JK Rowling TERFing her legacy into the bin

[Thursday]

I'm fascinated by the super-rich on twitter, who could just go and live a life of extreme luxury but somehow still feel compelled to argue online and double down when criticised instead of just logging off. What that says about human nature, that you'll always be seeking approval, that you're still vulnerable to the dopamine rush that things like twitter provide.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It's like how so many elite sportspeople are prone to cheating even when they can win on merit. That level of competitive drive remains for them even when they reach the top and have nothing more to accomplish.

[Old Nehamkin]

She also suggested at one point that Hermione might have been secretly black all along, because the text never said otherwise.

To be fair, she made that comment in response to the interminable right-wing backlash over a black actress being cast as Hermione in the Cursed Child stage play. Putting aside the obvious point that colour-blind casting is a fairly common and well-established practice in theatre, Rowling's response seemed to me a perfectly fair one: that Hermione's ethnicity is in no way an essential aspect of her character, and is in fact never explicitly specified in any of the books. The essence of this point was of course completely missed by the pants-shitting nascent alt-right, who combed through every page of the series until they found a single reference to Hermione being "white-faced" (in the context of having experienced a sudden shock) and then crowed triumphantly at the latest victory of Facts and Logic against the oppressive forces of cUlTuRaL mArXiSm. I'd say that was one particular debate that JK definitely came out on the right side of.

Her transphobic views and shitty neoliberal politics are reprehensible though, obviously.

[Ferris]

Demon headmaster books were better. And a warning.

Remember the tv show? Terrifying stuff, used to put the wind up me.

[Old Nehamkin]

It's funny, I remember the fourth book making me feel angry as a child at how nasty they all were to Hermione when she sticks up for the house-elves. In a series and genre that typically has kids being smart and brave and succeeding where adults can't, it was a little too 'oh you silly girl, you just don't understand! They like doing all the cooking and cleaning for free!'

Yes, I remember finding that whole subplot a bit queasy. There was something jarringly smug and cynical about the authorial tone and the way the reader is seemingly invited to laugh at Hermione being ridiculed and humiliated that I couldn't really interpret at 9 years old, but which makes a lot more sense now that I understand the political worldview which Rowling subscribes to. Here's a 2000 interview I dug up where Rowling talks about this aspect of the book, which I think is somewhat revealing:

EVAN: You used to work for Amnesty International. Two years.

J.K. ROWLING: I did, yeah. Research assistant. Human rights abuses in Francophone Africa. It made me very fascinating at dinner parties. I knew everything about the political situation in Togo and Burkina Faso.

E: And you still do.

JK: No I don't. Not anymore.

E: But here's where it shows up: Hermione and the rights of elves. Civil rights becomes a theme in Goblet of Fire.

JK: Oh yeah. Yeah.

E: This is a real issue.

JK: Yeah, that was fairly autobiographical. My sister and I both, we were that kind of teenager. (Dripping with drama) We were that kind of, 'I'm the only one who really feels these injustices. No one else understands the way I feel.' I think a lot of teenagers go through that.

E: In Britain they call it 'Right On' or something.

JK: Exactly. Well, she's fun to write because Hermione, with the best of intentions, becomes quite self-righteous. My heart is entirely with her as she goes through this. She develops her political conscience. My heart is completely with her. But my brain tells me, which is a growing-up thing, that in fact she blunders towards the very people she's trying to help. She offends them. She's not very sensitive to their...

E: She's somewhat condescending to the elves who don't have rights.

JK: She thinks it's so easy. It's part of what I was saying before about the growing process, of realizing you don't have quite as much power as you think you might have and having to accept that. Then you learn that it's hard work to change things and that it doesn't happen overnight. Hermione thinks she's going to lead them to glorious rebellion in one afternoon and then finds out the reality is very different, but that was fun to write.

[Dewt]

I'm fascinated by the super-rich on twitter, who could just go and live a life of extreme luxury but somehow still feel compelled to argue online and double down when criticised instead of just logging off. What that says about human nature, that you'll always be seeking approval, that you're still vulnerable to the dopamine rush that things like twitter provide.

Extreme wealth is a curse to the few people who haven't learned to be happy what what they currently have, because the reward for them is getting more, not enjoying a comfortable life. It turns people in complete wallopers.

[Ferris]

JK: ...Hermione, with the best of intentions, becomes quite self-righteous... My heart is completely with her. But my brain tells me, which is a growing-up thing, that in fact she blunders towards the very people she's trying to help. She offends them. She's not very sensitive to their...

E: She's somewhat condescending to the elves who don't have rights.

JK: She thinks it's so easy... Hermione thinks she's going to lead them to glorious rebellion in one afternoon and then finds out the reality is very different

🤔🤔🤔

[Chollis]

ok boomer

[alan nagsworth]

I agree they should have made the Harry Potter books more working class. Like "Scum". Imagine Harry Potter smashing Draco Malfoy's teeth off the edge of a sink in the school bathroom. Imagine Neville Longbottom getting sodomised in the Hogwarts greenhouses by Crabbe and Goyle while Professor Sprout turns a blind eye, the screeching of the Mandrakes covering his own feeble whimpers, and then slashing his wrists with some sort of magic knife back in the Gryffindor common room when he finds out he's back on gardening duties next week. Imagine it.

