Reviews For The Banebrewer
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Reviewer: NoxSomnium Anonymous star star star star star [Report This]
Date: 06/07/2007 04:50 pm Title: To Range these Fields

The whole bad blood thing was odd. How do they explain things that aren't necessarily good or bad but depend on the situation for definition? Is it just bias? Also, how do they explain the existence of Muggle-borns in the first place?

Author's Response: Dear Nox, I realised after writing this that Madam Constellis only makes sense if you know a bit about genetics to begin with. First of all, she is wrong about blood - the qualities she describes are in the genes, not the blood. But somehow she can't let go of her outmoded blood theory. Secondly, she is a simplistic thinker, as you can see by her many lapses in logic. I suspect she would see a neutral trait (such as eye colour) as "good" because it isn't pathological. Thirdly, she does explain Muggle-borns in her book, but I didn't have room to print the full chapter here. Because the magical gene was originally recessive, when two Muggles who carry this gene marry, each of their children has a 1 in 4 chance of being magical. The magical gene doesn't directly produce magic - it releases a specialised enzyme. The enzyme has three major effects. (1) It releases magical power, which steadily increases throughout childhood. (2) It slows the process of ageing in adults, ensuring that wizards live longer than Muggles. (3) It alters the structure of the genes, so that the magical gene then becomes dominant. Therefore a Muggle-born wizard carries two dominant magical genes. This means that even if the Muggle-born marries a Muggle, the magical gene will dominate the ordinary Muggle gene, and the children will be magical (a Muggle-born cannot become the parent of a Squib). It is likely that all wizarding communities began with Muggle-borns. As these wizards met and married each other, they built a wizarding culture, and after three or four generations, families who self-identified as "Pure-bloods" arose. The text makes more sense to Ariadne than it does to you because she is used to meeting certain assumptions, even if she doesn't agree with them. The important thing to her is that the book explains why Veleta was kidnapped and how she might be rescued. Thanks for reviewing, GhV

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