What's the political philosophy of Harry Potter?

>>9092295
Histrionics

>>9092295
The desire to become the dullest franchise in the history of franchises? Seriously each episode following the boy wizard and his pals from Hogwarts Academy as they fight assorted villains has been indistinguishable from the others. Aside from the gloomy imagery, the series’ only consistency has been its lack of excitement and ineffective use of special effects, all to make magic unmagical, to make action seem inert.
Perhaps the die was cast when Rowling vetoed the idea of Spielberg directing the series; she made sure the series would never be mistaken for a work of art that meant anything to anybody?just ridiculously profitable cross-promotion for her books. The Harry Potter series might be anti-Christian (or not), but it’s certainly the anti-James Bond series in its refusal of wonder, beauty and excitement. No one wants to face that fact. Now, thankfully, they no longer have to.
a-at least the books were good though
"No!" The writing is dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs."
I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.

>>9092295
Cuckism

>>9092301
>the anti-James Bond
Interesting. I've noticed a lot of hate for the Bond franchise from those left of center for a while now. What's with that?

Saying they're a bunch of boring low-testosterone losers feels like a cop-out but how can you not enjoy James Bond?

>>9092295

This woman has an ego equivalent to the size of a SME business owner.

>>9092295
>if only you'd read Harry Potter
He's a grown man

>>9092295
Hold on, hold on, is she tweeting to an adult man if only he had read the book SHE wrote... For children?

Could her attitude be any more of a pathetic and desperate advertisement? She's like Tara Reid, how could anyone respect her after seeing this?

>>9092317

They think it's sexist.

>>9092317
Liberals are ok with James Bond but prefer he was a transgender Women of Colour. Leftists think it's imperialist propaganda

>>9092331
It is. It is sexiest and exploitative.

It makes men feel inferior because they are not James Bond.

>>9092295
To destroy white culture and make sure I don't have sex.

>>9092295

I want to believe she's pure ideology but I actually think she's a dense moron.

>>9092366
She will simply never be as smart as us. It's sad that us intellectuals are neglected while talentless whores like her are heralded despite producing utter shit

>>9092295
Watered-down, secularized Christianity, to the point it doesn't resemble anymore what a 1st century Jewish apocalyptic preacher would teach.

I should also point out how the Harry Potter corpus is the closest thing to a political treatise ever read by liberals on Twitter, they have no other written works to interpret things old and new with.

Here's a pretty interesting analysis of the franchise Nick Land linked to the other day:
https://spottedtoad.wordpress.com/2017/02/06/getting-your-owl/

>>9092411
>do you expect me to read all this bullshit.jpg
At least give two sentence summary about the hypothesis/argument.

>>9092422
It's like 12 paragraphs I ain't summarizing shit

On /lit/

>>9092422 hates reading
>>9092436 hates writing

Everything seems to be in order.

>>9092436
If it were an interesting subject, sure, twelve ain't a thing. But twelve about a subject I dread and the hypothesis might be the only thing that saves it, I think a summary would be alright.
Also, for papers/essays, even low academia shit, a summary is always required and provided.
The blog has a shit style, so I'm even less willing to give it a try.

>>9092441
>reading shit when you could be shitposting or reading better things

>>9092317
Because you confuse "the left" with tumblr and buzzfeed, allowing you to caricature the actual tenets of leftism into outlandishly stupid shit like >>9092337

>>9092422

>Harry Potter, especially as realized in the films, is a fantasy of institutional legitimacy, that loyalty to the idealized form of the School is equivalent to an individual moral sense.

>>9092457
Why the fuck are you in a thread the about political philosophy of Harry Potter if you dread the subject? It's a fairly niche topic, seems odd to go out of your way to read about it.

>>9092436
>Hogwarts is different to the '80s idea of school in that it puts the institution on a pedestal instead of the rebels. Students in real life seek out to do this too.

>>9092467

>tumblr and buzzfeed

They and their ilk (particularly the hyperindividualist, belligerent, and proudly anti-solidaric mutations of identity politics) are, without a doubt, the worst thing that has happened to the left in the 21st century.

>>9092478
It's hardly out of your way to scan the threads on the front page. Or is reading in general a chore for you?

>>9092479

Which is exactly what seemed to happen during the last election and with Brexit.

I don't know much about Nick Land but he seems firmly right when considering the allegory of Harry Potter within mainstream media.

>>9092373
Topkek, 8.5/10

>>9092295
>tfw was a much happier person when I didn't know about the authors of the books I read

>>9092478
It's a slow board, it popped at the top in the catalog, and I expected harold bloom copypasta to appear, which it did.

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>>9092488
>I have absolutely no interest in the topic at hand
>but I will nonetheless enter the discussion and demand that those who do cater to my whims

It's just bizarre bro

>>9092295
Why does everything these days have to be so politically charged ? I feel like I can't go anywhere without somebody talking about their political beliefs.

>>9092543
It's just another way to attention whore.

