Who Did J.K. Rowling Become?
February 2, 2021 3:28 PM Subscribe
Deciphering the most beloved, most reviled children’s-book author in history. "In the past few years, Rowling began to share her skepticism of transgender identity online. She seemed to have aligned herself with a camp of people who often call themselves “gender-critical feminists”; opponents tend to call them TERFs, or “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” though they are not necessarily very radical. ... 'She absolutely believes that she is right, that she’s on a mission, and that history will eventually bear her out.'"
This post was deleted for the following reason: Late delete on this, but on reflection I agree with the argument that this could probably just be a link in, and extension of, the existing discussion of Rowling et al in this recent post. -- cortex
Sometimes I think Ursula K LeGuin saw Rowling for what she was just from reading Harry Potter, From the Guardian.
Q: Nicholas Lezard has written 'Rowling can type, but Le Guin can write.' What do you make of this comment in the light of the phenomenal success of the Potter books? I'd like to hear your opinion of JK Rowling's writing style
UKL: I have no great opinion of it. When so many adult critics were carrying on about the "incredible originality" of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid's fantasy crossed with a "school novel", good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited.
One thing I took from Harry Potter is that his father is a somewhat irredeemable bully and yet it gets glossed over. There's no redemption arc and the subsequent treatment of Snape seems oddly unfinished because of it. It's sadly not a surprise to me that despite Rowling's own history of poverty she's still at the end someone comfortable with punching down.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:52 PM on February 2, 2021 [39 favorites]
Q: Nicholas Lezard has written 'Rowling can type, but Le Guin can write.' What do you make of this comment in the light of the phenomenal success of the Potter books? I'd like to hear your opinion of JK Rowling's writing style
UKL: I have no great opinion of it. When so many adult critics were carrying on about the "incredible originality" of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid's fantasy crossed with a "school novel", good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited.
One thing I took from Harry Potter is that his father is a somewhat irredeemable bully and yet it gets glossed over. There's no redemption arc and the subsequent treatment of Snape seems oddly unfinished because of it. It's sadly not a surprise to me that despite Rowling's own history of poverty she's still at the end someone comfortable with punching down.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:52 PM on February 2, 2021 [39 favorites]
My own theory of Harry Potter is that Rowling is clearly working in the same vein as English comic writers like P.G. Wodehouse. Except in her case, a lot of the farcical comedy gets sublimated into the magic and worldbuilding, which ends up being quite compelling. Similarly if you look into the personal political views of Wodehouse, you're going to find some real ugly stuff.
posted by vogon_poet at 4:02 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by vogon_poet at 4:02 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
and ethically rather mean-spirited
So true. There are any number of shocking ethical lapses in the books that I papered over as I read them, but which have subsequently soaked through.
posted by jamjam at 4:04 PM on February 2, 2021 [16 favorites]
So true. There are any number of shocking ethical lapses in the books that I papered over as I read them, but which have subsequently soaked through.
posted by jamjam at 4:04 PM on February 2, 2021 [16 favorites]
A lot of what was terribly insular about Rowling was there from the start to anyone who cared to see it. I'd seen her work described --- I can't remember where --- as "Enid Blyton with magic", and certainly there's a Blytonesque British triumphalism, a sense of the boarding-school experience as a universal in it. Even the issue frequently heralded as indicative of her tolerance, the post-hoc claim of Dumbledore as a gay character, isn't that great the closer you look: you emblematically determine that the character who's wry, unpaired, and occasionally outrageously dressed is gay? In a world where attraction is love and love is unmistakably a force for good, you make the one canonical gay attraction twist a man of claimed near-perfect ethics into cooperation with Wizard Hitler? Whew.
posted by jackbishop at 4:05 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by jackbishop at 4:05 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
vogon_poet, I'd love it if I had to look into JK's personal political views. Sadly, they're all over the internet and in her output as a writer.
posted by tigrrrlily at 4:05 PM on February 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by tigrrrlily at 4:05 PM on February 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
TERF is outdated. The new term is Feminism-Appropriating Reactionary Transphobe, or FART.
