cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16243150
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this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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Harry Potter is a slavery-justifying neoliberal wank written by a transphobic fascist, and it deserves to be forgotten.
It's perfectly fine to like the art and not the artist, you know.
It’s mega derivative though. Don’t really get why it caught on as much as it did, except lucky timing.
Did you consider the audience?
How many kids transitioning to young adults have enough grasp of historical literature or other media to say "what bollocks! This is super derivative! Let's do some high Arthurian fantasy instead!"? It got popular because it is approachable, entertaining, and knew it's audience.
Now, jkr might have picked this kind of audience because she new as an aspiring author the quality wasn't going to be tip top, but that's a different discussion altogether.
I don't like the art, it's poorly written. Harry watches the government get taken over by fascists and then decides to go be a cop. Plus it excuses slavery
Not every police force is the ultra-militarised right wing type you see in North America. I must admit I'm quite tired of people thinking US culture applies worldwide. There's a whole world outside of the USA. You need to accept that just because something is one way in the US, doesn't mean it's that way everywhere.
I'm currently living in the UK and despite their police force often being useless due to 14 years of Conservatives underfunding them, I'll give them credit for not being violent and being extremely adept at de-escalation, and for regularly and overwhelmingly saying no when they are surveyed and offered more lethal weapons. They adamantly do not want more power. Police in the UK, as a general rule, lean left, not right.
Of course you do occasionally hear about a police officer doing something dodgy, but it's pretty rare and makes national or even international news when it happens.
There's very much a culture of them working for the public as opposed to being a military force that terrorises the public.
Plus the government previously being fascist doesn't mean people working for them are fascist, particularly not after a change in government. Harry became an Auror when Hermione became Minister of Magic. It wasn't a fascist government then. Is every public sector employee in Spain, Italy, Germany, etc a fascist just because they had a fascist government in the past?
Poorly written, sure, I'd say a lot of it is too (so time-turners canonically exist but nobody goes back to stop Voldemort or stop victims from being killed by him? Ok lol), but so are lots of things. Not everybody is a Tolkien-level world-builder.
Regardless, it doesn't change the point, you can think JKR is a transphobic twat and still like a book. Rudyard Kipling has some great poems and books, despite being racist. Roald Dahl wrote brilliant childrens books despite being a raving antisemite. As an Indian, I have great respect for Ghandi, despite him being racist, enormously antisemitic, and likely even paedophilic. The Smiths made great music despite Morrissey being a cunt. Etc.
If you want to discard work on account of the artist's personalities, then fair enough, more power to you, it's a personal thing what your boundaries are. I'm just saying it's fine to like the art but not the artist too.
I thought you said to like the art and not the artist. Hermione becoming minister for magic isn't canon, it's WoG via the cursed child. It's not the art. You're saying to separate it from the artist, but you're basing your evaluation on decisions made by the artist years later. Hypocrite.
Where have I said I like JKR? Where's the hypocrisy?
You were the one who brought up events after the books, now I'm not to talk about it otherwise it's somehow an endorsement of transphobia or something? Lmao
And of course it's still art - it's part of the world that the author created. I don't see how you could possibly argue that it isn't. It's HP universe stuff.
Do the events of The Silmarillion not count as art, because it came out years after the LOTR trilogy?
Harry decides to become a cop during the original books. And if you're going to make decisions about the quality of the books based on fanfic, then so will I. I'll asset that Harry Potter sucks because Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way is a mary sue and the prose in My Immortal is terrible.
Auror, not cop.
And again, stop asserting that other police forces are like that of the US. Other countries exist and have different cultures, curb your nationalism just a little bit.
I never mentioned fanfic, this is again you going off on a wild tangent.
I'm not an American, you're the one who keeps talking about the US, Cursed Child is fanfiction, and aurors enforced fascist laws during Voldemort's coup, which Harry knows from direct lived experience.
You keep bringing up US political dynamics.
Stuff from the author is not fanfiction. I think you need to brush up on what fanfiction means. You'd think the meaning would be obvious since the word quite literally describes itself.
And yes, a fascist government imposed fascism in the HP universe... Then a non-fascist government succeeded it... honestly, how is this hard to grasp?
Can we try to replace Potter with The Earthsea books? So clear Rowling stole many ideas from Le Guin, and Le Guin herself was amazing. Tons of essays, etc. to get the drift of her ideas. Or Once and Future King? Not as big of a fan of the second series, but the first part is lovely and edifying like the early Potter books.
Edit: could any of the downvoters share their rationale? Not mad, and if it's just the wrong sub to suggest it because duh, replace it with LOR, that's okay. I'm good with that too. Any other reasons out there?
I didn't downvote you, but I would guess the other down votes come from not describing why they are similar, or what they are about.
Thank you, that is an actually good point.
Earthsea centers around a boy who shows magical abilities, so he's sent to Wizarding School.
But you don't have to take my word for it... Wiki
You're being downvoted by transphobes. I upvoted you.
Ugh, I hope you aren't right, but probably.
You know what they say, "scratch a potterhead and a fascist bleeds"
No, I'd never heard that. Unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me, but it does fuck with my view of a few people I've known...
I'm playing on the old leftist saying "scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds". There's a potterhead in this thread glorifying the UK police, as if England didn't historically host a huge punk and anarchist movement, and massive anti police sentiment.
You see, the only thing a liberal believes in politically is their own personal convenience. Leftism is all about justice, equality, and putting in the hard work to support each other. Fascism is all about convincing you that it's in your own interest to attack minorities. So when a liberal is inconvenienced (or their favourite book is attacked), suddenly they care about politics and they radicalise. And the direction they radicalise is to the right.
If someone's made Harry Potter central to their identity, an attack on Potter is an attack on them. They feel the need to defend themselves. And how do you defend a fascist's books? You use fascist talking points. Potterheads will always justify slavery, glorify the police, and make excuses for transphobia until the day they stop defining themselves by that book.
Damn, you miserable as fuck.