>>9092543
Join the revolution, cuckhold

GET ASS FUCKED OR DIE

>>9092494
I doubt anyone who read harry potter thinks of it like that. If anything, the system is voldemort and hogwarts represents the liberal establishment of all the nice folks and voldemort and his buddies are the evil republican conservatives who want to come in and ruin everybody's fun times by instituting standards.
It's a 'racism bad' message, that's literally all the voldemort wizards are cited as being evil for besides them killing all the decent wizards who are too busy casting goddamn disarm spells while the other side is using mind control, torture, and death curses.
I bet if Hogwarts were real they wouldn't be complaining about the migrants in europe because they live in their own closed off world and can give a big fuck you to human governments whenever they want.
How many syrian refugees do you think hogwarts would take?

J.K Rowling would have you believe they would pack the building with them and buy them all fucking owls with magical gold fortunes their dead parents left them.

>>9092295

True evil exists and has to be dealt with violence and direct action, helping yourself through conspiracies and compromises.
Since it's so black and white it can't be applied to the real world. It's worthless.

>>9092543

It's because political views are the one thing people will always have in common. Once you create such an open sphere of dialogue (the internet and ergo social media) then it's nigh-on unlikely that people will discuss anything else on such a grand scale. Politics effectively pervades everything.

I think the only way to stop talking about politic is to either be so selfish that you really don't give a shit about anything but your own interests or be very self-disciplined.

>>9092295
racemixing with mudbloods until there is no talent for magic left

an occult brasil

>>9092295
>if only you'd read a book by me, you would know I imagined that people like you would be burned alive, in my fictional world that I imagined, which is not real.

>>9092554
They might not think of it like that, but it still happens. Everybody thinks they're the good guys.

>What's the political philosophy of Harry Potter?

Christian ressentiment.

How the heck did Hogwarts kidnap Harry from his legal guardians? They simply didn't want him to go to an equivalent of an ISIS boot camp.

>>9092295
There is none.

Or rather, there are many.

The content of the books themselves are vague enough that you can easily project whatever political philosophy you want onto it to imagine yourself the brave hero. Harry never espouses any political beliefs other than "decent guy" and Voldemort is a saturday morning cartoon villain with an authoritarian streak who can be whatever boogeyman you want him to be. All of YA fiction is like this. It's part of the appeal, part of why it works to engage people.

But word of god via Rowling implies that HP does in fact have a political philosophy; but said philosophy is always in flux dependent on what Rowling feels like that morning.

Why is it always the irrelevant celebrities who feel the need to spout their political bullshit?

>>9092631
Fame is a mask that eats into the face.

But seriously, EVERYONE seems to spout their own political bullshit opinions all the time. The real question is, why do people elevate a select few morons to the status of celebrity?

>>9092656
JK Rowling deserves to be famous more than most famous people in western culture. If there's anyone who actually deserves to be elevated above the rest, it's writers.

>>9092667
Her books might (though I disagree), but the OP shows that no, she definitely should not.

See >>9092582

>>9092672
The guy started the tongue-in-cheek referencing to Harry Potter. He got BTFOed whether you agree with her or not

Rather complicated.

>The Harry Potter books are a childish rescue fantasy that feeds into a far more adult escapism: they are, after all, the ultimate fairytale of social mobility through merit. If you’re born with magical ability, you get to go to a special school where they’ll teach you special skills, and that’s okay, because you’ll be part of the good elite, who get to mess around catching pixies and playing wizard chess and protecting the powerless, and not the bad elite, who are like Nazis with better hair. In these stories, liberal meritocracy is set against the simpler evil of aristocracy—those wizards, including the Dark Lord himself, whose main bugbear throughout the series is the corruption of “pure” magical blood by Muggle-born witches and wizards. In a feat of worldbuilding that chimed perfectly with liberal triumphalism of the mid-nineties, it turns out that all magic is really good for—all Rowling’s Wizard government, the Ministry of Magic, exists to do—is to maintain the wizarding world as a secretive parasite universe, invisible to ordinary folk.

https://thebaffler.com/blog/harry-potter-laurie-penny

>From an outside perspective, Harry Potter is a funny fantasy for liberals to cohere around. Going off to centuries-old boarding school where your mum and dad were Head Boy and Head Girl, where tolerance and broadmindedness consists of admitting that lower-class Muggles can occasionally have the same genetically-mediated gifts as the gentry, where the greatest possible action for a woman is to let herself be slain so her son can grow up to revenge himself on her killer, where ignorance of the supernatural is a form of willful self-delusion,a pathetic blindness to the real forces that move the world, where all the kids eat Merry Olde England foods like Roast Beef and Kidney Pie and Yorkshire Pudding all the time, all sounds more reactionary than progressive. But if contemporary liberalism is the ideology of imperial academia, funneled through media and non-profits and governmental agencies but responsible ultimately only to itself, the obsession with Harry Potter makes a lot more sense.

https://spottedtoad.wordpress.com/2017/02/06/getting-your-owl/

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>>9092667

HP represents the neoliberal capitalist status quo, all races are equal and love wins etc except for the fact that the world is literally run by an elite class of all-powerful aristocrats who go to great lengths to trick the stupid muggles/proles and conceal the true extent of their pervasive influence

>>9092687
>Mom! I did it! I said the thing again!

Rowling was completely divorced from reality even before Harry Potter was successful.

