at the close...

[fire_fly]

I spent all day yesterday reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows rather than fleshing out my thesis plan. Bad me.

Comments

[angelacula]

Good review! I don't know about the marginalising of poc, though, what about Kingsley, Dean, Cho and so on? Their colour isn't made a big deal of, but they're there, and presented as all being positive influences and/or attractive people. It seems that it would be more dodgy to have them going on about Kingsley's race. Plus, maybe this is like that Pratchett quote about how when there are different species "black and white band together and disciminate against green". Or, y'know, words to that effect.

[aquandrian]

there are different species "black and white band together and disciminate against green".

Ha! Yes! As a Pratchett fan, I heartily second this.

[fire_fly]

By DH, those guys are all pretty much just convenient. Kingsley is almost a Magical Negro (while Dobby definitely is). Dean doesn't even do anything, he's just listless. And the only reason Cho's included is to highlight the Harry/Ginny romance.

Their colour isn't made a big deal of, but they're there, and presented as all being positive influences and/or attractive people.

Colourblindness isn't a means of addressing racism. Besides, it's pretty irresponsible to write a story in which fantastical racism is a major theme, and not address real-world racism.

Don't even get me started on the whiteness of Pratchett.

[diremeerkat]

Colourblindness isn't a means of addressing racism.No, but it's a way of addressing acceptance. I don't pay attention to whether people are black, Asian, French (apart from the fact that I'm interested in other cultures, as someone who isn't an Anglo-Saxon Australian, and who's family has experienced racism in this country, and as someone who is proud of my heritage, and hence is interested in other people's heritage and culture as a positive part of who they are), and that's because it doesn't matter to me beyond the points I raised in brackets. And racism matters to me hugely, as well as homophobia and sexism, but I mean that when I meet someone who is from a different race, whether that race is another white one, or they are "poc" (I've never used that term, so I don't want to just be really out there with it), I don't even think about that. Like Bish is one of my closest friends. On a day to day basis I don't think about the fact that she's Sri-Lankan or Muslim, unless we're specifically talking about those things because we're

[aquandrian]

Even Dobby's death should've been more meaningful in some way other than making Harry look good.

Hm. Good point. I did feel a bit manipulated at that point. Sort of forced to feel for Dobby when I really didn't all that much. But I so did love the way Rowling used Dobby for the Ron/Hermoine moment later. That moved me so much more. So excellent.

[fire_fly]

Er, which moment?

I guess the point I was trying to get at was that JKR contradicts herself in a number of places Re: race politics because of how clear she makes it that Elves really ought to be free... and how easy she makes it for wizards to use them for their own purposes (e.g. at the end, Harry wanting nothing more than to sleep in his four-poster in Gryffindor Tower and Kreacher to bring him a sandwich -- does Harry even realise what he fought for?).

[aquandrian]

Ah, that moment when Ron says "well, shouldn't we warn the elves so as to avoid another Dobby moment?" Considering Ron's whole antipathy to SPEW, that said much more to me about the significance of Dobby's death than Harry's whole epiphany. Not that I didn't appreciate the gesture of digging the grave by hand. Actually I sort of liked the little thread Rowling had going through this novel about doing things the non-magic way.

Yeah, y'know, I really did wonder why the hell Harry didn't set Kreacher free at the end? Or did he do that by giving him Regulus' locket and nobody making a big deal of it and Kreacher choosing to stay on and serve like the Hogwarts elves? Does a locket count as clothes?

[fire_fly]

Yeah, I wondered about the locket too. If Kreacher wasn't free, would he be allowed to go to Hogwarts? It was a good tactic to set him free -- do it in a way that doesn't amount to "we are gonna throw you out and you won't be able to get a job anywhere else so you'll starve," which is what clothes mean to Elves. But then Harry gives him orders, which makes it clear that they're still master and slave... and the magical binding between master and Elf in HP seems to be fairly sticky.

[out_fox]

re: Elves not being a cipher for POC. Good point, reminds me of Slytherfic meta that reads JKR's treatment of Othering too literally as always about racism or POC.

It was jarring that she had Harry imagine Kreacher bring him a sandwich after the battle. But I was thinking of Harry being manipulated by Dumbledore, not JKR *comes back to reality*

I'm hoping for lots of fluffy T/R/T fic now, to assuage the "another orphan!" response with rainbow hair & Godfather Harry foolishness.

[fire_fly]

re: Elves not being a cipher for POC. Good point, reminds me of Slytherfic meta that reads JKR's treatment of Othering too literally as always about racism or POC.

Um, could you elaborate? In what way is JKR's use of Othering not a rehash of trite themes about race in white-centric mainstream fiction (e.g. stories about Civil Rights that centre white activists, the rewriting of poc histories to centre white people)?

I'm unhappy about JKR's use of these themes, not the fact that fans/critics read them into the text.

And by T/R/T you mean Tonks/Remus/Teddy? {confused}

[out_fox]

I mean that JKR because does use Othering tritely, so when Slytherfans reading the HP series as a political statement about racism apply JKR's examples as a really literal benchmark for understanding race and Othering, they produce equally trite, sometimes very bigoted conclusions

[fire_fly]

I'm so glad I don't have to deal with fans like that. So should they be, if they're still breathing.

As for Teddyfic, I've already fallen in love with The Rules of Being a Godson. ^_^

[mayhemwench]

I can't find my OotP right now, but didn't Sirius leave Grimmauld Place to Harry in his will or something? So wouldn't it go to little James, Albus and Lily? And I totally want to see fanfic of Hogwarts with the DA run by Neville, Luna and Ginny while the Trio were chasing various things starting with the letter H. Also the political fanfic you spoke of. That will be awesome.

[fire_fly]

I think Scorpius Malfoy and Teddy Tonks are the youngest of the Blacks. I'd assume that, since Andromeda was Sirius' favourite cousin, and young Teddy really deserves a break, what with his parents being killed not a year after he was born, that Harry would give Grimmauld Place to him...

[mayhemwench]

Oh, I see. And really, I don't know if Harry would want to live there (although who would, really, with Sirius' mother stuck to the wall?).

[fire_fly]

Exactly. With a huge inheritance now un-monitored by the Ministry, he could get a house anywhere. He never much liked Grimmauld Place except for the fact that Sirius used to live there.