Stereotyping

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 84855

> Kneasy:
>> > Outbreaks of outrage occur every few weeks.  All it takes is for 
> > some-one to decry Elvish degradation or sexism or gender typing or 
> > racism and the pot starts  boiling again.<snip> But  strangely, 
> other books don't get the same treatment. When comparisons are made 
> to other fantasies, fictions or even what some may consider 
> philosophical or religious source books the same standards don't 
> seem to be applied.
> 
> Laura:
> 
> There is, in fact, critique being written that does that very 
> thing.  At Nimbus, any number of the presentations made overt 
> comparisons between HP and LOTR, Ursula LeGuin, Pullman and other 
> fantasy/scifi series.  We don't get too in depth with that on this 
> list because of the habit we all have of sliding into OT discussion, 
> but I'm sure that many listees would love to get into detailed 
> literary comparison.  
>

Kneasy, I don't know about any of the other authors Laura mentioned,
but a quick search of Google groups will show you that charges of
racism and sexism are repeatedly being hurled at Tolkien for making
Orcs innately evil and Dwarves (except Gimli) a little too interested
in gold and jewels while Elves are (ostensibly) innately good. JKR is
far from the only author who is subjected to this sort of criticism
(in the ordinary sense of the word).

In JKR's case, it's self-evident that she's opposed to racism and
discrimination against people who are different in any way (with the
possible exception of the giants, who do seem rather subhuman--Hagrid
and Madame Maxime as half-giants not included). I for one think her
politics are a little too transparent and that the House Elf business
comes a bit too close to allegory (it seems too closely patterned on
American pre-Civil War slavery just as Voldemort is patterned in part
on Hitler, by JKR's own admission). In any case, we can refute the
charges of stereotyping simply by looking at the House Elves. Dobby,
Winky, and Kreacher may all speak like variations of Gollum, but they
have distinctly different personalities. In fact, the only two
characters who seem to me to be stereotyped are Crabbe and Goyle, who
are virtually indistinguishable except for their heights and haircuts,
and I confess that it would be hard to avoid stereotyping in their
case. They're intended as "flat," "static" characters in any case, to
borrow E.M. Forster's terms. Their sole purpose is to bolster Draco in
his role as bully without having any real identity themselves.

I hope this helps to cheer you up. That was my intention, anyway.

Carol