Cultural standards, nasty teachers, abused children/ JKR quote new for me

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 144798

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:

<SNIP>
> 
> Alla:
> 
> That I don't get. Why would it be absurd of you as a reader to wish 
> that the certain issue to be addressed? It is not like you can force 
> JKR to address it or not , it just means IMO that you are deeply 
> involved in the story and would like those issues  to be addressed, 
> like making a wish and see whether it comes true or not. Just part 
> of the fun to me anyways.


Well, I know that people hate this word -- and with very good reason --
but reader reaction and an author's response to it inevitably comes 
down to politics.  Now, I don't mean politics in the ordinary sense of 
Congressional Resolutions and Presidential Commissions and political 
campaigns, but politics in the more general sense of human 
interactions and human concerns.  After all, in the context of 
intellectual history politics has its roots in moral philosophy as 
well as economics and practical governance.  Which is why the 
utterance that you often hear (or used to) to the effect that "You 
can't legislate morality" is utterly absurd.  Of course you can.  Come 
down to it, that's the only reason to have laws -- i.e. to force 
people to do the right thing under threat of penalty. 

No, I'm not saying anyone should be forced to write anything.  All I'm 
saying is that the moral is political and the political is moral, even 
when applied to a work of fiction.  Any book that's written will, if 
anybody reads it, inspire reaction and comment, as well as criticism --
 often very severe criticism if it skates anywhere close to important 
moral issues, which is to say important political issues.  That is 
simply the nature of the beast, and authors are well-advised to live 
with it.  That doesn't mean they have to listen to it.  However, if 
they don't want to be subjected to this kind of dissection and 
criticism then they would be better off to write their books and bury 
them in the back yard, because there just isn't any other way things 
are going to be.

Does JKR have to listen to anybody, including her publishers?  No, she 
doesn't even have to listen to herself, if she doesn't want to.  Is a 
lot of the criticism her work is subjected to very severe?  
Absolutely.  Is some of it unfair?  Certainly, in that no absolute 
agreement on fair will ever be reached, anyway.  Does that mean I feel 
sorry for her when someone criticizes her, even if the criticism is 
unfair?  Not at all.  That's part of what it is to be an author, and 
if she feels that the criticism is too much then her only real option 
is to quit writing.  By writing she has placed herself, like it or 
not, in the public arena, and as long as she stays there then her 
thoughts and theories and statements, at least so long as they appear 
in her writing or her talk about her writing, simply do not have the 
same safeguards of privacy that those of non-public people enjoy.  

So, once again, does she HAVE to listen to anybody?  Not at all.  Does 
she HAVE to take anything at all into account in her writing?  Not at 
all.  Is she going to be criticized?  Yes, you better believe it, and 
severely.  Is it going to stop?  No, it most certainly will NOT.  It 
will never stop as long as she and her writing stay in the public 
eye.  That's the life of a successful author, and the fate of that 
author's writing.


Lupinlore