>>9092374
this. not to mention its a childrens book. kids read it in their formative years. sure it can pique people to read more complex and differing texts but pop culture has a way of not allowing that.

>>9092684
The warped meritocracy is very true to modern day liberalism in that they both expect that some innate quality that has always existed in them should qualify them to circumvent the capitalist way of supporting one's self and be supported instead by a social class of 'good guys' who fight nazis on behalf of the common man by directly attacking "evil" rather than intervening in any aspect of the common man's quality of life.

They want to be the bloggers, jounalists, whistleblowers, teachers, etc. who are paid to hold important knowledge and correct opinions and fight against a boogeyman who - like them - has nothing at all to do with the quality of life for 95% of the population.

>>9092795
This is brilliant. Well said anon. I agree completely.

>>9092795
>teachers have no impact on the quality of life of 95% of the population
Get the fuck off /lit/

>>9092543
there hasn't been a healthy one in a long time. with trump being elected, the majority got their worldview shattered and are now collecting pieces of what happened while they took their bubble for granted. and one of the ways they are coping with it is by painting reality with a young adult novel. what a time indeed

>>9092828

Ah yes, the teachers, true heroes. None greater than them, except real heroes.

>>9092860
Sarcasm is boring. Anti-intellectualism is as tiresome as it is primitive. Perhaps /b/ is more your speed?

>>9092869

Did a teacher tell you that?

>>9092795
>They want to be the paid to hold important knowledge and correct opinions and fight against a boogeyman who - like them - has nothing at all to do with the quality of life for 95% of the population.

Academia is the epitome of this, it fucking destroys them when they learn that literally nobody gives a shit about their research, even in their specialisation.

>>9092876
>anti-elite
>anti-scholarship
>distorted sense of how the world actually works

So did you fail out of school or did you never even go in the first place?

>>9092620
Really makes you think

>>9092795

Every time I see people use words like capitalist and socialism seriously, I realize how hopelessly stupid and mind controlled most of the population is.

>>9092892

I didn't go to school, I went to books.

>>9092869
I love the "Anti-intellectualism" meme, interestingly it only ever seems to be used by social studies undergrads.

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>>9092411
That's quite interesting. I kinda like this idea of college safe spaces = manchildren wanting their own Hogwarts.

>>9092554
Actually >>9092554
the wizards are a metaphor for the technologically competent humans, and muggles are a metaphor for the >>9092554
technologically reliant masses. A company like apple or facebook is more likely to be the metaphor for either hogwards or voldemorte and his death eaters. The republican democrat dialogue is for plebs living in a world increasingly becoming dependent on the capabilities of the technological wizards.

Is there any logic behind the "racism" in Harry Potter?
I have never understood why they cared so much about that pure-blood thingy, I don't think they never said why in the books.

>>9092346
Let's be serious anon, destruction of white culture isn't what's keeping you from getting laid.

>>9092904
Reading isolated works without context, guidance or external input is not a substitute for an actual education. It seems you have created your very own boogeyman out of academia. How you imagine it is wildly off-base.

>>9092936
I agree entirely Anon. How can you expect to receive a good education without paying a professor to call you racist for several years?

>>9092936
>Reading isolated works without context, guidance or external input is not a substitute for an actual education
Well to be fair that's exactly how most Philosophy is taught.

>>9092936

Only a product of the government funded apparatus can under the very same government funded apparatus give the Trve context to content.

>>9092936
>It seems you have created your very own boogeyman out of academia. How you imagine it is wildly off-base.
Not really. He's entirely justified in hating a system that helps to stratify society based on the decisions people made as teenagers and is inaccessible to the vast majority of people later in life.

It deserves all of the shit thrown at it even if some of it is completely false.

>>9092627

>The content of the books themselves are vague enough that you can easily project whatever political philosophy you want onto it

As is demonstrated in this thread - everything from liberal to conservative viewpoints can be seen within its lens

Remember when she erected traffic lights to trim her hedge causing massive traffic jams around edinburgh?

>>9092944
Are you being deliberately dense? Have you even ever taken a lit class? Tumblr isn't real life

>>9092330
She also did le virgin shaming a couple weeks back, then backed down over it when her fans (more like concern trolls) criticised her over it, in a halfway form when she said that it was ok to criticise people who had become frustrated by being virgins to the point where they had the wrong ideas. Which seemed to placate her fans, but comes off a bit like someone spitting on the poor because they're too unsophisticated to agree with the noblewoman.

>>9092972

That's just like the time when professor McGonagall told Hagrid to kill the griffin for shitting on the roofs.

>>9092985
She can't open her mouth without embarrassing herself, literally any half-witted media personality can run rings around her, when fucking Piers Morgan can btfo you into silence you know its time to give up.

>>9092998
to be fair Piers Morgan is a fucking idiot, but an expert troll. He's really good at getting under your skin and has made a career out of it.

>>9092566
Pretty much. Trump thinks a lot of wrongthink without apologising and then gets elected after having been memed into literally Hitler by these people. To them, the world has ended and yet they're still here. They're reacting to a deep trauma and it's going to be very amusing.