posted by SansPoint at 11:58 AM on September 5, 2019
posted by tiny frying pan at 4:06 PM on February 2, 2021 [26 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 11:58 AM on September 5, 2019
posted by tiny frying pan at 4:06 PM on February 2, 2021 [26 favorites]
Watching this JK Rowling mess develop has been like watching a cat stick its head in a jar and get stuck. Repeatedly. Maybe celebrity just does this to people, or maybe she’s always been this person. Maybe something similar would explain what Elon Musk has become.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 4:12 PM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 4:12 PM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
This essay is a good recap of the events of Rowling’s career and the various TERF controversies she has and will continue to court, but I’m not sure it really provides much new insight. What does Rowling’s possessiveness of her work have to do with her anti-Trans views? It’s a proof of self-righteousness, but so what.
I have never read the book, so I have no opinions on Rowling's abilities as a writer
One thing I took from Harry Potter is that his father is a somewhat irredeemable bully and yet it gets glossed over. There's no redemption arc and the subsequent treatment of Snape seems oddly unfinished because of it.
I read the books at the start of the quarantine, long after her views were old news and after I had aged out of the primary demographic for any of them. And I think my big feeling were
Really, I think, so much rests on that incredible opening to the series: the piles of letters streaming into the room to tell Harry that he was chosen, that he wasn’t just the boy under the stairs, that he was wanted. It’s such a powerful moment, and I think it sweeps people up into ignoring the more disturbing bits that come after. Yes, this is off, and yes, that’s off, but oh - to have a place when you had none. It’s an intoxicating feeling, and one that was perhaps much more powerful than Rowling imagined.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:15 PM on February 2, 2021 [44 favorites]
I have never read the book, so I have no opinions on Rowling's abilities as a writer
One thing I took from Harry Potter is that his father is a somewhat irredeemable bully and yet it gets glossed over. There's no redemption arc and the subsequent treatment of Snape seems oddly unfinished because of it.
I read the books at the start of the quarantine, long after her views were old news and after I had aged out of the primary demographic for any of them. And I think my big feeling were
- When they were good, they were very, very good, and easy reads to avoid putting down
- A lot of the problematic stuff just leaps off the page, if you know what to look for.
Really, I think, so much rests on that incredible opening to the series: the piles of letters streaming into the room to tell Harry that he was chosen, that he wasn’t just the boy under the stairs, that he was wanted. It’s such a powerful moment, and I think it sweeps people up into ignoring the more disturbing bits that come after. Yes, this is off, and yes, that’s off, but oh - to have a place when you had none. It’s an intoxicating feeling, and one that was perhaps much more powerful than Rowling imagined.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:15 PM on February 2, 2021 [44 favorites]
My family was a Potter family. We just adored the books and the movies and the theme park and the museum exhibit and anything else. As a youth librarian I was responsible for endless Potter programming and for getting to hand someone Sorcerer's Stone for the first time. When all this started to come out I was sure she was confused and would clarify things. But she just keeps doubling down. It makes me so sad. Just so, so sad. (and I say this as a Cis person. I can't imagine how Trans/NB fans are feeling.)
posted by Biblio at 4:18 PM on February 2, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by Biblio at 4:18 PM on February 2, 2021 [13 favorites]
Maine, I think you hit on an excellent reason many in the LGBTQIA+ community is so hurt and betrayed by her transphobic bullshit everywhere.
posted by Jacen at 4:19 PM on February 2, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by Jacen at 4:19 PM on February 2, 2021 [10 favorites]
I mean, I still think about the scene on a moderately regular basis. I’m a cis white guy, and I don’t know when I last had that sense of purposeful belonging to something. She’s just so good at making the Durnsleys awful, and at creating that potent catharsis of being needed. It isn’t a clever portrait of awfulness, really, but it’s certainly an effective one.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:27 PM on February 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 4:27 PM on February 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
Two people I know, a couple one of whom transitioned some years ago, were huge Potter fans, to the point of going to London to see the play. I can only begin to imagine the sense of betrayal they must feel that the creator of a work that meant so much to them believes that one of them should not exist in their actual form. And from what I gather, that is shared by a lot of queer kids who had mistakenly assumed Rowling as an ally.
posted by acb at 4:29 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by acb at 4:29 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
I was initially swept into Potter as a kid when the mania hit, and I have certainly read all of the books, but what I remember noticing even at the first read when I was maybe 12 was that Harry never gets justice for the oppression he suffers under the Dursleys, he gets vengeance. Even as a kid it was clear to me that “You’re a wizard, Harry” didn’t mean “no kid will have to live under the stairs again”, it meant “You’re better than them Harry, you were born better, and you’ll always be in the most exclusive club and what could those plebes ever do about it”.
