Well, for me it shows up even in law-enforcement, because I have to decide what the relationship between FN groups and magical law enforcement IS. I have to decide what the relationship between magical FN groups and non-magical FN groups is, in a situation where the magical members of the community would have every reason to be trying to use their powers to help the community, and not have that much reason to care what the major government powers thought about it; I cannot imagine, for instance, a magical student from Attawapiskat giving much of a shit about whether or not handing out warming spells to his entire community, or figuring out how to help them build houses, gets the government on his case. And if it does, how does one justify that? Does the magical community simply duplicate the indifference and oppression of the Muggle community, and if so, and yet everyone goes to magical school without having to pay for it (as no tuition fees are ever mentioned for Hogwarts, or either of the other schools discussed) how do they get away with it, after educating and literally (via wands/etc) empowering the FN kids?
So are the Aurors just constantly arresting FN kids who went through this magical education system and are trying to use their knowledge to help their homes, because of the need for "secrecy"? And do I want to write in that world, if so? (answer: no; the stuff that goes on in the real world is bad enough, that's worse.)
Not to mention, what do I do about non-humans? And how magic works, and what is magic and isn't? That's actually what concerns me more, even, because it's so basic - HP is written VERY MUCH from a post-Enlightenment secularist pov, afterlife notwithstanding: figures that used to be part of a worldview (goblins, elves, etc) become bankers and house-servants, stuck into a world almost totally devoid (again, pasted-on afterlife notwithstanding) of any spiritual worldview context. And that's okay, because that's her culture, so she can do that.
Do I decide that the akhlut is just another kind of werewolf or analogous creature? If so, is it a "dark" magical creature like the Dementors, or just a hungry one like the giants? What about clairvoyance, "seeing" the future (or far away, or whatever) which is treated the way it is in the book, but is very different in a FN context? Do I have the RIGHT to decide if the various spirits of the Haida are "real" like the house-elves/etc (stripping them in some ways of their powerful nature) or "merely" beliefs? Which one of those is the right answer? Or is that "neither", because I do NOT have the insider's right to work it out at all?
That's, like, fundamental worldbuilding stuff. That's "what do my Aurors even deal with?" kind of worldbuilding stuff. It's what's magic, what's medicine power, what's spiritual stuff, what do those divisions mean and do they mean anything? and if my answer is "I don't deal with it, I just write about the stuff that doesn't post these questions to me", then I'm, well, erasing.
(And a loooot of people would say "you're overthinking this", but after working in Gitxsan territory for a summer and seeing the way the people who lived there genuinely felt both about their stories and about misappropriation and misuse of their stories and beliefs that already happens in a lot of fantasy literature . . . well, I'm honestly more worried that the people who treated me so well would be upset with what I'd done, than someone looking at me and going "oh my god, it's just a fanfic, get over it.")
(I'm also honestly not saying everyone has to in-depth examine things - especially worldbuilding, which is my personal Thing - to this extent. This is just the problems I would have even figuring out where to start.)
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So are the Aurors just constantly arresting FN kids who went through this magical education system and are trying to use their knowledge to help their homes, because of the need for "secrecy"? And do I want to write in that world, if so? (answer: no; the stuff that goes on in the real world is bad enough, that's worse.)
Not to mention, what do I do about non-humans? And how magic works, and what is magic and isn't? That's actually what concerns me more, even, because it's so basic - HP is written VERY MUCH from a post-Enlightenment secularist pov, afterlife notwithstanding: figures that used to be part of a worldview (goblins, elves, etc) become bankers and house-servants, stuck into a world almost totally devoid (again, pasted-on afterlife notwithstanding) of any spiritual worldview context. And that's okay, because that's her culture, so she can do that.
Do I decide that the akhlut is just another kind of werewolf or analogous creature? If so, is it a "dark" magical creature like the Dementors, or just a hungry one like the giants? What about clairvoyance, "seeing" the future (or far away, or whatever) which is treated the way it is in the book, but is very different in a FN context? Do I have the RIGHT to decide if the various spirits of the Haida are "real" like the house-elves/etc (stripping them in some ways of their powerful nature) or "merely" beliefs? Which one of those is the right answer? Or is that "neither", because I do NOT have the insider's right to work it out at all?
That's, like, fundamental worldbuilding stuff. That's "what do my Aurors even deal with?" kind of worldbuilding stuff. It's what's magic, what's medicine power, what's spiritual stuff, what do those divisions mean and do they mean anything? and if my answer is "I don't deal with it, I just write about the stuff that doesn't post these questions to me", then I'm, well, erasing.
(And a loooot of people would say "you're overthinking this", but after working in Gitxsan territory for a summer and seeing the way the people who lived there genuinely felt both about their stories and about misappropriation and misuse of their stories and beliefs that already happens in a lot of fantasy literature . . . well, I'm honestly more worried that the people who treated me so well would be upset with what I'd done, than someone looking at me and going "oh my god, it's just a fanfic, get over it.")
(I'm also honestly not saying everyone has to in-depth examine things - especially worldbuilding, which is my personal Thing - to this extent. This is just the problems I would have even figuring out where to start.)