the DE are Nazi?Re: Elkins' Draco Malfoy Is Ever So Lame. (But not sympathetic)

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 124671


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_svirn" <a_svirn at y...> wrote:
> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "naamagatus" 
> <naama_gat at h...> 
> > wrote:
> > > Seeing as the DEs are the equivalent of the Nazi SS or Gestapo, 
> I 
> > > don't see how they could be depicted as other than totally 
> black. 
> > <snip>
> > 
> > 
> 
> Are they though? Don't you think it is a bit too much of a 
> generalisation perhaps? I mean, yes there are obvious similarities 
> between whole this "pureblood"-"mudblood" thing and racist ideology 
> of the Third Reich (mainly because of the word `blood'). Perhaps, 
> even too obvious for us not to treat it with some suspicion. But is 
> this DE movement really about superior race hegemony? Somehow it 
> doesn't sound right.
> 
> As I said in some of my earlier posts, while in our world racism is 
> a dangerous and faulty ideology, in the Wizarding World it is a 
fact 
> of life. Like it or not, but Muggles ARE inferior simply because 
> they cannot do magic. They even inferior to house-elves in this 
> respect, which is probably why wizards didn't bother to enslave 
> them. 

You have a misconception here. The racism of the WW isn't about 
Muggles, it's about *Muggle borns*. The parallel to the real world is 
in the arbitrariness of the social categories - Jews, Slavs, Blacks, 
etc., are as fully human as the Germans, yet racist ideology marked 
them as inferior, less human. This is mirrored in the arbitrary 
marking of Muggle borns as inferior. JKR underlines the arbitrariness 
by making it clear that there is no difference in magical ability 
between pure bloods and Muggle borns. If you're magic, you're magic. 



> 
> The pure-blood families like the Malfoys or the Blacks clearly see 
> themselves as NOBILITY. Remember NOBLE house of Black complete with 
> the coats of arms and the motto, a book about nobility, etc. 
> Remember how in CoS Borgin muttered "Mr. Malfoy" (emphasis on 
`Mr'), 
> and Draco referred to his house as to a `manor'?  (And the owner of 
> the manor would be a lord, not just a plain mister, would it?) And 
> their leader is not called a `Fürer', or a `great Magister', etc, 
no 
> it is called Dark LORD. And the correct form of address is "My 
Lord" 
> or "Your Lordship" (there is always much more servile Master of 
> course). This is something quite different from Nazism, I would 
even 
> say opposite, since Nazism was a populist movement, while the DE is 
> in a way an elitist club. 


This parallels the way the Junker class in Germany, the aristocracy, 
joined forces with Nazism, at least at first. The Black family 
demonstrate this relationship perfectly. The fear of communism and/or 
liberalism was so great then, that the Nazis seemed the better option.


Naama