[Bernice]

According to a Pottermore retcon Witches don't menstruate in any normal sense anyway. At menarche they insert the horn of Spuffgargle as a sort of magic tampon for a week, after which they produce a clear, honey-like substance every lunar cycle until the age of around 70.

[Mister Six]

I'm not a big Harry Potter fan but that's one of the things which appealed to me about it. I went to a comprehensive and have no desire to return to it, a load of posh people doing school in a castle is exactly the kind of daft escapism I was looking for. See also: the Worst Witch.

Aye, also it seems that the boarding school education is given for free to everyone (although you have to buy your uniform and gear and that).

Harry immediately turning out to have a massive vault of gold and celebrity status fucks with that a bit, I suppose, but it's a key bit of appeal for kids, and he did have to suffer in a cupboard under some stairs for 13 years or however long first.

[ProvanFan]

I agree they should have made the Harry Potter books more working class. Like "Scum". Imagine Harry Potter smashing Draco Malfoy's teeth off the edge of a sink in the school bathroom. Imagine Neville Longbottom getting sodomised in the Hogwarts greenhouses by Crabbe and Goyle while Professor Sprout turns a blind eye, the screeching of the Mandrakes covering his own feeble whimpers, and then slashing his wrists with some sort of magic knife back in the Gryffindor common room when he finds out he's back on gardening duties next week. Imagine it.

[Bernice]

I agree they should have made the Harry Potter books more working class. Like "Scum". Imagine Harry Potter smashing Draco Malfoy's teeth off the edge of a sink in the school bathroom. Imagine Neville Longbottom getting sodomised in the Hogwarts greenhouses by Crabbe and Goyle while Professor Sprout turns a blind eye, the screeching of the Mandrakes covering his own feeble whimpers, and then slashing his wrists with some sort of magic knife back in the Gryffindor common room when he finds out he's back on gardening duties next week. Imagine it.

Go for a Ken Loach vibe, dirt poor Harry, Hogwarts a flimsy new build in Barnsley, bins overflowing with dead owls.

[Default to the negative]

I agree they should have made the Harry Potter books more working class. Like "Scum". Imagine Harry Potter smashing Draco Malfoy's teeth off the edge of a sink in the school bathroom. Imagine Neville Longbottom getting sodomised in the Hogwarts greenhouses by Crabbe and Goyle while Professor Sprout turns a blind eye, the screeching of the Mandrakes covering his own feeble whimpers, and then slashing his wrists with some sort of magic knife back in the Gryffindor common room when he finds out he's back on gardening duties next week. Imagine it.

I find it offensive and disturbing that you conflate 'working class' with 1970s borstals. If that is how you see the world, then it's no wonder you find your cosy womb in the safe reassurances of Harry Potter.

[ProvanFan]

That's my first creation using Affinity Photo btw. I'm a bit frightened by my own potential.

[Mister Six]

Kappa Harry is brilliant.

I think it must be very difficult for the first and second wave feminism generation having to adjust to viewing this issue from a position of privilege as opposed to their default assumption of being oppressed. Someone who is trying to live how they want to live in the knowledge of the deep prejudice, stigma and violence they may suffer is the vulnerable party versus a white female billionaire, or even white middle class English woman. They deserves respect and tolerance from the privileged person.

Well the first wave are all dead - they were the Suffragettes. It was the second wave in the 70s and 80s that saw the emergence of trans exclusionary feminists. The third and fourth waves have generally been more inclusive of transwomen.

That's one of the things that makes this so sad - Rowling and her ilk talking about how they've done their research and found out what's really going on, only to vomit up theories and arguments that are 40 years out of date.

The funny thing is that there are cracks within the TERF camp between the proper second-wave TERFs and the newbies who are more interested in justifying their own transphobia than learning about second-wave feminism.

[Default to the negative]

David Cameron used to host Sunday barbecues and invite all sorts of celebrities around. Clarkson went.

Did JK Rowling go too? I bet she did. Until she says otherwise, I will assume she did.

[Consignia]

Just spotted this on Twitter, never read or seen anything Harry Potter related. Is it a fair assessment?



All I know is, I love the image of a drug addled Daniel Radcliffe, trying to feed his habit.

[alan nagsworth]

I find it offensive and disturbing that you conflate 'working class' with 1970s borstals. If that is how you see the world, then it's no wonder you find your cosy womb in the safe reassurances of Harry Potter.

I grew up on a council estate, pal. I know how it feels to be raped by a wizard more than most would claim.

[Blue Jam]

I don't understand why people like her need to make divisive political pronouncements. Do they really think that anyone's opinion on Corbyn is going to be changed by them?

Celebrities have always pontificated about issues they don't understand and which they're not qualified to comment on, the only thing that has changed is the medium. In the past a celebrity could nuke their career by saying something ill-advised in an interview. Now Twitter allows them to broadcast their thoughts to their millions of fans, instantly, uninvited, and without having to run anything by their press officer first.