It strikes me that in all of the fairness themes in the book, it’s always a question of elites debating whether new elites are permitted, and whether or not non elites should be killed for amusement or simply pitied and ignored. I mean, St Mungos is implied to be able to cure cancer. Why the hell are wizard healers not roaming hospital wards at night? Why is Hermiones campaign for house elf rights considered a punchline by the protagonist who owes his life to two different house elves? Harry Potter is all about punching down. It’s about being special, but it’s really about being better. It took me a long time to unlearn that.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 4:31 PM on February 2, 2021 [41 favorites]
It strikes me that in all of the fairness themes in the book, it’s always a question of elites debating whether new elites are permitted, and whether or not non elites should be killed for amusement or simply pitied and ignored. I mean, St Mungos is implied to be able to cure cancer. Why the hell are wizard healers not roaming hospital wards at night? Why is Hermiones campaign for house elf rights considered a punchline by the protagonist who owes his life to two different house elves? Harry Potter is all about punching down. It’s about being special, but it’s really about being better. It took me a long time to unlearn that.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 4:31 PM on February 2, 2021 [41 favorites]
She’s just so good at making the Durnsleys awful
The Dursleys and a lot of other elements always struck me as having been cribbed from somewhere else and redrawn using tracing paper. Harry Potter seems to be cobbled together from archetypes that have been universal to a certain sort of genteel Britishness; it has the bingo-card-of-tropes feeling of one of those animated cartoons devised by someone who did not draw themselves but had watched a lot of Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry cartoons and could write scripts that had all the familiar old devices, from safes falling from the sky to little old ladies angrily whacking a character with an umbrella, with each used where the audience expected it.
posted by acb at 4:34 PM on February 2, 2021 [6 favorites]
The Dursleys and a lot of other elements always struck me as having been cribbed from somewhere else and redrawn using tracing paper. Harry Potter seems to be cobbled together from archetypes that have been universal to a certain sort of genteel Britishness; it has the bingo-card-of-tropes feeling of one of those animated cartoons devised by someone who did not draw themselves but had watched a lot of Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry cartoons and could write scripts that had all the familiar old devices, from safes falling from the sky to little old ladies angrily whacking a character with an umbrella, with each used where the audience expected it.
posted by acb at 4:34 PM on February 2, 2021 [6 favorites]
vogon_poet, why do you say that Wodehouse's political views were "ugly"? If you're referring to his WW2 broadcasts, here's George Orwell's In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse.
posted by phliar at 4:36 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by phliar at 4:36 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
The books end with Harry achieving his hearts desire - he gets to join the secret police.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 4:36 PM on February 2, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 4:36 PM on February 2, 2021 [13 favorites]
Half of the article is stuff that is pretty typical of writers--there's Anne Rice channelling Lestat and Jesus and harassing a real life restaurant owner because his aesthetic didn't fit her book, Diana Gabaldon pontificating about fanfic--if I started listing examples of writers being weird and obsessive about their fictional worlds, I would be here all day.
The aggressive transphobia and how JKR fits into contemporary UK feminism is a more interesting story and that's where the article gets thin. She got on Twitter, and? I feel that a deeper dive into that could be interesting. Who was she talking to? How does it affect the work her charity does? I feel like this article doesn't go into the bigger story.
posted by betweenthebars at 4:44 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
The aggressive transphobia and how JKR fits into contemporary UK feminism is a more interesting story and that's where the article gets thin. She got on Twitter, and? I feel that a deeper dive into that could be interesting. Who was she talking to? How does it affect the work her charity does? I feel like this article doesn't go into the bigger story.
posted by betweenthebars at 4:44 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
By the time Klink took Flourish as their legal name, they had long since come to feel that Rowling, “while great, was not, you know … the greatest writer who ever lived.” What started out as a reference to her work — the wizarding bookstore Flourish and Blotts — had been Klink’s screen name for more than two decades.