>>9092982
But those using Tumblr are real people, and they get these ideas from somewhere. I imagine that it's typically sociology 101.

>>9093001
Too fucking right. I think he's smarter than he lets on. He has really perfected the craft of lulling you into giving him a chance, then holding a handful of shit up your nose while retaining the same slightly bewildered, slightly aggressive expression. He asked Bear Grylls how many people he'd killed halfway through an intense discussion about fatherhood or something.

>>9093028
I don't think they exist in as large a proportion as the right makes them out to be desu. I dislike that they're an easy caricature for the right to make fun of. It's like the left version of the "hurr durr I'm a stupid christian, the world is flat, vaccines don't work, and the universe is 6000 years old"

>>9092968
I always thought it was pretty clearly about national socialism, but I suppose that's just the representation of ultimate evil in the postwar world, so anyone could consider themselves victims of it if something bad happens to them.

>>9093044
Yeah, the Nazi analogy is fairly apparent, but as shown above you can make a statement about how it is about liberal attachment to institutions for authority, or about how it's about racism, or about LGBT, or so on and so forth...

>>9093028
tumblr itself is more like an infinite positive feedback loop

>>9093028
>I imagine that it's typically sociology 101.
i imagine it's tumblr

The non magician and magician division is basically standard social class division, which I guess makes sense given that Rowling is from britistan.
But her commentary is, instead of truly accepting, or evaluating, is the classical kind of shit that I'd expect from a white kid from the suburbs in america that posts on tumblr, sort of like "I'm not racist, but", "I'm not racist, I have a black friend", but instead of race it's social class here (since they are brits).
Harry Potter is a total faggot but gets granted a chance at life and friends because he got lucky genes, and his life is now all good.
For picturesque reasons everything is old and nasty but that's ok because muh old english aesthetics, I won't go into this.
But the argument impression in the end is that social division is bad mright? but wait, don't integrate for real, those are filthy, dumb, and don't have the genetic right to this social class, let's just be kind enough to those of lower social class and protect them because they need to be protected, and they don't know, poor them.
In the end the good guys win because they are supposed to save the poor ignorant and non worthy masses, and the bad people lose because bad morals.
This is the standard movie where white guy saves tribe of black people.
Sort of like Avatar.

And it's not that I'm for, or against, institutions, segregation, classes, racism, etc.
But it's just bad writing and the author is making generalizations and simplifications.

I'm not from the UK nor America, and while I think the conservatives are retards there, I also think that the style of rhetoric and arguments used by the dems/liberals in those places are as stupid and condescending as fuck.
I can see why they got so much hate during brexit and elections.

>>9092936
t. liberal professor

Get fucked

>>9093043
Well yes. I expect a lot of intelligent moderates and extremists avoid saying things because they don't want the social penalties that accrue in terms of losing friends, having social media battles etc If you're an atheist or a heretic in a religiously divided community you would probably avoid the conflict. Or, nowadays, troll about it.

>>9092936
Someone intelligent and who actually wants to get at the truth will come out of education smarter. Most people will go into debnt to be taught nonsense.

>>9093057
They use academic language. That didn't spontaneously appear within their heads.

>>9093091
The whole point of having an education is to have to avoid retreading needless amounts of bullshit that other people have already gone through. Furthermore, if you actually want to have a career in the arts you have to know people and the connections you make in college are indispensable. There's a limit to how far doing everything on your own can take you

>>9093028
>>9093071
>>9093096
Not him but:
Tumblr shits get called out in class for being retards, they just go back and post in their blogs, which in turn gets shared on terrible retarded sites like reddit or 4chan, and people here and there will believe everything so they take it as is.

Also, professors aren't retards. Sure they will have their own values, but they are smarter than to not give the class as it should be given.
Only times you can hear their true leanings are in their special, own, readings and seminars, maybe a comment here and there very rarely during lectures.
Common lectures are strict and adhere to the university standards.
In classes where there's a lot of subjectivity involved, you're graded and heard not because of your leanings/ideas, but rather on following the proper academic method being taught in class.

Extremists (left and right) are mocked and alienated (unless charismatic) not for their ideology, but because they are trying to prove themselves right in a class where no one gives a fuck, instead of choosing a topic and following the methods.

Harry Potter presents a mostly conservative view of the world:

The families in Potter consist of mothers and fathers, not various partners of various genders engaged in various acts of free love. Ron’s family is a shining example of a loving family, with a father who works and a mother who is willing to face mad witches if need be for her large and well-loved brood. Harry Potter himself is saved by his mother’s love and protected from the evil spells of her murderer.

The government in Harry Potter’s world, as in ours, in inept, corrupt, and regarded as an obstacle rather than the source of salvation. Each boy relies on his own wit and courage and friendships to save himself and to save the world.

The press in Harry Potter’s world, as in ours, is inept, corrupt, and a source of outrageous falsehoods. The main reporter-witch can assume the form of a mosquito.

The moral universe in Harry’s world rejects any form of relativism. There are no shades of gray here, or examples of a thing being right for one group and wrong for another. The ends do not justify the means here either: knowing that Voldemort is also an orphan raised in poverty does not automatically make him one of the oppressed and therefore excused in anything he does, as it would in the left-wing world.

