Current Events > Tweet about JK Rowling and HP allegories goes viral

(+) Yeah! (+)

The one thing you can definitely say is she didnt think too hard about many aspects of her world building because they fall apart with any close inspection.

see wizards only discovering toilets after the 16th century and shitting in their pants before that.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/9/7/AAcZIZAADwbd.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/9/8/AAcZIZAADwbe.jpg

I mean it is definitely a thing in supplementary/epilogue material that the Ministry and wizarding society in general underwent a pretty big de-corruption and metamorphosis in the years after Voldemort's defeat

You never see the meaningful change to structure and institution. It's just assured to come like the end of a fairy tale if you pledge to support the structure and institution as it is now.

It's just assured to come like the end of a fairy tale

if you're expecting some trailblazing leftist political commentary from it, then Iunno what to tell you

I mean...one of the Ministers loses his job and the other gets killed , and both a direct result of their wishy washy "politics before solutions" methods. >__>

Big yikes to the folks upset that a children's book isn't political enough.

Maybe Just Kidding Rowling can't weave a coherent worldview into her stories because she is a bad writer and doesn't really have a coherent world view.

She hates trans women, that much is a consistent part of her worldview.

Yeah but did she put it in her Hairy Podder book?

She had at least half a dozen "haha guy in a dress" jokes so I'd reckon so.

That's the exact sleight of hand liberalism performs in real life. You never see the meaningful change to structure and institution. It's just assured to come like the end of a fairy tale if you pledge to support the structure and institution as it is now.

Oh, well, egg on my face.

The series as a whole was mean-spirited. Don't forget that the 5th and 6th books used some equivalent to the following line a lot when Harry interacted with Neville or Luna:
"Harry looked at them pitifully" or "Harry felt a pain in the pit of his stomach as he watched ___"
Even when the character in question was having a great time, he was being judgmental of them while also considering them a friend? And hell, I'm pretty sure the 2nd book is the last time he stood up for Neville. If Luna hadn't been so conventionally attractive even with the unorthodox fashion and body language (which is totally autistic-coded but that's for another time), he'd probably have ignored her or grouped her in with the rest of the girls relegated to play background characters.

Iunno there's definite criticisms you can make, and I get the desire to beat up on Rowling, but I feel like this girl is reaching in some areas.

Also the Fenrir Greyback point annoys me because while yeah the pedophilic werewolf is definitely a stand in for HIV stuff, we get a much more prominent, much more positive example counter to that stereotype in Lupin.

Harry isnt perfect, and was shown multiple times to be a bit short tempered, quick to judge, and reckless.

I think people criticising Harry for this stuff forget that he was litro a teenager through most of the series. Are we getting heavy on a teenage boy for occasionally being a dick?

The series as a whole was mean-spirited. Don't forget that the 5th and 6th books used some equivalent to the following line a lot when Harry interacted with Neville or Luna:
"Harry looked at them pitifully" or "Harry felt a pain in the pit of his stomach as he watched ___"
Even when the character in question was having a great time, he was being judgmental of them while also considering them a friend? And hell, I'm pretty sure the 2nd book is the last time he stood up for Neville. If Luna hadn't been so conventionally attractive even with the unorthodox fashion and body language (which is totally autistic-coded but that's for another time), he'd probably have ignored her or grouped her in with the rest of the girls relegated to play background characters.

Dobby wanted to be a slave, irrc.

Considering that Judy Blume novels covered plenty of issues from the perspective of kids and teens being conscious of the socioeconomic issues of their worlds and resolving to change what they could even provided their limited capabilities as minors? And oh, those were usually single entry books and not part of a multiple thousand page series? Yeah. Children's books can cover this stuff quite well if actually handled by a competent author.

Do I even need to explain how racism is a core issue in The Outsiders?

Why can't something just be a story?

Side note, I dont really give two squats about Harry Potter lady, in case I came across the wrong way there

I don't know why some people want everything to have a political statement or all protagonists must be activists. Why can't something just be a story?

it's pretty easy to look back now and criticize the books because we KNOW that rowling is a piece of shit. like we have the answer already so it's easy to find evidence that existed all along. i don't really have a problem with that either, just saying tweets like this are very "hindsight is 20/20".

Kreacher was handled surprisingly well, though, imo, specifically because he was the only time when Rowling had the chutzpah to show the heroes being unrepentant assholes to him and also show them eat shit because of it. Dumbledore all but says that Sirius was responsible for Kreacher's radicalization and getting himself killed. >_>

On one hand I want to say people are reading too much into a kid's book series. On the other hand, the author is notorious for going back and retconning parts of her own series to seem hip and with the times, so I doubt she put that much forethought into anything she wrote.

Like what? What are some examples of "just a story"?

At least half of these are ice cold takes rooted in memes or half-remembered details. Then the "Harry never tried to enact systemic change" thing just feels like a weird dig considering the first 4 books were "slice of life magic mystery" and the last 3 were "let's fight hitler". >_>

Rowling is a schlocky writer who punched above several tiers above her skill level when the series tried to tackle more serious themes, and as a person she's a bit of a shitheel, to put it mildly. But the recent sort of counter-culture takedown of Harry Potter feels like it's trying too hard. Which is a shame, because there are definitely problems with, say, how she handles the slavery angle, and there's a bit to be learned by looking at how she fucked up, but to reduce it to "harhar harry potter says slavery good" is just lazy. <_<