The Egoist Society

There is a fairly common pattern in fan fiction where at some point, Harry realises that the magical world is a very different, very separate society from the non-magical world. I have no problems with this. The Statute of Secrecy almost demands it, and Mrs. Rowling’s depictions of various magical folks bizarre attempts at non-magical dress confirm that there has, in fact been quite some deviation.¹

However, the typical pattern is that the author defines this magical society by attempting to give it some sort of behavioural difference to make it distinct while still also English. The result is quite frequently that the society in question is, for lack of a better word, massively egoist.

• The society places great emphasis on correct forms of address. Everyone is to be referred to by their position in society, then their last name, unless you have been explicitly granted permission to do otherwise.

  • The part about not using first names makes some sense. I have not deeply researched it, but based on most classical British literature, it was far more common to use surnames in the past, and first names were a sign of much greater intimacy than they are now.

  • The obsession with titles though is, I strongly believe, a total distortion of anything that is possible or reasonable.

    While I understand that magical society is much smaller than non-magical society, it still had, at least before the blood-purity wars, had a fair number of families. Mrs. Rowling talks about Hogwarts having 1000 children in it,² and we know that not all children attend Hogwarts.³ Assuming that the societal trend for only a few children per family is not in fact new, these 1000 children then represent at least 500 families (assuming that an average of every student having a sibling) with school aged children. On one hand, that’s many times the number we have any indication of from the books. On the other, it is still ludicrously small. Given we also have an obsession with marrying within the group, the size is dangerously close to that where genetic problems start to become statistically quite likely.⁴

    Even at 500 families though, the odds are quite likely that I do not know by name and sight every single person to have the right to a master’s title in every single profession. I am equally unlikely to keep track of who is head of each family to know who is head of the family and who is the designated heir to the clan. Given these presuppositions, the idea of a society where it is a mortal insult to fail to address someone by their proper title, acknowledging their achievement and thus their rank in society, falls down utterly and irretrievably. Such a society would be so hopelessly xenophobic that it would be utterly incapable of dealing with anyone from outside its own in-group, for example, a magical user from another country. While this may be a useful plot device for explaining the pure-blood prejudice, and even fits in well with the fact that the British are in fact known for being somewhat xenophobic about other societies, Mrs. Rowling’s depiction of the International Confederation of Wizards suggests, though I admit does not prove, a degree of interconnectedness. If nothing else, the scope of their wars suggest that such xenophobia is limited by the need to be aware of the hostiles outside your borders.⁵

    Secondly, even if the society is small enough to support this prejudice, it seems unreasonable to me that it could survive if an eleven year old child can give such irreparable offence that a family feud results. While little Malfoy might think quite highly of himself, the older students in Slytherin house must surely realise “oh all eleven year olds are brats” given the vast difference in maturity between eleven and seventeen.

    Thirdly, even if none of these things are true, no one refers to anyone in the books with these titles across the series. This is not just a plot to keep Harry in the dark, since presumably (for it to work at alienating him from the rest of the society), no one else knows not to use them around him. Thus when Snape calls upon Malfoy, we should hear “Heir Malfoy. Even if he is a bad example, when McGonagall does so, she would certainly use the appropriate nomenclature, especially as we have at least one example of her talking to Malfoy when she has no reason to know that Harry can hear her.

• The society places great emphasis on polite behaviour, except when it, ironically, goes entirely the other way.

  • This is a bit more subtle. Typically Harry will realise he did something quite horrible in refusing to shake Malfoy’s hand. This is apparently incredibly rude, never done, because wizards are always polite, even to those they hate.

  • The problem is that it is a huge load of hypocrisy. Having refused Malfoy’s hand, it is apparently quite acceptable for not only Malfoy, but all of his housemates in Slytherin, and possibly, depending on the story, the entire school, to be as rude to Harry as they like. For this culture to have worked, they would have grown up steeped in polite behaviour. Following those patterns would be second nature. They would need to consciously deviate from them. They would not casually or unconsciously slip into normal spoiled non-magical rich kid behaviour just because they perceive Harry as having rejected their culture. Perhaps his rejection does excuse their behaviour, but it does not explain it. Why is behaving the spoiled brat second nature to them? Why do we see no examples of this polite society?

  • The typical response is that those sorted into Gryffindor come from families that have, to different extents, moved away from this culture. This however undermines the entire premise. If a quarter of your population (minimum) has a different culture, then your culture is no longer the culture of the society. It is merely a culture within the society. This must be true, unless you are further going to assert that those in Gryffindor not just in Harry’s age group, but universally, almost only marry others from Gryffindor. Which goes back to our thoughts on population size, but massively compounds them, for if Gryffindor holds most of the half bloods and muggle born, then the population available to not be in-bred is that much smaller. Note for this to be true, the information in the class list provided must not be true, for it puts half bloods and muggle born in 3 of the four houses.

• This is occasionally, though by no means certainly, accompanied by variations on archaic language. I am actually okay with this one, except for two things.

  • I do not think I have ever seen it without the other two things listed here.
  • I do not think I have ever seen it handled consistently, or indeed, at all beyond greetings. If the magical world held on to archaic language, they almost certainly did so across the board, not just when saying “hi.”
  • The result is that it comes across as incredibly pretentious, and done simply to make themselves different, and not out of any great attachment to the language, or indeed, the thought structures that made that way of speaking common when it was.