Dumbledore is gay! And the one example in the book of Dumbledore’s love is an evil man who manipulated him. Aside from that, as best the text can show, Dumbledore lives chastely.

Do I even need to say anything about the alleged occultism in Potter? We Christians invented the medieval romance from which the modern novel takes its form, and modern fantasies slavishly copy, including this one. Romance is as Roman as Rome. If you think Sir Orfeo or Orlando Furioso or Le Morte D’Arthur is occult, go find the nearest exorcist: you’re possessed by the imp of stupid.

They keep score in Quidditch. I just thought I would throw that in.

There is no cult of victimology here. Anyone who gets ahead, even the Chosen One, is because he works hard. The Twins open a joke shop when they graduate; they do not go on the dole.

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Harry conquers death by submitting to it at Voldemort’s hand, and destroys the Dark Lord by being reborn. He sees the Dark Lord’s soul as the shriveled and pathetic thing it is, not glorious.

Salvation requires sacrifice.

Rules are made to be broken.

>>9092295
Left of center cutesy liberalism?
>racism is bad but you be violent back okay

Also, I wish J.K. would insult people without referencing her own book series. Like come the fuck on, it's the literary equivalent of snorting your own farts.

>>9093278
to be fair, she did spend some time attempting to start a serious literary career only to discover she's not nearly as good a writer as she thought she was.

That's why the big movie deal and the new "book" happened, even with Harry Potter's success nobody thinks she has any value outside of her pet franchise anymore. If she doesn't constantly cite HP she'll disappear into obscurity

>>9093294
I wouldn't be surprised if they hired a ghostwriter for both her twitter and the new book. I wouldn't be surprised if she only wrote the first book in the series and they just used her for publicity after the book started selling.

Either way we'll never be loved by a generation of children and a major part of cultural zeitgheist after writing a book and submitting it to a publisher while working as wait staff. Better give up now.

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>>9093353

>>9092330
it was in response to him saying he's glad he never read Harry Potter because 20 years after it came out she laughed at him getting told to fuck off on TV

Isn't Harry Potter about magic bourgeoisie and "lesser" non-magical human proles?

>>9094361
Yeah and it represents the victory of the middle-class, or muggleborn and halfblood wizards who sympathize with the proles without any real solution for their class situation. In other words it's pure liberalism.

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>>9093108

>Only times you can hear their true leanings are in their special, own, readings and seminars, maybe a comment here and there very rarely during lectures

All but one of my professors have criticized Donald Trump from the lectern, and I'm not even studying in the US.

>>9094485

I didn't see much politics until my senior year when classes were small and everyone still taking them fancypants booktalk classes was serious about it.

An echo-chamber on Trump but reasonably diverse on other shit. Case in point, our left-to-the-max professor was from South Carolina, and when the Civil War came up she went full Lost Causer, states rights states rights states rights.

Fucking love Harry Potter, but goddamn is she a cunt.

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>>9094510

Actually you know what come to think of it it was worse than just a few professors, the student union released a statement condemning Trump and praising Islam.

>>9092904
Cringe.

>>9092944
Not sure about social sciences but you can't handle a chem lab with just "book knowledge" got to know your way around etc

>>9094528
Why are people like that? What made them that way?

>>9092904
All these intellectuals got tricked by a meme respons

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>"you'd know the downside"
B-but she literally wrote the book! The 'downside' was anything she wanted it to be

>>9092301
>Perhaps the die was cast when Rowling vetoed the idea of Spielberg directing the series; she made sure the series would never be mistaken for a work of art that meant anything to anybody?just ridiculously profitable cross-promotion for her books. The Harry Potter series might be anti-Christian (or not), but it’s certainly the anti-James Bond series in its refusal of wonder, beauty and excitement. No one wants to face that fact. Now, thankfully, they no longer have to.
>>9092317
It just be mentioned that Bond ages disgracefully. It's no real action sequences. Rather "Wouldn't it be cool if Bond did X"?

>>9092304
thread.

I hate her, I hate her so much. I liked the books when I was younger, and whether or not they were any good doesn't matter to me as they now occupy the misty domain of nostalgia where quality doesn't really come into play. But now she keeps retroactively politicizing her children's books that were finished with 10 years ago and it's really digging into my personal memory and fondness for what I remember the series to be. It's pretty fucking obnoxious Rowling, you self-important cow

>>9092374
>Watered-down, secularized Christianity, to the point it doesn't resemble anymore what a 1st century Jewish apocalyptic preacher would teach.

Christianity does not resemble anymore what it used to be.

>>9095961
Just accept it, she's a hack and the books are mediocre.

>>9092982
Academia has been changed quite a lot recently. I don't know if you're currently studying literature and I don't know where but rest assured tumblr is actually real life now in many places.

>>9095961
>Trump's like Voldermort!
>Dumbledore is gay!
>Hermoine's black!
>Brexiters and Scottish Independence supporters are like Deatheaters!
Why, whatever do you mean?

>>9092295
Some minor mainstream liberalism of its time. Stuff like 'racism = bad' and 'freedom = good'. Messages so benign and generic, that nobody would even pay attention to them.

