Rowling's politics (Was I know Molly.....)

[moorequests]

No: HPFGUIDX 84379

M.M. wrote:

> >    The worst type of book, in my opinion, is a pedantic, overly 
> > preachy one. Thank God Harry Potter is not. 
> > 
> 
> Carol:
> I think her left-wing political views are pretty transparent via
> Hermione, whom I liked better when she wasn't so self-righteously
> defending the rights of house elves. (I'm not attacking her views,
> just wishing she had left them out of the book.) Her dislike of
> government interference in education is also apparent throughout 
OoP.
> Fortunately she made Umbridge into a character you love to hate. 
But I
> do feel at times that she (Rowling) is as preachy as Percy at
> times--and utterly in favor of rule breaking.
> 

  Hm.... I think there's an article you should really read. Rowling 
herself addresses this in Oprah's magazine. She may have an answer 
for you. Here's the URL:

  
http://www.oprah.com/obc/omag/obc_omag_200101_books_02.jhtml;jsessioni
d==RDPJZLRNNJOMZLARAYIRNW

  Exact quote I'm referring to is:  

  "O: I think one reason your books are so popular is that they're 
not sanitized. They're very real. 

JKR: I think so. I hope so. The funny thing is, I have people saying 
to me, 'Oh, so you're an apologist for boarding schools?' No! See, 
you laugh. In America, people laugh. In Britain, it's a big deal. In 
Britain, it's, 'Aha! So which boarding school did you go to?' I 
didn't go to boarding school. Harry Potter has to be set in a 
boarding school for reasons of plot. How would it be interesting if 
the characters couldn't get up at night and wander around? You're 
going to have them go to a day school and trot home, and then break 
into school every night? And then you have people who think the books 
are too dark, too scary. After The Chamber of Secrets was published, 
this grandmother wrote to me and said, 'I was appalled to see you 
encouraging joyriding.' It was like, 'Okay, hello?!' I read the 
letter, and for a moment I thought, 'Where did I say joyriding was 
good?' And then I realized, it's a very, very literal approach to 
things. Harry steals a car, so it's good to steal cars—no! I didn't 
say that."   END QUOTE

Carol:

> I hope the last two books are less overtly political and concentrate
> more on the characters and the essential elements of the story. No
> more spew, please. (Sorry, Hermione. I know it's S.P.E.W., but I'm
> with Ron on this.)

  M.M. (me)

  See, with your point on S.P.E.W.- I have to laugh. I think she's 
making it annoying for a reason, partially because she herself is 
annoyed by that part of Hermione. How can an author be annoyed by her 
own character? Well, this sounds stupid, but sometimes we create 
characters that seem to live and breathe and do things that we 
ourselves are annoyed with, and we don't know exactly WHY. Just like 
a person. And we don't always agree with them, we just let the story 
tell itself. I think it may be that way with Rowling and Hermione. 
Sometimes I get the feeling that she is just as annoyed with Hermione 
and S.P.E.W. as we are. Stephen King talks about the concept 
of "discovered or found stories" in his book, On Writing- I take that 
one further, and I think of it as "found characters." You will find a 
place in that interview with Rowling and Oprah where Oprah asks 
Rowling why Harry was a boy. Rowling responds, "Because that's how he 
came." I understand. You can't change a character's nature- nor his 
age, his sex, his race- they just ARE. Hermione is as she is. 

    I am probably coming across as extremely bizarre to some of you. 
Well, I'm not Luna, but I am a writer, so yes, I am bizarre. I 
wouldn't have it any other way. 

    As for Rowling's political beliefs, she's pretty good at keeping 
them out of the book and letting them speak through the consequences 
of the actions of her characters. Other authors have not been so good 
(C.S. Lewis, for one.) However, Aslan as Dumbledore does speak a bit 
of the same type of message, and Nearly Headless Nick took a few 
words of wisdom too, in book 5. She sees fit to use her characters as 
her own mouthpiece when she needs to, and I think this is really the 
best way. We are undergoing a time in history that closely parallels 
many of the events in her books, although it also parallels other 
events of the 20th century as well. What makes these books classic is 
that their issues will remain relevant for years to come. 

 -M.M. 


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