Well, that sure is relatable.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:51 PM on February 2, 2021 [10 favorites]
Well, that sure is relatable.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:51 PM on February 2, 2021 [10 favorites]
I think it's worth linking to Dan Radcliffe's statement, via The Trevor Project, that is overall powerful and specifically at the end addresses the terrible pain Rowling's behavior has caused for some fans:
To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:57 PM on February 2, 2021 [27 favorites]
To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:57 PM on February 2, 2021 [27 favorites]
I found the Harry Potter books to be sort of lurching ripoffs and never really got the appeal, but it was certainly interesting to be working in bookstores while the last however many of them came out.
Similarly if you look into the personal political views of Wodehouse, you're going to find some real ugly stuff.
There are certainly problems with Wodehouse, but I don't know that he was exactly the TERF of the 20s. And I'd be hard-pressed to argue that he wasn't a good writer (and enormously more prolific and varied in output than Rowling)
posted by aspersioncast at 5:11 PM on February 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
Similarly if you look into the personal political views of Wodehouse, you're going to find some real ugly stuff.
There are certainly problems with Wodehouse, but I don't know that he was exactly the TERF of the 20s. And I'd be hard-pressed to argue that he wasn't a good writer (and enormously more prolific and varied in output than Rowling)
posted by aspersioncast at 5:11 PM on February 2, 2021 [2 favorites]
I think that "actually Harry Potter was trash all along, obviously" isn't a bad take exactly but it presents a narrative that paints millions of young people (many of them from marginalized groups themselves) as sort of ... naive or foolish ... for finding something special in these works, which is pretty tough when so many of them already feel betrayed by Rowling. I think it's an easier position to take than one that acknowledges that sometimes the works many of us found meaningful in our youth might have a lot of bad in them too, and the associated complexities of that fact.
I've been listening to the American Girl podcast, in which two historians who loved the books as children reread the series. They nicely balance the difficulty of discussing the books' ethical failures while still being sensitive to what they meant to a generation of young people. I think it's a hard needle to thread.
posted by Emily's Fist at 5:24 PM on February 2, 2021 [22 favorites]
I've been listening to the American Girl podcast, in which two historians who loved the books as children reread the series. They nicely balance the difficulty of discussing the books' ethical failures while still being sensitive to what they meant to a generation of young people. I think it's a hard needle to thread.
posted by Emily's Fist at 5:24 PM on February 2, 2021 [22 favorites]
Really, I think, so much rests on that incredible opening to the series: the piles of letters streaming into the room to tell Harry that he was chosen, that he wasn’t just the boy under the stairs, that he was wanted. It’s such a powerful moment, and I think it sweeps people up into ignoring the more disturbing bits that come after.
How is this inspiring? This is that Tory crap about only people of special provenance being able to change the world. This coupled with Harry being magically rich suddenly in the wizarding world, I just don't even.
Even the start of the books was a fucking Tory wet dream what is this crap.
There's a big difference between belonging to something and belonging to a special club that only "heroes" get invited to, and they're heroes based on birth, not merit.
posted by deadaluspark at 5:27 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
How is this inspiring? This is that Tory crap about only people of special provenance being able to change the world. This coupled with Harry being magically rich suddenly in the wizarding world, I just don't even.
Even the start of the books was a fucking Tory wet dream what is this crap.
There's a big difference between belonging to something and belonging to a special club that only "heroes" get invited to, and they're heroes based on birth, not merit.
posted by deadaluspark at 5:27 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
This is why we desperately need more artists and more art. Someone as flawed as J.K. Rowling wrote down her workmanlike prose to make one of the biggest, most beloved stories of the last half century. There is no reason why better people can't produce better art and achieve greater success.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:28 PM on February 2, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:28 PM on February 2, 2021 [9 favorites]
For those opposed to “gender ideology,” Rowling’s embrace of their cause has made her an icon. How, proponents ask rhetorically, could it possibly be “hate speech” to proclaim a love for the best-selling children’s author of all time? Around Vancouver, Elston likes to go out in a sandwich board that reads I ❤️JK ROWLING on one side and GENDER IDEOLOGY DOES NOT BELONG IN SCHOOLS on the other.
