JKR's intent (was:Re: A sandwich)

[prep0strus]

No: HPFGUIDX 178694


> Betsy Hp:
> Why do you believe that this wasn't JKR's intent?  And to be clear, 
> I'm not asking this question with any sort of hostility or to set 
up 
> a zinger or anything.  It's just, I've seen folks say, "JKR would 
> never write something like that" to defend against the theory that 
> she *did* actually write something like that.  And I'm wondering 
> where that conviction comes from.  We don't know JKR personally (at 
> least, no one on the list has said they're close personal friends) 
> and while we do have her interviews, they are often contradictory 
> with each other *and* with the books.
> 
> And at least one of the examples Lizzyben used (the treatment of 
> goblins) is backed by a JKR interview in which she says that only 
> goblin fanatics would protest the Trio's deception over the sword 
(or 
> words to that effect).  Which would mean, I'd think, that yes we 
> *are* supposed to look down on goblins on the whole.
> 
> 

It's hard to answer your questions because I just don't know.  But 
the books, when not overanalyzed the way we do on these boards, has a 
pretty clear message.  The Slytherin thing doesn't read to me the way 
it does to you and Lizzyben.  I don't think it has the depth and 
complexity that many of us assumed it did earlier on, but I think she 
created a group that has corrupt ideals.  She places prejudice, blood 
superiority, unchecked ambition, as well as a wealth of negative 
personality traits in one place, and associates them together.  Mean 
bullies who hate poor people and grow up to be killers whose goal is 
blood purity... there are exceptions and complications in fiction, 
but these are the ideas she puts together.  These are the 'bad' 
people.  It may not have worked for you if you see it just as wrong 
to discriminate against the discriminator, but as a straight lesson 
that bigotry is wrong, I think it works.  I think it is the message 
most people get from the books.  And her interviews are not THAT 
contradictory.  Yes, she could be going out there and lying, I 
suppose, when she says she's against prejudice and for love and all 
that.  But I tend to believe her, though I don't agree with the way 
she went about it at all times.

As for goblins... I wonder if it's not more a misunderstanding of 
fantasy.  The idea of ownership being linked to the creator is not 
JKR's idea.  But she, like most of us, disagrees with that concept, 
and, while she put it in the books, perhaps she wasn't able to put it 
in the books in an equal sense.  She put it there as a nod to a 
concept present in fantasy, but also believed it was wrong and stupid 
and so didn't allow it to have moral bearing.  That doesn't mean 
goblins are a representative of how it's ok to treat people who are 
different than you badly.  It means she created goblins that are 
selfish and mean, like the goblins of many other stories.

Again, these things don't have to work for you, and they often don't 
work for me, but it also doesn't suggest to me that she was trying to 
state something other than what appears to be the most obvious 
message of the series.

I don't read the hate that you do. I think a big part of that comes 
from not caring about Slytherin, and pretty much thinking they're 
worthless.  I am, however, disappointed in a lot of her writing.  And 
that clearly isn't universal, as many posters are very happy with 
what she's written, and satisfied with prose and her message.  She 
obviously wasn't universally successful there, but she wasn't 
universally a failure either.