Comment on JK Rowling prefers two years in jail over using correct pronouns
bearwithastick@feddit.ch 8 months agoFrom this argument you could derive that every author, who builds a world with anything negative in it which is not opposed by the inhabitors of said world, automatically supports this in real life. As a bit of a crude example, in Warhammer 40k, criminal humans are lobotomized and are used as “Servitors”. Almost no other human in this fantasy universe bats an eye at this. Nobody is accusing the authors of supporting slavery?
I can see where people take issue with the topic and how Rowling chose to write about it. But I think to accuse her of being pro-slavery because of that…?
Silverseren@kbin.social 8 months ago
Because the theme and overall storyline of 40k is meant to showcase how evil that is. In a way, the evilness is parody in how over the top it is, particularly with the use of Nazi-esque imagery.
Where in the setting of Harry Potter does it present house elves and their enslavement as a parody, joke, or otherwise not meant to be a serious take on the subject?
bearwithastick@feddit.ch 8 months ago
For me, it is not relevant for the argument if it is presented as a parody or not.
Believe me, I get the gist of your point and I understand that even if you look at it in good faith, problems arise with her writing of the house elves slavery.
However, I have a problem with the statement that just because an author implements something in their world building and does not immediately make it very obvious, in whatever way, that this is a bad bad thing, makes them a supporter of said thing. Of course we never know the true intentions of the author but just assuming they wrote it so they support it is a bit of a stretch.
Silverseren@kbin.social 8 months ago
What do you suggest is the way to determine if an author is using a specific setting or plot device in a serious and purposeful manner then? How do you tell if they're actually just a terrible person supporting terrible ideas?
If the answer is going to be their other statements and actions, then Rowling has made her terrible person status pretty clear.