Rowling became a retarded leftist way later and now tries to retroactively diversify her characters, writes stories about gender equality and shit like that. Probably the rich white woman with too much free time syndrome.

>>9096157
She fucking hates the most leftist guy in the country and , like everything she disdains, compares him to Voldermort

>>9096160
Who is that? I can only find stories about her calling Trump and Brexit people Voldemort.

>>9096210
Jeremy Corbyn, an actual Socialist.

>>9094596
they are told to hate Trump by facebook memes

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>>9092904
Mah nig

>>9096218
What does she have against him?

>>9096234
Because he's unelectable, and leader of the Labour party, which is the only party capable of getting rid of the Tories at the next election.

>>9096218
Didn't she only say 'he is not like Dumbledore' even though he looks a bit like him? I don't recall her calling him Voldemort. There's quite a difference there.

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>>9092295
Rowling's series is a nasty exploration of the human tendencies that allow bigotry, systemic injustice and dictatorships to rise, and how easily institutions are exploited. Harry's cardinal defining trait is his refusal to let adults handle shit, right from the first books, where his interference actually causes almost all the problems. The kid's abusive upbringing has made him almost incapable of trusting authority figures to be honest, reliable, or even competent, and as the series progresses, he's usually right in that ethic. There has probably never been a popular children's series that teaches mistrust of all authority to its readers with such determination.

>>9096253
I'm not the guy who said she compared him to Voldemort, I just know she criticized Corbyn in the past so assumed that was who he was talking about.

>>9092301
Bloom is actually wrong there. She doesn't write 'stretched his legs' even once.

However, she does repeat a lot of phrases. I actually f-searched the pdf a few months ago and I posted the results here, but I don't think anyone saved.

She does not repeat any sentence 'several dozen' times, though, so that was either a lie or a hyperbole by Bloom.

>>9092301
Unlike Bloom, I actually read the whole series, thought about it, and bothered to remember the details. Bloom's not qualified to analyze it in any way until he's willing to make the slightest effort or even do a basic fact-check before rambling about it. Being old and famous doesn't make one's ill-considered rantings more precious. When Bloom claims that readers are "invited to avoid reality, to avoid the world and they are not invited to look inward," this is self-evident bullshit, and if he'd bothered to read the books, he wouldn't try to make such a fucking stupid claim. There are many children's and YA books that don't go anywhere near topics like fascism, abuse of power, political duplicity, propaganda, racism, classicism, trauma, schools as indoctrination machines controlled by the state, control of the media, and the many other unpleasant things Rowling has her characters grapple with. Let him bitch about them. Bloom simply hasn't read the series, and discusses it only as a symbol of what he hates. I'm not claiming he'd like them if he read them--I don't care, and I don't fully disagree with his lamenting the humanities' retreat from literature to politics. But it's a moot point for now. He has not read them, and he has nothing accurate or useful to say on them.

>>9096210
Maybe Corbyn? Rowling seems like the quintessential New Labour Blairite, so it wouldn't surprise me if she hated Corbyn and compared him to Voldemort.

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>>9092295

>>9096316
who cares what some dumb hoe regurgitates on twitter. this broad has never had a single original thought. she's a stooge.

>>9096784
YOU'RE A STOOGE, ALT-RIGHT CHILD

>>9096805
what penetrating insight
please tell me more

>>9096821
Oh fuck off, hate-mongers like you are exactly why Rowling needs to defend universal rights

>>9096301
>There are many children's and YA books that don't go anywhere near topics like fascism, abuse of power, political duplicity, propaganda, racism, classicism, trauma, schools as indoctrination machines controlled by the state, control of the media, and the many other unpleasant things Rowling has her characters grapple with.
It would be better to have them avoided entirely than to see them treated with the lack depth Rowling provided. But yes, "what if Hitler were magic?" is the question all children should concern themselves with,
It's irrelevant to the needs of children and too shallow to appeal to anyone older. That's why it's so beloved by intellectually and emotionally stunted people in their teens and twenties. To be honest, these books are partly responsible for condition of these people.
>>9096784
I can't blame her. Peddling sterile alt-right propaganda seems to be lucrative nowadays.

>>9096784
t. follower of leftist twitterers angry that those on the right have finally caught up

>>9096838
>universal
>rights

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>>9094596

>>9096921
go jack off to milo videos, im busy reading de maistre

>>9096891
>It would be better to have them avoided entirely than to see them treated with the lack depth Rowling provided.
That's absurd and smug. The books are written for 9-16 year-olds, not grad students or educated profs. If you think there is nothing in them to make them reconsider issues of power and politics, you're deluded or greatly overestimating the sophistication of the average young reader. Having "magic Hitler" at least inspires kids to read about how dictators operate through media control, fear, division, etc. Do you think they already know all that, and examples they can engage with emotionally are wasted? The "they're better off reading real history or complex literature argument" is pointless: they may do that later, but if they aren't, this is much better than nothing and instills the habit of reading. Bloom is wrong: anything that starts engaging tweens/teens with textual interpretation and social issues of power is worthwhile, and Rowling's series is, despite its many flaws and shortcomings, quite ambitious and even subversive for something so popular.

