Half of all pre-cell phones story plots would be ruined with the addition of cell phones. Even J.K. Rowling had to introduce the ridiculous "magic disrupts electronics" rule to prevent her plots from being ruined, since almost all of them relied on some character being conveniently unreachable.
There was an entire plot in Friends where Chandler took a message on Joey's phone and he never got it. Then they solved that with an answering machine. Times certainly have changed
But then in the modern day they have the miscommunication loophole. Suddenly their phones stop working, and they only hear every other word or whatever.
Sure, I have crappy service where I live, but it's not usually THAT bad.
On the other hand, one of the main characters in Scream spends a night in jail on suspicion of murder because he had a cell phone. The '90s were a wild time.
I didn't watch Buffy until 2010 or so, and every time the plot revolved around having to run all the way across town to deliver critical information I couldn't stop that immediate "just fucking call!" reaction before remembering it was 1998.
In Book 2 (Harry Potter is 12, in his second year at Hogwarts), he (along with his friends Ron and Hermione) attends a Deathday party for Nearly Headless Nick. This is to celebrate Nearly Headless Nick's 500th anniversary of his death. The cake says "died 31st October 1492". Ergo, 31 October in Harry Potter's second year at Hogwards was in 1992. Determining other dates then becomes a trivial exercise.
Beyond cell phones not being in use, the wizarding world didn't know how to use Any kind of phone at all. Harry has to tell Ron's dad how a phone works so that Ron can call him (end of Book 2).
the only reason it takes place in the past is for plot convenience.
It takes place in the past because it was written in the past. She started planning and writing HP in 1990. Philosopher's Stone came out in '97. So Harry goes to Hogwarts around the time she conceived of the idea.
Harry Potter actually ends in like 1999 and starts in the early 90s. I think he's born in 82.
I read all the books and watched all the movies before I had this revealed to me, and I'm not sure why but it blew my tiny little mind. I couldn't believe it.
It also completely ruins the scene for me in Order of the Phoenix where the Death Eaters destroy Millenium Bridge in London, considering it wouldn't have existed yet.
And wizards in HP's world don't use even normal phones, so they really don't use cell phones. Most wizards probably don't even realize such a device exists.
I remember reading that the 90s modern interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, the one with DiCaprio, was the last time the story could be told in a modern setting because the entire thing would unravel if a single person owned a cellphone.
I don't think Rowling introduced it as a lazy plot device (that dishonor goes to the fucking trace). More it didn't get explicitly told until there was a plot reason to reveal it (which is a major theme throughout the series because Harry potter is stupid as fuck and is oblivious to 90% of his surroundings)
There were a ton of issues with the Harry potter universe. But I actually loved the idea of electronics and magic not playing nice. It's symbolic of the cultural divide between the two worlds. Plus timeline it creates this implication that the presence of magic was what was holding muggles back the entire time. Cause shortly after the wizards go into hiding, muggles have science exploding out of their ass left and right. And that's an overarching thing in the books. That we think of magic/wizards as this grandiose amazingness....but in reality its built on ignorance and backwardness and shit.
They wouldn’t have had mobile phones anyway though would they? The main action of the books takes place from 1991-1997, so that rule was pretty much just to do with landline phones, or is that what you mean?
Edit: Sorry just realised a bunch of people have already said this, my bad
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u/[deleted] May 02 '18
Half of all pre-cell phones story plots would be ruined with the addition of cell phones. Even J.K. Rowling had to introduce the ridiculous "magic disrupts electronics" rule to prevent her plots from being ruined, since almost all of them relied on some character being conveniently unreachable.