I'm just trying to tell you that we have nothing in common besides both of us liking your penis.

Anya ,'Dirty Girls'


The Buffista Book Club: the Harry Potter iteration  

This thread is a focused discussion group. Please see the first post below for the current topic and upcoming book discussions. While natter will inevitably happen, we encourage you to treat this like a virtual book club and try to keep your posts in that spirit.

By consensus, this thread is reopened specifically to discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It will be closed again once that discussion has run its course.

***SPOILER ALERT***

  • **Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows lie here. Read at your own risk***


Typo Boy - Oct 24, 2007 2:20:12 pm PDT #3265 of 3301
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

It would have been easy to, say, have a Gay and Lesbian Alliance ...

Hmm. The Potterverse is (intentionally I think) a deeply reactionary universe. Part of the intent (I think) is to take certain flaws in our own universe and exaggerate them . So a Gay and Lesbian alliance would be unlikely. But I'm sure there are other ways it could have been handled.

However:

what we have seen are the expectations that Wizards have of how the various species will behave, but we also have examples of individuals defying those expectations: Dobby, the centaur who taught Divination, Grawp to a certain extent, Lupin.

But house-elves really are willing slaves. Dobby is the only exception in response to really extreme abuse. Firense is nearly killed by other centaurs for daring to help humans, and still seems to otherwise fit the Centaur stereotype. And Dobby remains servile even after he is freed. It is more about other races being good in their own way than transcending stereotypes.

In a way I'd compare it to some of the Shadow stories where the Shadow has all these people who fit racial stereotypes working for him - but they are good stereotypes. The black couple are good with razors and use them against the bad guys. The Asian guys use their sneakiness against the the bad guys. So it maintains stereotypes and prejudgement, even while there is a kind of tolerance and acceptance mixed in. I don't think on balance the message is a good one.


-t - Oct 24, 2007 3:43:50 pm PDT #3266 of 3301
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

That's not how I see it. Dobby chooses to help Harry after he's freed out of gratitude rather than obligation. For a House Elf that is a huge difference. Firenze chooses ostracism and physical abuse because he thinks centaur ways might be wrong. They're small steps, maybe, but enormously important. That even one member of the species can act differently than they are stereotyped demonstrates that the stereotype is not a universal truth.

And with that in mind, maybe Harry's self-sacrifice - allowing his own death - is the way he transcends humanity's/wizardkind's basic flaw(s) of selfishness and self-centeredness.

I don't see the different species as analogous to races or ethnicities in our world, either. I can see how you can read it that way, but it didn't occur to me. At all. But that's just me.


Hil R. - Oct 24, 2007 5:06:00 pm PDT #3267 of 3301
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

I don't see the different species as analogous to races or ethnicities in our world, either. I can see how you can read it that way, but it didn't occur to me. At all. But that's just me.

Same here. I read the blood status thing as clearly meant to reference racial issues in our world, but I saw the other species as other species. There were a few times that I saw some parallels, but I didn't at all see it as making any kind of point about our world, since the house elves wanting to serve doesn't say anything at all about any humans, it just says something about house elves. (Personally, I read SPEW as perfectly in line with the way many young teenage girls become very into animal rights.)


Kat - Oct 24, 2007 6:50:05 pm PDT #3268 of 3301
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo

Better explanation of what my point was re: institutions vs. individuals.

“Companies cannot act with criminal intent because they have no human capacity for intent,” Reich says. “Arthur Andersen may have sounded like a person but the accounting firm was a legal fiction. . . how can any jury, under any circumstances, find that a company ‘knew’ that ‘its’ actions were wrong? A company cannot know right from wrong. A company is incapable of knowing anything. Nor does a company itself take action. Only people know right from wrong, and only people act. That is a basic tenet of democracy.”

Sure, you can say that Goblins, and only those Goblins, in Gringotts are greedy. But your original statement actually pinged me because the whole giving institutions rights and responsibilities is also reflected, in some ways, with people's anti-ministry stance (Ministry as being ineffectual or Ministry as being outright evil).

Blah blah blah. I personally don't read the non-human species as anything other than non-human species, not as analogs to any particular ethnic group. If you believe Goblins are a stand in for jews, then who are Centaurs a stand in for? And house elves?


DavidS - Oct 24, 2007 7:07:13 pm PDT #3269 of 3301
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

If you believe Goblins are a stand in for jews, then who are Centaurs a stand in for?

JKR has stated explicitly that the centaurs are "wild nature" - pure Pan figures of anarchic, sexual energy.

So, in her mind at least, they have a specific metaphorical function. Which is why it is the Centaurs which drag Umbridge away.


aurelia - Oct 24, 2007 8:25:21 pm PDT #3270 of 3301
All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story. Tell me a story.

it is almost inevitable that they will be read as analogies to human races, ethnic groups, and nations

I don't see the inevitability here.

I just saw a series of fantasy books that engaged the imagination and tried to show that being good might not be easy, but it's better than being evil (or evil's lackey).


Connie Neil - Oct 24, 2007 8:30:50 pm PDT #3271 of 3301
brillig

I just saw a series of fantasy books that engaged the imagination and tried to show that being good might not be easy, but it's better than being evil (or evil's lackey).

Wrod.

These discussions remind me of all the analyses of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis--except Lewis was doing analogies and Tolkien always said there were none in his stuff.


Typo Boy - Oct 24, 2007 8:36:32 pm PDT #3272 of 3301
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

I stand by the inevitability - not that it is inevitable that everyone will read that way, but that a large portion of the audience will read it that way. I especially see this in terms of goblins and house elves. I can't see how either species can avoid being read as ethnic groups by a large portion of readers. I'm sure JKR did not intend it, but it does not mean it won't be there for many.


Typo Boy - Oct 24, 2007 8:42:49 pm PDT #3273 of 3301
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Oh, and in terms of this:

Companies cannot act with criminal intent because they have no human capacity for intent,” Reich says. “Arthur Andersen may have sounded like a person but the accounting firm was a legal fiction. . . how can any jury, under any circumstances, find that a company ‘knew’ that ‘its’ actions were wrong? A company cannot know right from wrong. A company is incapable of knowing anything. Nor does a company itself take action. Only people know right from wrong, and only people act. That is a basic tenet of democracy.”

OK - if you are saying that only people have moral responsibilities - fair enough. (Though some day we may have to extend the definition of people to include electronic persons.) But it is also important to understand that an institution can be evil in the sense that its only function is to let or help people do evil things. That is why certain organizations are illegal in the U.S.


§ ita § - Oct 24, 2007 8:45:05 pm PDT #3274 of 3301
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I can't see how either species can avoid being read as ethnic groups by a large portion of readers. I'm sure JKR did not intend it, but it does not mean it won't be there for many.

I can absolutely see many people not reading it that way in absolutely the same way I doubt JKR intended to write it that way.

But it always (and has since Klingon days of yore) made me wonder. Too rarely for my interest do writers say how humans are summed up in the same way they capsule describe other species in the story. And not all of them are doing it in a PoV way.