No, fuck it, this is too relatable. J.K. Rowling is not just some asshole with too many Twitter followers anymore. She's a heroine and an inspiration to transphobes around the world. For at least the next decade, if not the rest of my life, I'm going to be running into people who will hate and fear me because they listened to her, or listened to somebody who listened to her, and decided that meant they didn't need to listen to me. I don't want my name here to have any relationship with her. As soon as I can think of a better one, I'm gonna disable this account and BND.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:29 PM on February 2, 2021 [22 favorites]
No, fuck it, this is too relatable. J.K. Rowling is not just some asshole with too many Twitter followers anymore. She's a heroine and an inspiration to transphobes around the world. For at least the next decade, if not the rest of my life, I'm going to be running into people who will hate and fear me because they listened to her, or listened to somebody who listened to her, and decided that meant they didn't need to listen to me. I don't want my name here to have any relationship with her. As soon as I can think of a better one, I'm gonna disable this account and BND.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 5:29 PM on February 2, 2021 [22 favorites]
The Dursleys and a lot of other elements always struck me as having been cribbed from somewhere else and redrawn using tracing paper.
They definitely have some Roald Dahl DNA in them, don't they? (Speaking of beloved children's authors whose awful political views often get glossed over...)
posted by Jeanne at 5:34 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
They definitely have some Roald Dahl DNA in them, don't they? (Speaking of beloved children's authors whose awful political views often get glossed over...)
posted by Jeanne at 5:34 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
I read the business of Harry getting acceptance letters for Hogwarts as him passing his eleven-plus.
Eleven-plus nostalgia is a sure-fire sign of the most toxic forms of English conservatism (also, I passed my eleven-plus and I did get to go to a school full of weird sociopaths but there was NO MAGIC!)
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:43 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
Eleven-plus nostalgia is a sure-fire sign of the most toxic forms of English conservatism (also, I passed my eleven-plus and I did get to go to a school full of weird sociopaths but there was NO MAGIC!)
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:43 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
As a boarding school grad, I took Harry Potter, the character, as not dissimilar from most of the most gratuitous jerks at my high school (rich, white, jock legacy with all kinds of anger and weird parent issues). That said, I enjoyed the books.
JK Rowling is, however, a total asshole.
posted by thivaia at 5:46 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
JK Rowling is, however, a total asshole.
posted by thivaia at 5:46 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
This is what you get when you become so rich and famous that nobody in your special circle will tell you when you're being an asshole, for fear of being banished from the magic circle. And the other folks that do publicly tell you you're being an asshole are obviously just jealous of your fame.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 5:51 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 5:51 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
Relevant SLYT: JK Rowling | ContraPoints
posted by experiencing a significant gravitas shortfall at 5:54 PM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by experiencing a significant gravitas shortfall at 5:54 PM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 6:02 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
Really, I think, so much rests on that incredible opening to the series: the piles of letters streaming into the room to tell Harry that he was chosen, that he wasn’t just the boy under the stairs, that he was wanted. It’s such a powerful moment, and I think it sweeps people up into ignoring the more disturbing bits that come after.
How is this inspiring? This is that Tory crap about only people of special provenance being able to change the world. This coupled with Harry being magically rich suddenly in the wizarding world, I just don't even.
Since we’re responding to my response, I’d say it absolutely isn’t “inspiring”. There’s nothing in that scene that inspires me to do anything. Rather it’s a pure salvation fantasy - it’s a depiction of someone who has spent their entire life believing that they are worthless suddenly being told that no, you do have worth, you’ve been lied to the whole time, the people who’ve been oppressing you are the ones who have been lying to you and deceiving you. You haven’t been crazy to think you’ve been gaslit by liars who have held you back. YOU MATTER. Take me away, Hagrid, and let me have an actual life, for goodness sake.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:09 PM on February 2, 2021 [16 favorites]
How is this inspiring? This is that Tory crap about only people of special provenance being able to change the world. This coupled with Harry being magically rich suddenly in the wizarding world, I just don't even.
