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Meh, just having the name Goldstein doesn't really count. I get the sense that if she did that, he might've been the tokin Jew and that's just sad. I do appreciate that Rowling is writing what she knows because that's what a good writer does. I would never say under any circumstance that her writing is bad because even though I don't like the books, if I pick one up I get sucked into it. But there are things about the HP world that I don't really like.

There are a lot of things that are never addressed in the HP books, and I suppose from one aspect it's trivial, pain-in-the-a** type stuff that a kid would never need to worry about because this IS about a kid. But I still wonder about things like the healthcare system, attitudes toward mental health and treatment, general ethics, religion, etc. Much of it is hinted to, but never really mentioned outright. What do you do with schizophrenic or someone who is dissociative? Do they get any drugs or therapy? Lock them up? *shrug* It's something I think about.

I also wonder about how magic is done in non-English-speaking, non-European parts of the HP world. None of that is ever really mentioned, but it comes up in the 4th movie simply because directors and such have that kind of leeway.

That's a good point. From what I understand about the magical world though, wizards generally tend to have... better-built bodies than muggles physically. An example of this was when some while back, JKR said that Dumbledore was around 150 years old in the first book (having magic blood allows them to live longer than muggles - McGonagall is around 70-ish). That said, my assumption would be that wizards are simply not born with things like deformed arms or tay sachs (on the Jewish theme again... xd )

I'm not so sure about it from a psychological point of view though. There are definately a good number of people in the series who could benefit from psychological help - Harry for starters (I'm not saying he's a crazy or dangerous person, but everything that he's gone through has definitely unhinged him somewhat). I suppose in some ways, the Pensieve is something of an aid; Dumbledore used it to cast away certain memories when his head felt too cramped. There is also some hinting towards brains from a magic perspective at the end of the 5th book when they're in the Department of Mysteries. Remember when Ron got attacked by that brain? Later on when they're in the hospital wing, it mentions that Madame Pomfrey had said that brains leave heavier scarring than anything else. Maybe like their bodies, the brains of wizards are also superior in some sense? We know for example that wizards are capable of seeing and hearing things that muggles can't, and both of these senses are related to the functioning of the brain.

As for magic around the globe - I think the words recited for spells are universal, seeing as many of them derive from Latin. On the other hand, if you read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (which JKR herself wrote in 2001 to raise funds for charity, making it look like it was actually from the HP world), it mentions that many magical creatures are particular to certain regions. The kappa, for example, is most common in Japan. There's also some Hogwarts foods mentioned in the books that I later found out have never been heard of in England, so I assume they're magic dishes that JKR invented. My guess is that wizard food varies from region to region just like muggle food (although of course this is just speculation, I have no evidence to support this idea >>).

That's totally opposite of Judaism surprised Even when Moses was buried, I heard that they tried to hide his grave and make it modest or something, so that people wouldn't worship him... eek

Back from my trip.

I guess I'm not really making myself clear on some of the points that bother me. What I mean about Jews is really just an example of other religions that exist somewhere in the books, or other cultures. I understand and appreciate that England is a fairly homogeneous place, but it's still something that bothers me. If Orthodox Jews want to get offended by that sort of thing, fine. In fact, the books probably offend them right now already. There ARE other sects of Judaism out there who are totally fine with magic and what not. It really wouldn't be all that different from some of the Christian groups which have been demonizing the books. But where are the Sufis? The Hindus? It wouldn't necessarily be about having a religious Jew. For example, a Jew wouldn't necessarily say that they were ever possessed by a demon that made them do things. Again, I'm Jewish and I'm not very religious. However, having someone who subscribed to something that is not mainstream will give a different perspective to certain things. Jews do things differently from Sufis who do things differently Catholics who do things differently from Anglicans. I'm just wondering about what happened to all the minorities. If you're black, does that mean you don't have magic and never will? Yes, yes. People always say, "Well, there are black people in the movies" but that's mainly because the director could afford to insert token extras.

On the case of mental health, dissociation is very different from schizophrenia. What bothers me is that while Harry is unhinged, he's actually not unhinged enough for someone who has suffered in the way that he has suffered. A boy like him would have enormously powerful rage after 10 horrible years of continued abuse and neglect, and this is excluding what happened to him when he was a baby. Harry should've been a very dangerous and destructive person at Hogwarts because it would've been the first time that he ever got away from the Dursleys. He'd be going buckwild and stirring up who knows what because for the first time, he'd be free from them.

Understandably, England treats mental illness very differently from the way we treat it in the States. But is Rowling's point that magic has retarded progress so much that many of the attitudes are still very medieval and antiquated? I have no idea.

On the topic of magic in other places, I mean places like the Carribean and Africa and even India. In Book 4, the other countries mentioned were either former English colonies or European, and they were all some part of the Western world. What about the magical happenings of war-torn places like Haiti and Sudan? What about Colombia? Ooh, or Japan and South Korea? Again, it's a lot of white people. Even a white person from the Caymen Islands would've added a different flavor to it all.

Those are my thoughts for now. Again, I think that Rowling is a good writer and I have to give her props for securing a place in pop culture forever. There are just so many things about the HP World that never get addressed. I may be taking the books too seriously, but am I any different from the people who dress up like Harry and his friends at book releases and movies premieres?