>>9096941
What's wrong with that, or are you just another contrarian child that doesn't get what Rowling is doing?

>>9096946
Oh shit, this guy's deep. Watch out everyone

>>9092301
forgot your pic

>>9096946
When will Milo finally release his interracial sex tape?

>>9096069
That's my point, yes.

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>>9092441
Underrated post.

>>9092301
Nicely written

I have been puzzled for years about the extraordinary appeal of the Harry Potter industry. The books aren’t that good, and the films aren’t either.

Can it possibly be because they confirm the soppy self-satisfied groupthink of the post-Blair generation?


I went to see the new J. K. Rowling film Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them and I still have no idea what it was about.

In search of an answer, I went to see the new J. K. Rowling film Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. I still have no idea what it was about. An angry pudding terrorises New York City, but it can’t be all bad because it occasionally kills ‘Right-wing’ politicians and puritanical religious leaders. These are portrayed as killjoys, witch-hunters and child-beaters, with terrible hair and clothes.

Meanwhile, the Magical Community is full of funky, Multiculti, understanding, liberal types, sparkling with equality and diversity. Eventually, they manage to understand the pudding, which only wants to be loved. But then they kill it.

Have I got this right? I am not sure, and do not care. But too much of this must certainly soften the brains of those exposed to it.

>>9097135
give it a rest, Zizek wannabe

>>9096953
>The books are written for 9-16 year-olds, not grad students or educated profs. If you think there is nothing in them to make them reconsider issues of power and politics, you're deluded or greatly overestimating the sophistication of the average young reader. Having "magic Hitler" at least inspires kids to read about how dictators operate through media control, fear, division, etc.
The showed me a documentary of the Holocaust in elementary school, it turns out that naked skeletal piles of people teach you more and quicker than any word penned by Rowling.

And in case the message wasn't clear enough, there was If This Is a Man I had to read sometime in middle school. I still have my copy with its "sequel", The Truce.

I'm glad I didn't pay for any kids literature I read back in the day, if my kids will want to read that stupid shit, I'll have them get it from the library, too.

But not after they've read the relevant canonical works that did everything earlier and better, so they'll stop with following shallow, retarded fads based on peer pressure from their schoolmates on their own, and do what they like instead.

>>9097159
If you can't immediately tell who wrote that you are an immoral pleb.

>>9097135
You just quoted a fantasy film "review" by Peter Hitchens (UK Mail), without even giving credit.
>>9092301
And you just quoted Armond White (New York Press, which is defunct) and stuck it in front of Harold Bloom's foolishness.
When you can do nothing but plagiarize bad rants from third-rate newspapers, I think you might as well give up, anons.

>>9097169
I just searched it on google, sorry friend not very familiar with Peter Hitchens other than general opinion and a few videos I've seen, I'm Canadian

>>9097167
Not everyone gets Holocaust films and Levi in school, anon--and even if they do, Rowling deals with a lot of aspects of the embedded classicism and racism that allows fascist regimes to take hold, and deals with them on a much lesser level that is identifiable (nasty rumors at school, for instance, or being pre-judged because of your family). I don't give a damn what you do with your kids, but your claim that the books are "irrelevant to the needs of children" is just smug bullshit that could be claimed about practically anything minors read or watch or listen to.

>>9097198
>Not everyone gets Holocaust films and Levi in school
Better get with the program, because there's a lot of denial goign on, and fanfictions involving Voldemort won't save me when they rebuild the crematoria.

>could be claimed about practically anything minors read or watch or listen to.
For very, very good reasons.

>>9096997
hopefully never

>>9097063
best girl

>>9096977
looks like i hit the mark

>>9097135
I fucking love Peter Hitchens.

>>9097232
Growing up reading Potter would almost certainly make someone less likely to be a holocaust denier or an unquestioning servant to new ideologies. It's roughly the entire point of the series. Obviously it's not enough by itself, but it's clearly on the right side of the tracks. Rowling is as anti-neo-nazis as a fantasy YA writer could manage.

>>9096301
>There are many children's and YA books that don't go anywhere near topics like fascism, abuse of power, political duplicity, propaganda, racism, classicism, trauma, schools as indoctrination machines controlled by the state, control of the media, and the many other unpleasant things Rowling has her characters grapple with.

Doesn't means it's not shit.

One can identify the bad critic when he starts by mentioning what's in the book, instead of *how* it's written. Anyone can insert racism, fascism and propaganda into a novel. I myself talk about such topics as death, personal identity, and theology when I write. Does this mean I am a great writer? I wish!

