Jon Stewart sticking the knife in to JKR over "Jewish" goblins

[WandaWomblesaurus73]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10368289/Jon-Stewart-accuses-JK-Rowling-anti-Semitism-Harry-Potter.html

Ffs

Did anyone say any of this before she spoke up for women's rights? Has the LOTR franchise been criticised in similar terms?

At some point JKR will sue for slander/libel. That will need two things: to be a clear-cut no quibble case and for the defendant to be someone who can't reasonably hide behind a shielf of "the mean rich middle-aged white woman is attacking helpless little me".

That's disgusting and libellous.

The first Harry Potter book was published 25 years ago. Isn't it funny how people only decided the goblins were antisemitic after JKR spoke out on the trans issue?

The Potter books themselves are clearly designed to be read at least in part as attacks on Nazi ideology. And of course JKR herself has spoken out many times against antisemitism. (One of the things that made her so unpopular with the Corbynistas.)

Absolutely disgusting. Harry Potter is about witches, elfs, goblins, dragons for fucks sake. It's not like these are books about normal life and she just stuck Goblins in as some sort of weird dig at a particular group of people. This witch hunt is getting really disgraceful

So I've never read Harry Potter or seen more than the first movie when it came out. But Stewart seems to be describing the movie goblins rather than the book goblins. And I know from other movies based off books I've seen, that creatures in movies aren't always/usually the exact same as those described the books. So maybe these are actually identical to her descriptions but he's not saying that. He isn't saying, I read the books to my kids and her descriptions of goblins screamed 'jew' to me. He's describing the movies, and the depictions of the goblins in that wouldn't even have been her work.

It's awful isn't it. Rowling based her ideas on old stories - traditionally, goblins were portrayed as greedy and obsessed with gold. Jewish individuals and organisations have been coming out to say that the Harry Potter goblins are NOT anti-semitic, and in fact Rowling uses a lot of anti-Nazi, anti-fascist themes and symbolism in her work (the Death Eaters are clearly fascists).

I did venture into one of these Twitter debates, but found the lack of logic, conspiracy thinking and pure hatefulness of the 'JKR is an anti-semite' crowd hard to take. Within two tweets they were questioning my (very innocuous) Twitter bio - I can understand why people don't want to engage with them.

JKR describes the goblins in the book as: (this is taken from HP wiki) Physical appearance
Goblins were short and fair-skinned, as they spent very little time outside. They had very long fingers and feet, dome-shaped heads and were slightly larger than house-elves. Griphook, one of the hundreds of goblins working at Gringotts, had a bald head, pointed nose, and pointed ears. Some had dark, slanted eyes, and some goblins even wore pointed hats.[4]

why are they referring to 'hooked noses'? I think anti-semitism is rife, personally, but cant see it here.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Did anyone say any of this before she spoke up for women's rights? Has the LOTR franchise been criticised in similar terms?

Loads of people said it at the time, yes. And complained about Cho Chang and the Patil twins, and the girl whose sole characteristic is “being black”.

The complaints go years back, way before she made any GC comments.

Well I see Emma doodah is not on the naughty step for supposedly supporting Palestine. I can’t keep up.

Now on the naughty step.

The antisemitic goblin stereotype was first brought up in the mid noughties in the New York Times. Way before this.

Some of us have long noticed that the name Cho Chang doesn't really make sense either.

These aren't 'made-up' accusations to bolster anti-trans claims and to dismiss them as such is inappropriate.

Here we go, here is Christopher Hitchens in 2007, accusing her of anti-Semitism.

www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/books/review/Hitchens-t.html

Not new.

Emma Watson has also been called anti semitic because she expressed solidarity with disposessed Palestinians.

All you have to do these days is say you don't want Palestinians to be obliterated and you're an anti semite. It's the new witch hunt alongside the trans lobby.

I think I was a Goblin when I was in brownies.

Anti semitism is OK if it's from your beloved Rowling, isn't it?

You really need to look at the people you hold up as heroes. Most have unsavoury views on more than minority groups.

Some people are saying that the Gringott film set had Nazi symbolism and Stars of David in it. Even if that were true, which it isn't, wouldn't that mean that the set designers, the producer, director, costume designers, actors and everyone else were happily collaborating in creating an anti-semitic film? Is that plausible? No.

JKR's sketch and the antisemitic image they're comparing it to look nothing alike

They're both in black and white, but that's the only similarity.

I think the problem is that people treat Harry Potter like a religion, rather than what it is, a very readable children’s book about wizards written a few decades ago by a woman from Gloucestershire.

Why on earth would jk position Grindelwald as a baddy if she were antisemitic? Do people not understand the whole dumbledore Vs Grindelwald thing is actually ww2?

@yourhairiswinterfire

JKR's sketch and the antisemitic image they're comparing it to look nothing alike

They're both in black and white, but that's the only similarity.

Yes I thought this too - the two characters look completely different?!

On another note, this was the mask that was made for Sam Raimi's 2002 Spider-man film. It was scrapped as it was considered too scary for small children and uncomfortable for the actor wearing it. While it's not identical to the HP goblins, it has many similarities, including a very similar nose shape. It's considered to be more quintessentially Raimi-ish in it's design than the mask that was eventually used. Raimi is jewish and this was designed by his team.

I can't access the New York Times article. Apparently 'Christopher Hitchens noted in The New York Times that the lightning bolt—the shape of the scar which Harry received as a result of Voldemort's curse, now considered to be emblematic of the series—is also the symbol of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, a prominent group of Nazi sympathisers during the 1930s and 1940s.' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Harry_Potter

Surely he isn't implying that Harry was a fascist? I doubt Rowling had that symbolism in mind. At any rate, it was inflicted by Harry's arch-enemy Voldemort. HE was a fascist.

I'm waiting for someone to spot the leprechauns at the Quidditch world cup.

I hasten to add that I'm Irish and was not offended by the Irish contingent, the leprechauns or Seamus and his family. Though I suppose I could pretend to be if I tried.

Silly, silly man.

I didn't particularly pick up anti-semitism from the books, but I did think the film representation of the goblins was a bit dodgy, and this was several years ago. And, as PP have said, there had already been a few concerns about the depiction of other ethnic minorities. JKR isn't the only author to have had such criticisms, though.