative, condescending connotation and these days it's a bit too close to that other n-word for polite company.
So yeah, I'd say "muggle" could qualify as a slur, even if not really intended a such.
The strange part about it is that it's not a term very many "muggles" will ever hear. It's almost always used behind their back, which I suppose doesn't help.
As for "no-maj"...I've heard Americans come up worse terms, so it's hardly beyond the bounds of possibility.
So yeah, I'd say "muggle" could qualify as a slur, even if not really intended a such.
The strange part about it is that it's not a term very many "muggles" will ever hear. It's almost always used behind their back, which I suppose doesn't help.
As for "no-maj"...I've heard Americans come up worse terms, so it's hardly beyond the bounds of possibility.
The British do a much more outstanding job of that than anyone else does. Their love of shortening a word and adding a "y" or "ie" to it is both atrocious and damned near all-encompassing, for example.
And "no-maj" just sounds idiotic, and borderline profane if you consider a similar-sounding word for the vagina.
Considering that fiction is already littered with terms for such a concept -- most notably "mundane" or "sleeper," the latter opposed to an "awakened" mage, all of which are actually American (and, as you might note, not dumbed down slang terms) -- it's even more idiotic sounding.
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Mundane would be good & something that would be widely understood. I would have chosen something a little more genre-ish like "Nega-Mage" (a play on the Megaverse Rifts RPG term "Nega-Psychic"). Granted it's close to "No-Maj" but I think sounds a little cooler.