>>9096953
>f you think there is nothing in them to make them reconsider issues of power and politics, you're deluded or greatly overestimating the sophistication of the average young reader.
Not really, it only echos the popular sentiment on these subjects, and encourages them to seek out the same treatment of of these subjects found in virtually all of mainstream pop culture.
>Having "magic Hitler" at least inspires kids to read about how dictators operate through media control, fear, division, etc.
Does it? I really don't think kids the resources or context t to do this effectively if they're
>Do you think they already know all that, and examples they can engage with emotionally are wasted?
Yes, and the shallowness with which these subjects are dealt with in the books will lead to shallow reaction to these events in real life. Just look at Rowling's twitter and the legions of fans who eat it up.
>The "they're better off reading real history or complex literature argument" is pointless: they may do that later, but if they aren't, this is much better than nothing and instills the habit of reading.
Harry Potter contributed to the intellectual and emotional stunting of my generation. If they were to read books that intelligently addressed the problems and questions asked in childhood, it would have helped them grow as people. Instead this shallow treatment of political issues through a series of fantasy cliches left them worse off than having read nothing at all.
>Rowling's series is, despite its many flaws and shortcomings, quite ambitious and even subversive for something so popular.
Because it's uncommon for popular works to contain a subversive element. Verne and Dickens did far more than make popular sentiments about serious, political topics digestible for children.

>>9096069
>>9097008
What was it once?

>>9092301
wow, that's one of the best written comments I have read on this site.
Yet I disagree about cause and effect. Even if Harry potter is setting kids up for shitty literature, it at least makes reading an option for them.
I have a few friends who never acquired the habit of reading books, and at 20+ years old feel like they cannot start.
HP is shit, sure, but it isn't it better than not reading at all?

>>9096953
>Having "magic Hitler" at least inspires kids to read about how dictators operate through media control, fear, division, etc

And how did that work out?
We got grown adults out there believing that Donald Trump is Voldemort.

>>9097341

>Harry Potter contributed to the intellectual and emotional stunting of my generation. If they were to read books that intelligently addressed the problems and questions asked in childhood, it would have helped them grow as people. Instead this shallow treatment of political issues through a series of fantasy cliches left them worse off than having read nothing at all.

Honestly, I think it's less the books and more the entire series becoming a behemoth of globalised mass-media franchise. I very much doubt if there were just the books (ie no films or theme parks) then we'd see such a large cultural influence existing from childhood through to adulthood.

HP is basically the literary version of Coca Cola or McDonalds at this point and I'd say Warner Bros Pictures deserves more blame than JK Rowling (as annoying as her Twitter makes her seem).

>>9094307
Obviously made by a Scot. The Scots were just as much imperialists as the English, yet they cry and whine and try and play the oppressed victim. The Irish might be justified in doing so, but the Scots? No.

>>9092911
>Social studies majors
>People interested in studying society
>These people talk about something (such as anti-intellectualism) that is a societal phenomenon.
Wow anon, you're so insightful!

1) If sociology majors talk about a phenomenon then said phenomenon doesn't exist.
2) Sociology majors talk about anti-intellectuallism.
3) Therefore anti-itellectualism doesn't exist.
--What a great fucking argument.--

>>9092295
why? just why, OP? WHY!?

Also, go away.

>>9092295
>hurr durr derp derp I'm so le wise

What a narcissist.

>>9096977
>oh shit I thought this was just twitter memes I didn't realise people actually read literature

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>>9097560
>tfw the whole reason the UK exists is that the Scots tried to be imperialists too, and failed so spectacularly that it bankrupted them and they needed England to bail out their country

>>9097478
That's a hell of a lot better than the ones who think Trump is a smart, benign guy with the best interests of working-class Americans at heart. At least the ones comparing him to Voldemort know better than to trust the assclown or vote for him.

>>9097290
"Bad critic"? Fuck off. I'm discussing the content and themes/messages of the series. The original question here was "What's the political philosophy of Harry Potter" not "how is Rowling's prose style?" Rowling isn't a great writer, nor even especially competent at prose: that's true of most popular authors for adults or kids, and it's not the point.

>>9097472
Yes, it's far better, and Bloom and the other snobs can go blow themselves. If your head is so far up your ass that you think the choice is between kids reading Rowling or Dickens, let me remind you: it's between reading Rowling and not reading a fucking word, much of the time. Every few minutes I see a thread HERE--in on a /lit/ board--from some freak claiming they have never read a book, or haven't read one in years. When 27 percent of U.S. adults didn't read a single book within the last 12 months, only a moron claims Harry Potter is worse than nothing.

>>9092301
>Spielberg
>good

>>9092301
Seriously, aside from this being complied from two critics who didn't actually view the material they're insulting, doesn't the fact that James Bond is held up as the film franchise of "wonder, beauty and excitement" that the aimed-at-children-Potter films should aspire to emulate make anyone wonder about the critic's sanity?

>>9097838
>questioning King Armond

Pleb alert

>>9097627
>Out of all the academic areas of study choosing sociology as your example
Jesus Why

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>>9092486
>>tumblr and buzfeed
>hyperindividualist
nigga no
>>9092295
Pic related

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>tfw no qt /lit/ gf

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>>9092543
>why does everything these days have to be so politically charged?
Welcome to life after the 18th century you sheltered fucking moron

>>9097251
But her readership is so obedient

>>9097366
Read the Didache.

>if he ask for money, he is a false prophet

>>9097758
No. It's not.

>>9092301
>so-called critical review of Potter books
>leaves out the 3rd grade reading level and blatant plagiarism
I rate your review lower than the worlds of Rowley

>people think reading shit is still better than not reading
Reading Potter and junk like that is no different than watching TV.