The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Wizard Academy
dspringer1:
--- Quote ---According to Bigfoot on Campus, it has become surprisingly easy to get informed post-Paranet.
--- End quote ---
It depends on what you are looking for. if you want info about creatures or what might be possible or news about magic related events, then the post paranet world is probably quite helpful. If you want training in how to do magic, then I suspect the paranet driven change has been quite small. Learning magic is hard and real magical texts are rarely available.
Yea maybe harry went and scanned his library of books on wizardry and posted to the internet, but somehow I do not see that as having happened. All the wizards (including Harry) are pretty hard core about not putting dangerous knowledge in the hands of people untrained to deal with it. And Magic is dangerous - and I suspect hard to learn just from books. And that assumes you can easily exclude the books on magic that are basically garbage or poorly written or traps by dark creatures.
LordDresden2:
--- Quote from: dspringer1 on August 03, 2017, 12:03:46 AM ---
...Learning magic is hard and real magical texts are rarely available...
...And that assumes you can easily exclude the books on magic that are basically garbage or poorly written or traps by dark creatures.
--- End quote ---
This last is important and true. In fact, as we saw in Dead Beat, valid magical texts are out there. For ex, in Bock's bookstore Harry ran across a copy of Elementary Magic, an introductory magic text written by Ebenezar. Justin had used that text to teach Harry and Elaine.
But to cite an example I've used before, imagine a newbie finds a copy of Elementary Magic by Ebenezar McCoy and Basic Magic by H. Relmmek (i.e. Kemmler). One source is trustworthy, one is toxic and worse than useless. But how is the innocent newbie to know that he can trust McCoy but Relmmek is a monster out of nightmare?
To make it worse, once the newbie finds out that the Council and Wardens exist, there's the problem that from the point of view on an innocent, idealistic kid or newbie, the Wardens look like the bad guys. The Wardens kill people for breaking Laws they never heard of or knew about. They're freaking terrifying. It's going to be hard for a 16 year old newbie to believe that the Wardens, who beheaded a friend of his for breaking a Law neither one had ever even heard of, or for using magic in what looks like innocent or even admirable purposes, are actually the good guys (usually).
To a naïve observer, Hannah's complaint about being under a death penalty for defending herself from rapists looks like a case of a victim being hounded by bullies or worse. By the time you discover that it's more complicated than that, it might be too late.
The Wardens are also annoying. They tell you what you're allowed to read, who you're allowed to talk to, what magic you can study and what you have to run away from, and they couldn't care less about your supposed 'rights' under the Constitution or the common law or whatever. You can't read that book or tell that person about something because the Wardens said so, and that's the end of the discussion.
But they also are more or less the good guys. Whereas the real bad guys may well pretend to be friendly, easy-going, kind, etc. By the time you find out the truth, it may well be too late.
Zaphodess:
Exactly, that's why it was so easy for the White Court to frame the Wardens in WN. But that might be about to change too. One of the purposes of the Paranet was to improve the relationship between the magical community and the Wardens so this won't happen another time. There are several references to Elaine pushing something up to Carlos or Harry being on a mission for the Paranet. If the Wardens are seen helping people instead of just bullying them, more people are going to trust them. Bob even said he approved of the approach because it made the job easier in the long run.
btw: I think it was said somewhere that the Paranet isn't a US-based institution any more. That it is spreading in other countries. Some European chapters or something like that. Can anyone remember where that was mentioned?
Rasins:
Harry said there were "branches" in several cities, including Canada, and that there would probably be some in Europe soon.
Quantus:
Cant find any mention of the Paranet outside the US, in GS forward (not counting shorts). But they specifically mentioned Paranet cells in state all along the canadian border, so at the very least I expect they've jumped that border.
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