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Reviews For When the Boat Comes In
Author's Response: Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it
Author's Response: Thanks for the review. That's the problem with the Bible: half of it's missing and the other half is often ambiguously phrased, leading to mistranslations. However, the Magical Population would take the modern translation at face value: just because their persecutors might have been mistaken, that doesn't make the brutal, sadistic murder of millions of muggles (and a number of mages- see JKR's book on Beedle the Bard) permissable. Besides the Old Testiment is worrying enough: Exodus: 22:18, 23:24, 31:14, Leviticus: 18:22, 20:13, 20:27, 20:16-23, 25:44-46, Genesis: 3:16, Acts: 3:23, Romans: 1:26-28, 1:31-32, 16:17, Corinthians: 6:9-10 and Galatians: 5:20-21. P.S. I don't think James I (who lived in the 16th Century) was the first to mistranslate the Bible; in the Holy Roman Emporor Charlemagne's time (Eighth Century), witch-hunting was such a problem that he legislated that anyone who accused or killed a person on the grounds that they were a witch would suffer the same penalty as witches. It was a pretty good policy; once a couple of witch-hunters/accusers are put to death, the number of 'witches' decreases dramatically lol!
Author's Response: Thanks for the review. Yes, the abuse is over, however Harry's not home and dry.
Author's Response: I think it's a good idea to remember that it's a character talking, not the author, and that a member of the magical community would be much more likely to support pro-magic religions than anti-magic religions. Most cultures have very long memories as far as enemies are concerned and I think it would be hard for the English magical community to forget that, had a witch-hunter captured them, they would have been tortured until they confessed then burnt. I live in the Witch-Hunting centre of England and I have seen where they imprisoned them, what they did to them and anyone who has burnt themselves on a pan can imagine how agonsing it must be to burn to death. Yes, mages could magic themselves out but, to do this, most mages would require a wand and those can get lost and broken. So, while it's all well and good to say that the magical community should be positive about Christianity, in reality, it would be strange if every mage could find it in their hearts to be so.
Author's Response: Lol! We've all done this, I suspect; while some of the knowledge might have stuck, our ability to convey it (being half asleep), is rather impaired Thanks for the review
Author's Response: Thanks for the review. Yes, I know: everyone who has children in their care should look after them properly.
The phrase at the beginning was so much like German that I could read it. I remember someone saying that 90% of our language is German while the remaining 9% is Norman French with the remaining 1% is any word we like - English never found a word it didn't like. Author's Response: Well, I wouldn't say 90% but, certainly, much of the core lexus is germanic. English is such a mongrel because we've been invaded so many times! The Angels and Saxons-to whom our language owes much of its germanic heritage- invaded England (Angel-land), a previously Celtic island, so successfully that, bar one or two Celtic words, Old Saxon was spoken through all England. Then we had the viking raids and they liked it so much that many settled in the Danelaw- a part of England which roughly equates to East Anglia. So, Saxon became infused with a liberal smattering of Old Norse. Then came the Norman invasion: the Nobles spoke French, the common men spoke Saxon: that is why pig meat is called pork, sheep meat is called mutton, cow meat is called beef, chicken is called poultry, etc- one word for those who raised the animals, another for those who ate them! Latin, of course, was the lingua franca- the language spoken by all scholars- and Greek and Arabic- languages of learned cultures- were also popular-and if you're going to spend all that time studying, you're going to want to use a few of those fancy words so everyone knows that you're educated. And, as so often happens, just as Norman French and Saxon were melding into Middle English, French became fashionable and, thus, a new wave of French words hit England and, as centuries had passed, they were somewhat different to the Norman French, i.e. cotton/ chiffon. If that was not enough languages to be getting on with, the British Empire started to expand: if you go off to visit foreign lands, you're going to bring home strange souvenirs and a smattering of new words: if you're going to revert to 'lunch' after you've been eating 'tiffin' as your midday meal, you might as well have stayed at home! Then, of course, we have Aussie and American soaps injecting words, videogames, manga and anime scattering Japanese and, of course, the modern obsession with cooking has brought in a fair few new words. This Frankenstein fusion of languages is why English spelling is somewhat idiosyncratic. Thanks for the review!
Author's Response: Thanks ^^. I thought that, seeing as how so many different cultures view snakes so positively, it's a perfect foundation for a 'House Pride' speech. Binns is legendarily boring; poor kids- history, when taught well, can be really exciting. Maybe they'll have a historian in their group, though ;) |
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