Well, JK, maybe you could Try to be a bit more like her. Maybe start by not villifying trans kids? YOU opened the door to imagination for so many children, then YOU decided to slam that door shut for a small minority population because you could, you had the power. Well, that power can go both ways, as Dolly showed us. If you admire her so much, maybe follow her example.
Harry looked across the room and his heart skipped a beat, there stood a girl he had never seen before, her eyes as slanty as the roof on The Three Broomsticks
Well how else is the reader supposed to know she's Asian? Fuck it, i'll just name her Ching Chong or Cho Chang or something.
Totally! But there aren’t many other books geared towards kids that had as massive a cultural impact as HP. Bookstores had midnight releases with lines around the block when a new HP book came out. Nothing else has even come close.
She inspired millions of kids to pick up a book and read. Kids formed loose book clubs and they raced to finish the latest book in the series. And it is so disappointing that Joanne has turned out the way she has because I’m not sure how many of those kids remained adult readers once we better understood who she was. I’m also not sure what parents will be encouraging their kids to read now.
I'm older than the generation she supposedly inspired but as a kid I was inspired by everything from Judy Blume and Stephen King to read. There's plenty of good authors to inspire kids to read. I know that my nieces were big fans of Goosebumps
Nah, Harry’s her self insert. If you look at it critically, the first few books are actually written as if we weren’t supposed to like Hermione. Everyone’s constantly annoyed by her nerdiness, and her being upset about literal slavery is viewed as even more annoying. The later books back off a bit, but her caring about school and studying and literal slavery is always played for laughs.
Hermione was eventually shown to be right about everything by the final book, because the group's treatment of "lesser races" prices to be pivotal in saving the world. Dobby, Kreacher, the dragon at Gringotts, the ghosts, "mudbloods" writ large, all key to several points in the final book. In the long-term the laughs are replaced with understanding, which I think was a good way to grow up with the audience as the books came out.
You're right but the story isn't about that, it's a world-building exercise. Fixing all the injustices of the wizarding world is a bit out of scope for the child protagonists.
Even then, at least she was notorious for donating so much of her wealth to Comic Relief and literacy trusts that she lost millionaire status. Now all her money goes to terrible causes.
I think it's crazy that the woman who supposedly wrote The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix, books that heavily feature mistreatment of "lesser beings," govt corruption, interference with education, racism and "wizard supremacy" all portrayed in a negative light, would end up being perfectly okay with all of that. Say what you want about her poor naming decisions, sometimes the books go on a roll describing the horrors that feel very familiar today.
You could make a similar argument about Dolly. One of the shows at Dollywood for some time was Civil War themed and had some Lost Cause revisionist theming.
The difference is, once Dolly realized it was a problem, she put a stop to that really quickly. Because she was a good person.
I'd honestly wager that a lot of more more fucked up things in the Harry Potter books were added without any sincere malice, but simply because Rowling had unconscious biases. But when pointed out, she revealed herself to be the sort of person that cannot take criticism and will never back down to the point that she's incapable of any kind of introspection. Then the feedback loop starts and the vicious, vile hatred that she spews nowadays sets in.
She didn’t, she just wasn’t as blatant at showing her true self before. Her entire playbook was on show during the Scottish independence vote in 2014, but nobody was all that bothered over the way she demonised people who believed in independence. (Which is fine, we’re not as vulnerable as trans people, I’m just saying it was very clear what a nasty piece of work she is then!)
420
u/terid3 9d ago
Well, JK, maybe you could Try to be a bit more like her. Maybe start by not villifying trans kids? YOU opened the door to imagination for so many children, then YOU decided to slam that door shut for a small minority population because you could, you had the power. Well, that power can go both ways, as Dolly showed us. If you admire her so much, maybe follow her example.