Since we’re responding to my response, I’d say it absolutely isn’t “inspiring”. There’s nothing in that scene that inspires me to do anything. Rather it’s a pure salvation fantasy - it’s a depiction of someone who has spent their entire life believing that they are worthless suddenly being told that no, you do have worth, you’ve been lied to the whole time, the people who’ve been oppressing you are the ones who have been lying to you and deceiving you. You haven’t been crazy to think you’ve been gaslit by liars who have held you back. YOU MATTER. Take me away, Hagrid, and let me have an actual life, for goodness sake.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:09 PM on February 2, 2021 [16 favorites]
Similarly if you look into the personal political views of Wodehouse, you're going to find some real ugly stuff.
What you'll find, as far as all the reading I've ever done indicates, is essentially nothing. Wodehouse appears to have had almost no political views at all. The wartime broadcasts may have been stupid, vain and selfish (I am inclined to think they were), but they weren't political, or seemingly motivated by any political opinion, but rather the lack thereof.
Wodehouse was probably an antisemite to the extent that the majority of people of his race and background born in 1881 were, but I've never seen anything to suggest that he was unusually antisemitic. It is notable that it's common to find far uglier antisemitism in the published writings of a great many still celebrated authors of the era than in the handful of quotes from letters that have been promoted as exposing Wodehouse as a virulent antisemite. There's undeniably racism and ugliness of thought there, but the claim that this illuminates a political viewpoint, or anything remotely unusual for his era, doesn't really seem supported by the materials available.
Wodehouse's most unpleasant political trait, if I'm honest, seems to have been the self-centred apoliticism of privilege: not his views, but rather his lack of them, and the lack of empathy for those outside his immediate sphere that this lack suggests.
posted by howfar at 6:20 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
What you'll find, as far as all the reading I've ever done indicates, is essentially nothing. Wodehouse appears to have had almost no political views at all. The wartime broadcasts may have been stupid, vain and selfish (I am inclined to think they were), but they weren't political, or seemingly motivated by any political opinion, but rather the lack thereof.
Wodehouse was probably an antisemite to the extent that the majority of people of his race and background born in 1881 were, but I've never seen anything to suggest that he was unusually antisemitic. It is notable that it's common to find far uglier antisemitism in the published writings of a great many still celebrated authors of the era than in the handful of quotes from letters that have been promoted as exposing Wodehouse as a virulent antisemite. There's undeniably racism and ugliness of thought there, but the claim that this illuminates a political viewpoint, or anything remotely unusual for his era, doesn't really seem supported by the materials available.
Wodehouse's most unpleasant political trait, if I'm honest, seems to have been the self-centred apoliticism of privilege: not his views, but rather his lack of them, and the lack of empathy for those outside his immediate sphere that this lack suggests.
posted by howfar at 6:20 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
P-B-Z-M, second link was the same as the first.
Lindsay Ellis, ”Death of the Author 2: Rowling Boogaloo”
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:20 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
Lindsay Ellis, ”Death of the Author 2: Rowling Boogaloo”
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:20 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
“Has the Sorting Hat ever been wrong?” Spartz asked.
“No,” Rowling said, unequivocal.
In retrospect, was it really that surprising that someone who so firmly believed in the logic of a magical hat which could tell people as children exactly what sort of person they inevitably had to become and never, ever be wrong about it... also turned out to have some rather fucked up ideas about biological determinism?
(someone said this better on twitter months back; sorry, I've lost it)
posted by automatronic at 6:27 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
“No,” Rowling said, unequivocal.
In retrospect, was it really that surprising that someone who so firmly believed in the logic of a magical hat which could tell people as children exactly what sort of person they inevitably had to become and never, ever be wrong about it... also turned out to have some rather fucked up ideas about biological determinism?
