-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
J.K Rowling Unveils the magic school names for U.S.A, Brazil, Japan, and Africa
- Thread starter Trojita
- Start date
- Status
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Most the Wizarding schools only have vague locations. Least by established lore so far.
Hogwarts' location is really only known because it's right next to Hogsmede.
Hogwarts' location is really only known because it's right next to Hogsmede.
Yeah I did read that but I would rather she picked Uganda or Congo
I know I'm probably being pedantic but I would have preferred if the third paragraph on that page was "Exclusive writing by J.K. Rowling on the Brazilian, Japanese and Ugandan schools was also unveiled at the event and is now available to read on Pottermore.I am looking forward to this.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
They love the 'hiding in plain sight' business.
Plus Tokyo is huge enough to have several other cities within it, like say the infamous Akihabara.
If not a special ward in Tokyo, it would be Kyoto, or a manmade island.
If you thought the four houses of Hogwarts were competitive, wait till you see the culture festival in Japan.
Placing their magic academy smack in the middle of Tokyo would be a very Japanese thing to do. As is them having their own school separate from the rest of Asia. The latter of which I love, because it's so typical.
Edit: I wonder if they have a mascot. They have to. It would be so amazing.
I can see why it's an issue, since it was revealed alongside schools in three specific countries. By not giving a specific country for the main/most prominent magic school in Africa, it can seem like Rowling is playing on the misconception that Africa is a single country. I don't think that's what she intended. But I understand how it can be seen and why that would be upsetting. Naming multiple schools on the African continent might amend that.
Edit: Although placing the school on the map smack in the middle of Africa instead of closer to Uganda is dumb.
Edit: I wonder if they have a mascot. They have to. It would be so amazing.
I can see why it's an issue, since it was revealed alongside schools in three specific countries. By not giving a specific country for the main/most prominent magic school in Africa, it can seem like Rowling is playing on the misconception that Africa is a single country. I don't think that's what she intended. But I understand how it can be seen and why that would be upsetting. Naming multiple schools on the African continent might amend that.
Edit: Although placing the school on the map smack in the middle of Africa instead of closer to Uganda is dumb.
Regarding to my speculation on the Russian school being cannon or not it seems that despite lacking an entry and castle on the map it really is, since there are som people flying trees at the top of the map, and apparently Russian wizards do just that. And I messed up the source the first time, as it actually comes from Pottermore facts from the 2014 UK editions, and is only mentioned (name dropped?) in Wonderbook: Book of Potions.
Let's hope she spills the beans one day.
Yeah I did read that but I would rather she picked Uganda or Congo
I am looking forward to this.
Let's hope she spills the beans one day.
CasteloBruxo reminds me of Castelo Branco, one of the heads of the military dictatorship that took Brazil during late 60's
Theoricaly it is the USA who plays a weird version of the british game =P
Brazilians would turn Quidditch into art and USA would make a crap version of Quidditch that they will say is the real quidditch
Theoricaly it is the USA who plays a weird version of the british game =P
Brazilians would turn Quidditch into art and USA would make a crap version of Quidditch that they will say is the real quidditch
Chaos2Frozen
Member
And magicplace. The place where magic happens.
Either way
Oh, I know. Hokkaido is the worst at that from my impression. I remember seeing melon bear everywhere. I almost regret not buying a melon bear keychain.
She has a website dedicated to information about Harry Potter.
If anything she has everything but a new Harry Potter book in the works. A Potter play and a movie. She's coming up on her fourth book in a series about as unrelated to Potter as it can get.
Chuck Norris
Banned
Just write more books JK! New hero, new country
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
It was just a gag on the "Womens Institute" but thousands of fanfics over the years took it to mean the American magic school.
Literally the opposite of what is said in the bio for the African school. Could you at least read it before complaining?
entremet
Member
Pottermore?
So she releases lore stuff just for fun? Seems very weird to me, like throwing bits of meat to ravenous dogs lol.
It would make more sense if this accompanied actual media like books or movies.
World building outside works never sat right with me.
Durmstrang does not have a country for it either. All that's known is that it's in Northern Europe somewhere.
The only ones mentioned so far that have a country nailed down are Hogwarts (and people didn't even realise it was in Scotland for years til she just outright said it), Beauxbatons in France, and the Japanese one.
The locations of the schools being a secret is emphasized hard in the books, and the supplemental material.
Rowling isn't that fond of excessive world building in the story, she usually prefers to concentrate on the immediate happenings for the characters. It's why the History of Magic class in the books never goes into detail on past wizarding events, because it would have to pause and explain them, or it would leave fans clambering for an explanation by her.
