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

Looking at the comments section there doesn't appear to be a single one in agreement with this utter garbage.

This is simply an unknown/irrelevant comedian (I believe that's what he is supposed to be) knowing he will get a bit of attention if he bashes JKR. Sad.

There's an enormous amount of content in the books and anyone could find things to misinterpret or criticise if they were so inclined. The anti-semitism thing is blowing up as a way to attack Rowling's feminism. TRAs are extremely quick to throw mud at feminists.

@Bluebluemoon

Looking at the comments section there doesn't appear to be a single one in agreement with this utter garbage.

This is simply an unknown/irrelevant comedian (I believe that's what he is supposed to be) knowing he will get a bit of attention if he bashes JKR. Sad.

Oh come on, he presented the Daily Show, he’s about as “unknown” in the US as Jonathan Ross is over here.

Oh come on, he presented the Daily Show, he’s about as “unknown” in the US as Jonathan Ross is over here.

Well, I live in the U.K. - so no, I've never heard of him!

@merrymouse

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.

You are right. People threatening to kill themselves and all when JKR commented about the word 'woman' I mean come on. If you're that reliant on a fictional children's book for validation of your sense of self can you really blame people for querying if you're that committed to the identity you have created.

And as for the people now saying it doesn't matter anyway, Harry Potter is ours and nothing really to do with JKR anyway- possibly the most utterly delusional thing I've ever heard. Every word of that book, every little thing about the entire story came from the mind of JKR, she and the story are as inextricably linked as a man and his xy chromosomes.

So he’s comparing Jews to naughty goblins, and she’s the antisemite?

I'm actually astounded at the levels this bullying of her is going to. A lot of these people are the ones who fear that trans people will commit suicide while mercilessly bullying this woman at the same time and picking apart everything she's said and done to twist. They really should have watched the Dave Chappelle special all the way through to see the real life effects this kind of behaviour can have on their victims.

@Bluebluemoon

Looking at the comments section there doesn't appear to be a single one in agreement with this utter garbage.

This is simply an unknown/irrelevant comedian (I believe that's what he is supposed to be) knowing he will get a bit of attention if he bashes JKR. Sad.

He has over a million Twitter followers. The Daily Show was and still is broadcast in the UK.

He is very intelligent and very funny.

I think he’s being an idiot about JKR. Search goblin images and you’ll find many examples of goblins looking exactly like the ones in the Potter films. Search Wikipedia and see that goblins have been depicted as greedy and loving gold—it’s not surprising to have made them the bankers.

Some of that historical stereotype might well have arisen from anti-semitism, but it’s not of JKR’s invention.

Leprechauns are gold lovers too. So what are they? Anti Irish?

@KittenKong

Leprechauns are gold lovers too. So what are they? Anti Irish?

I doubt many Jewish people see this as anti Jewish tbf, just those in the spotlight looking for some woke points

This article takes down the anti-semitism allegations: momentmag.com/debunking-the-harry-potter-anti-semitism-myth/

just look up goblin in the dictionary and you find a definition that largely resembles Rowling’s creatures. Perhaps the goblin character has its origins in anti-Semitism, but Rowling can hardly be convicted of unjust commentary for using a now-familiar Western literary character.

Gosh yes, where is the outrage. Because Leprechauns are supposed to be real people just like goblins . Silence on that issue is hateful complicity or not .

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

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

Yes and yes.

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.

Now why link to an article behind a paywall? Luckily it's <a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170720151701/www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/books/review/Hitchens-t.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">archived.

The relevant bit.

For some time now the novels have been attempting a kind of secular dramatization of the battle between good and evil. The Ministry of Magic (one of Rowling’s better inventions) has been seeking to impose a version of the Nuremberg Laws on England, classifying its subjects according to blood and maintaining its own Gestapo as well as its own Azkaban gulag. But again, over time and over many, many pages this scenario fails to chill: most of the “muggle” population goes about its ordinary existence, and every time the secret police close in, our heroes are able to “disapparate” — a term that always makes me think of an attempt at English by George W. Bush. The prejudice against bank-monopoly goblins is modeled more or less on anti-Semitism and the foul treatment of elves is meant to put us in mind of slavery, but the overall effect of this is somewhat thin and derivative, and subject to diminishing returns.

Hitchens seems to be saying the exact opposite of what @Changechangychange is claiming, don't you think?

The trouble with TRAs is that they throw out accusations assuming that no one will ever check!

Jon Stewart used to be incredibly accurate with his analysis on The Daily Show, and funny. I don’t watch it anymore with Trevor “just let trans kids have hormones and play sports!” Noah.

But he didn’t think it was worthy of a segment on The Daily Show? Even though he’s thought this ever since he first saw the film at the cinema? Why now? Is it because she’s been softened up as a target by all the trans vitriol, so challenging her now doesn’t seem so “out there”? In which case that makes him a coward for not having the conviction to pursue this sooner.

What other explanation is there? He’s taken this long to fully formulate his thesis? He’s never had the right platform before?

It’s utterly specious. To find it credible, you would have to believe that Jo Rowling, despite being very publicly on record as defending and standing up for Jewish members of the Labour Party in the face of the vicious anti semitism they were being subjected to within the party, is actually, secretly an anti semite, and she coded this into her books.

Then you’d have to believe that in spite of the whole series being rife with allegories of fascist societies, how they come into being and function, how they can be defeated with bravery and honesty, she actually secretly believes the exact opposite, and shares the anti Semitic sentiment that underpins modern European fascism.

You’d further have to believe that the correct way to address this is to give her a thorough public drubbing for it, question her character and morals, set hordes of Internet bullies on her, rather than, you know, discussing where the folk tales about goblins come from, what she drew on, to what extent they themselves had anti Semitic tropes baked into them etc.

You would, in short have to be an authoritarian bully, and a none too bright one at that.

I've not read the Hitchens piece, but I've certainly thought this about the films' representation of goblins, particularly Griphook -- don't remember the detail of the novels well enough to comment on to what extent this is implicit in the text.

But some unpleasant anti-Irish stereotyping has crept into the films which was, to my memory, completely absent from the novels -- Seamus Finnegan in the novels is an ordinary enough background character who doesn't keep blowing things up, or want to transform something else into alcohol, the way he does in the films. I can only assume that this is someone's confused idea that Irish people are liable to be in the IRA and hence cause explosions, and to be drinkers.

I think the Goblins look like I imagine goblins would look. It says more about Jon Stewart than JKR and what about all the thousands involved in making the film. Why is she the target? Oh I know, she's a woman, a GC woman

I wonder if it's bankers she's expressing disdain for, not Jewish people.

bell hooks was critical of JKR in her 2003 book The Will To Change.

Today on “What can I get offended about” bingo …

These attacks from men with considerable privilege looking to consolidate it, Stewart, the other Stewart, James Max, Harwood, just as the public are saying "you know what, I'm not sure I'm on board with all of this" has a vibe of late-comers piling in at the top of the market, having seen others benefit from gains over the years and hoping to do the same.

I wonder if it's bankers she's expressing disdain for, not Jewish people.

She's not expressing disdain for anyone. The goblins are just one of the many types of magical creature in the books. They are not presented as being bad or evil in any way.

fed up of the jkr bashing-the reunion white washed her out

without her none of the films would exist and these jumped up actors would be noone

I think that if someone reads a description in a children's fantasy book of goblin creatures who work in a magical bank, in an invented world full of fantastical beasts - and their response is to think about Jewish people? It's not the author who might have antisemitic leanings.