Twitter must be the bane of many a press officer's life.

I'm fascinated by the super-rich on twitter, who could just go and live a life of extreme luxury but somehow still feel compelled to argue online and double down when criticised instead of just logging off. What that says about human nature, that you'll always be seeking approval, that you're still vulnerable to the dopamine rush that things like twitter provide.

I can kind of understand it with people like comedians, actors and musicians who always craved fame and attention and still like to get a hit of it. It's understandable with the likes of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Fry, less so with the likes of JK Rowling and Elon Musk who could just enjoy their millions in blissful anonymity. Good post there, money is no good if it's approval you crave.

[Sherringford Hovis]

If we could stick to FART (Feminism-Appropriating Reactionary Transphobes) in place of TERF, it gives this thread some much needed levity?

Cheers.

[chveik]

Just spotted this on Twitter, never read or seen anything Harry Potter related. Is it a fair assessment?

all good points I think. although Harry Potter is first and foremost a bildungsroman, and the genre in itself is already ideologically flawed. also the particular liberal mindset of the books isn't that explicit, it isn't Ayn Rand. a lot of the fans at the time thought that the ending was bollocks and she'd started to lose it when she was painfully trying to make more serious points, so I can't say at which extent her particular ideology is going to influence people. in my mind you can be a socialist and enjoy silly and somewhat reactionary  stories at the same time.

[here4glinner]

Just spotted this on Twitter, never read or seen anything Harry Potter related. Is it a fair assessment?

That's good that, and yes, it's correct. Even the 'Voldemort loses by an obscure technicality" bit is how it reads in the text. "Voldemort and Harry both fight each other, and Voldemort loses because of this special characteristic Harry has that has not really been highlighted in any of the previous 100,000 words. 

The special characteristic, is, of course, love. Did ya know it beats hate?

[Dewt]

It's amazing that 4chan became more politically relatable than the 90s media left-wingers

[touchingcloth]

Have the offending posts been taken down? I like Rowling a lot so I've just looked at twitter (vom), and while her recent posts are all fairly radical feminist, there are non up which are trans exclusionary.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I think the last paragraph of that dissection about liberals is excellent. The bit about Harry Potter less so.

The idea as set out from the beginning is that Hogwarts is a fantasy world and the book a fantasy for children to indulge in and escape to. The idea alone of transporting yourself to a new world with new rules and structures is obviously appealing even if they are problematic. The only thing the books can do to stay interesting is to put the fantasy and its child characters under threat and peril. Perhaps the book is sentimental about traditions and prepared to defend arcane privilege but it also glorifies at other points eccentrics, rule breakers, solidarity and teamwork, self sacrifice, courage, etc.

That the book didn't end with a bizarre catalogue of tyrannical structural reforms to the wizarding world just reflects that the books were centred on the main characters and the fantasy world, ie what the readers care about. A bit like how books about Santa don't end with Santa quitting then laying down a series of Marxist diktat to the IMF, the World Bank and the G7.

[Bernice]

I'm not sure if any of that invalidates an ideological critique of the books though. Whatever Rowling's reasons may or may not have been for the decisions she made, its a reasoned reading that sees them as essentially liberal in their worldview. And I don't think a more radical children's story has to be bogged down in technicality or overt Marxism. Mary Poppins is a radical kids film, and I'll fight any scab who says otherwise.

[king_tubby]

No one:

Rowling: Yes, the CEO of Gringotts Wizarding Bank is George Soros.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It's also worth pointing out there isn't an absence of progressive views either. The thousands of occasions in the series where left wing virtues such as the ones I highlighted above (but also including partisan-style resistance) are shown to be good. The books also show some of the structures as being deeply flawed and corrupt. Again I would press that the general idea is that this world will be exciting to children, not that it is all worth defending. The analysis takes the most arch position feasibly possible in order for attention and in doing so strips away inconvenient elements which don't fit the rebuttal.

[mjwilson]

I think the last paragraph of that dissection about liberals is excellent. The bit about Harry Potter less so.

The idea as set out from the beginning is that Hogwarts is a fantasy world and the book a fantasy for children to indulge in and escape to. The idea alone of transporting yourself to a new world with new rules and structures is obviously appealing even if they are problematic. The only thing the books can do to stay interesting is to put the fantasy and its child characters under threat and peril. Perhaps the book is sentimental about traditions and prepared to defend arcane privilege but it also glorifies at other points eccentrics, rule breakers, solidarity and teamwork, self sacrifice, courage, etc.

That the book didn't end with a bizarre catalogue of tyrannical structural reforms to the wizarding world just reflects that the books were centred on the main characters and the fantasy world, ie what the readers care about. A bit like how books about Santa don't end with Santa quitting then laying down a series of Marxist diktat to the IMF, the World Bank and the G7.

The book does end with a big time skip though, which then just bored everyone to tears by listingthe stupid names they have given their kids. There was plenty of room for "Hermione had been running a campaign to abolish slavery" or "Harry was trying to persuade wizards not to be so racist towards other magical species" but none of that counts compares with checking off that everyone married their teenage sweethearts,