2d ago

JK Rowling is far more like Elon Musk.

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I never understood all this whinging about J. K. Rowling. I was a big fan of Ender's Game when I was younger, but when Orson Scott Card revealed himself to be an asshole I dropped those books like a bad habit and everyone I knew did the same. There wasn't even really any debate over it. Why are we still wringing our hands about Harry Potter?
- People made Harry Potter their entire personality to the point of their school/house or whatever basically amounting to astrology to them. JK Rowling could shoot their child in front of them and they'd still take any chance to throw money at her they can get.
- Enders Game (and the whole series) is a bit different, as unlike Harry Potter they are actually trying to teach a lesson in empathy and understanding instead of just being a fun magical romp.
  To this day I have literally no idea how the Orson who wrote those books became the man he did. He lives his life by the antithesis of the ideals he preached.
  
  He had a stroke in 2011, and I think having two kids die fucked him up. (Some of his early works had sympathetic portrayals of gay men.)
  I’ve always found it amusing that the guy who wrote Wyrms (fourteen year old girl is destined to be impregnated by a monster, and the book is her weird horny journey to it) and Hart’s Hope (where our hero has to rape a teenage girl in front of an audience in order to claim sovereignty over the kingdom, and she turns into the story’s main villain) got so hung up about sexual purity.
  
  they are actually trying to teach a lesson in empathy
  S.P.E.W. and mugblood rhetoric seem like progressive topics with real world analogues.
  Her transphobic politics seem to be separate from the HP universe.
  
  The point of S.P.E.W. is that Hermoine is an obnoxious activist for caring about slavery so much. Winky gets freed and becomes a depressed alcoholic, the other house elves get pissed that Hermoine tries to give them homemade socks. Hagrid calls Dobby weird for not wanting to be a slave.
  Pottermore used to have an article “To SPEW or not to SPEW” which was critical of Hermoine. The text clearly condones the race based slavery. Heck - even the name “SPEW” is a joke.
  
  I never considered that Rowling was making fun of Hermoine's Elf position.
  But I did think it strange that a nicely set-up elf rebellion never arrived.
  
  They’ve tried their best to wipe this article off the internet:
  The trouble with S.P.E.W. is that Hermione wants it all and wants it now. Political movements take time as well as effort, so the notion of changing the world overnight is quite naive. Even when people are well-meaning, there’s always the risk of doing more harm than good.
  Hermione’s methods might be ill-advised, but this doesn’t render her entire cause unworthy. Just because most elves don’t want freedom doesn’t mean they don’t deserve better treatment. Hermione’s dream of an elf in government might be far-fetched, but there’s merit in wanting to protect the vulnerable and allow them more choices. However, she ought to be careful – ‘tricking’ elves into freedom is arguably as unethical as enslavement.
  Before we go, let’s consider Kreacher. Think of how he changed when treated with kindness by his new master, Harry Potter. Previously he’d been bitter and unpleasant, not to mention a liability to his previous owner. Had Sirius treated him a little better, things might have worked out differently. Dumbledore was right – being kind to Kreacher was in everyone’s best interests.
  If you look at other translations, “SPEW” is often changed to that language’s word for “vomit,” “fart,” or “snot.”
  The idea that Dobby is mentally unwell for wanting to be free has some upsetting historical precedent.
  
  The only person responsible for the written content seems to be Rowling. And her key witness is Hagrid who is not portrayed for his intelligence in the books.
  This is not good for Rowling, but I think kids would still read the HP series and take Hermoine's point of view.
- Because it became a multimedia franchise and fans still want to keep consuming it despite how much she sucks, so there's a lot of mental gymnastics.

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