There's no reason to hear about the non-European schools in the books, since they're totally irrelevant, but it's fun to see extra material for this site detailing the parts of the wizarding world away from Harry's life.
obijkenobi
Member
I never got into Harry Potter like other people did, but it's cool there is a world of possibilities for their fans to imagine and expand on. I imagine it's akin to the love affair I had/have for Star Wars
Pilgrimzero
Member
I don't get the American school name...
It might be that there is more travelling in the upcoming fantastic beasts films. It does make Voldemort a bit of a small potatoe in the grand scheme of things; it was a local skirmish rather than end of the world and he only attacked one school out of eleven.
Him nearly taking over an entire country of wizards (and a densely populated one wizard wise) is not a "local skirmish".
entremet
Member
Do other authors do this, though? I'm not aware. Rowling seems to be really big on this stuff lol.
From Dumbledore being gay to naming new schools.
I am aware that Rowling is a very unique position as well. Author that is still alive that created a massive novel series.
Those both sound p cool though.
Mrs. Manky
Banned
It's as if Rowling knew next month was Black History Month.
What happens when you give rich white kids even more reason to be elitist, even over other rich white kids?
Why you get Slytherin except instead of a house, it's now the entire school.
School uniform.
Those guys already have their own Grand Wizard.
Now /that/ would be an interesting story. Nat Turner with magic: "Nunc Libertatem!"
Oh man, Black History with Potterverse magic is a great idea. There was a series of tweets about HBCUs in the Potterverse which were wonderful.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Tolkien. There's a giant appendices that goes into tons of stuff that wasn't in the book proper.
Dumbledore barely has a personal life in the books. It doesn't detract from anything.
entremet
Member
I guess I only hear about her since whenever she does this stuff, it hits the newswire due to her popularity and the love of the books and world.
paragonpro
Banned
Uhhh...didn't she say the american school was called salem in goblet of fire?
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Given that she made the comment about shippers immediately after saying Dumbledore was gay, I still wonder if she was just screwing with them with the comment.
His sexuality was never any part of his character in the book though, so trolling or not, it doesn't really matter either way.
It doesn't, never said that. I'm not obliged to imagine him being homossexual though.
It's more about the tone of her revelation. And the timing. It was like she was just screwing around, not world building.
Craft an elaborate head canon!
Like, I'm pretty sure every culture has their magical secret societies but wouldn't it be great if the magic school system was a Western import for Japan? It'd parallel their real history of assimilating Western ideas and making them their own.
What are the relations like between Japanese wizards and Chinese wizards? The same animosity might not exist because wizards aren't very keen on territory or historical muggle-drawn borders.
OR, maybe the Mongol invaders in the 13th century were repelled by the then-existing wizards of Japan, who were closely tied to the Shinto religion before gradually splitting off into their own thing once Japan made contact with Portuguese ships.
(Maybe Mahoutokoro is more closely affliated with Castelobruxo than any other magic school.)
No. It was just a pun on Women's Institute, but most fans thought she meant that was the American school. Hence the thousands of fanfics by teenage girls of their very special and unique exchange student to Hogwarts from the Salem Witches Institute.
entremet
Member
Yeah. All the top faculty at Hogwarts were single. The tone felt like there were priest and nuns honestly lol.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
There seems to be a lot of national pride when it comes to Quiddich.
She hasn't elaborated on the rest of the staff, but she did write up a backstory for McGonagall, who was married and widowed.
He's celibate in the books. She made this very clear.
You don't hear enough about others in the faculty to know, usually, but McGonnagal is a widow, for instance.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
She'll probably write up biographies for the rest of the staff eventually. We didn't know much about Flitwick or Sprout, and they were heads of house. I think she mentioned at one point that Flitwick had a Goblin as an ancestor.
And all the other teachers are a total mystery. I don't think they ever mentioned the name of the Ancient Runes teacher.
Yup, he decided to not have relationships because of his love for magic.
But anyway... it makes no difference.
I don't have a problem with any of these names, btw. They are simple, just as hogwarts is. Brazillian one is literally Magic Castle, lol.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
sure, just none are as prolific as Rowling. David Eddings has a Riven Codex that goes into a bunch of obscure shit about one of his generic fantasy universes. Terry Pratchett has a bunch of side things with little bits of lore and trivia about the Discworld, like the various Almanacs, Atlases and whatever.
/edit besides grandfather tolkein of course
- Status
Similar threads
- Poll
- Locked