(someone said this better on twitter months back; sorry, I've lost it)
posted by automatronic at 6:27 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
As I've argued before, the Sorting Hat is a profoundly East German social instrument, and Hogwarts is an exercise in Ostalgie.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 6:33 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 6:33 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
I like this explanation for the appeal of Harry Potter, from Grantland.com:
One of the reasons J.K. Rowling’s books exerted such an appeal over every sentient creature on earth is that they resolved, indeed fused, a cultural contradiction. She took the aesthetic of old-fashioned English boarding-school life and placed it at the center of a narrative about political inclusiveness. You get to keep the scarves, the medieval dining hall, the verdant lawns, the sense of privilege (you’re a wizard, Harry), while not only losing the snobbery and racism but actually casting them as the villains of the series. It’s the Slytherins and Death Eaters who have it in for mudbloods, not Harry and his friends, Hogwarts’ true heirs. The result of this, I would argue, is an absolutely bonkers subliminal reconfiguration of basically the entire cultural heritage of England. It’s as if Rowling reboots a 1,000-year-old national tradition into something that’s (a) totally unearned but (b) also way better than the original. Of course it electrified people.
posted by subdee at 6:49 PM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
One of the reasons J.K. Rowling’s books exerted such an appeal over every sentient creature on earth is that they resolved, indeed fused, a cultural contradiction. She took the aesthetic of old-fashioned English boarding-school life and placed it at the center of a narrative about political inclusiveness. You get to keep the scarves, the medieval dining hall, the verdant lawns, the sense of privilege (you’re a wizard, Harry), while not only losing the snobbery and racism but actually casting them as the villains of the series. It’s the Slytherins and Death Eaters who have it in for mudbloods, not Harry and his friends, Hogwarts’ true heirs. The result of this, I would argue, is an absolutely bonkers subliminal reconfiguration of basically the entire cultural heritage of England. It’s as if Rowling reboots a 1,000-year-old national tradition into something that’s (a) totally unearned but (b) also way better than the original. Of course it electrified people.
posted by subdee at 6:49 PM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
But I think if you try to play detective with Harry Potter, and try to look for textural clues that J.K. Rowling has always been a bigot, you're missing the story about how these online hate groups take normal, garden variety prejudices / people's vulnerabilities and radicalize them into these extreme positions. Also that TERF is a mainstream political position in the UK and transphobia is a useful weapon in the culture wars.
posted by subdee at 6:53 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by subdee at 6:53 PM on February 2, 2021 [3 favorites]
She is to the literary world what Dennis Miller is to comedy: done.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:58 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:58 PM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
Here's one on TERFs in the UK:
How British Feminism Became Anti-Trans
Spoiler: they're linked to conservative political advocacy groups in the US, like the heritage foundation.
posted by subdee at 7:00 PM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
How British Feminism Became Anti-Trans
Spoiler: they're linked to conservative political advocacy groups in the US, like the heritage foundation.
posted by subdee at 7:00 PM on February 2, 2021 [4 favorites]
Hey, maybe instead of repeatedly calling attention to her awfulness so folks can feel better about calling out her harmful views, we can just stop posting about her and having the same discussion over and over again. Find some positive stories about trans folks doing cool trans things if you want to obliquely talk about the trans community.
posted by kokaku at 7:05 PM on February 2, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 7:05 PM on February 2, 2021 [6 favorites]
We've already got an open thread with a single link to someone's analysis of why Rowling hates trans people. Why does metafilter need another one just a week later?
The previous one at least was clear about being from someone with a stake in the situation, and didn't repeat (uncritically, in the FPP!) the euphemisms and two-sides framing that anti-trans campaigners use to legitimise themselves.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 7:06 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
The previous one at least was clear about being from someone with a stake in the situation, and didn't repeat (uncritically, in the FPP!) the euphemisms and two-sides framing that anti-trans campaigners use to legitimise themselves.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 7:06 PM on February 2, 2021 [5 favorites]
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“No,” Rowling said, unequivocal.
I enjoyed the movies very much but have never read the book, so I have no opinions on Rowling's abilities as a writer. That her books are so beloved by so many, and so many young, suggests to me a solidly straightforward prose style that might be considered "workmanlike but entirely effective at what it sets out to do". She has also obviously done a lot of world-building as the movies, at least, seemed consistent to themselves.
But those two lines there - wow. I guess as a (burgeoning) roleplaying game gamemaster, which is basically improv, an attitude like that just closes so many doors. Why would you do that to yourself, as a creator?
Sorry, just wanted to get my immediate visceral reaction down. The Cut is always a good read so I'm looking forward to the rest of the piece.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:51 PM on February 2, 2021 [7 favorites]