Harry Potter's Bookshelf by John Granger

Author:John Granger [Granger, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Profiteers, Fools, and Blood-Sucking Parasites: Fleet Street in Satirical Story

Ms. Rowling’s relationship with the media, by which inclusive term I mean television and print journalists, is a remarkable one. She is a media darling; getting an interview with her is a difficult thing, especially when it is not in association with a charity event or the release of a book or movie—and reporters’ gratitude for the privilege is evident. She is rarely asked a hardball question and has not been presented in an unflattering light, to my knowledge, in scores of articles consequent to interviews.

Nevertheless, Ms. Rowling clearly is cautious about the press. She has set up her own website so she can communicate directly to her fans without having to work through the medium or filter of the press. She does do interviews and press conferences, online and in person, with nonjournalists—i.e., fans, especially children and young adults, whom she trusts will be kind and attentive to detail rather than having a “selling papers” agenda. She never looks comfortable at designed-for-media events like red carpet charity or theatrical appearances and press conferences.

She has sued newspapers and celebrity photo services to protect her privacy, especially the privacy of her children.19 The press, as a rule, fawn over her, but they are not her friends. Here is a telling response to a question from a fan about political allegory: Q: Many of us older readers have noticed over the years similarities between the Death Eaters’ tactics and the Nazis from the thirties and forties. Did you use that historical era as a model for Voldemort’s reign and what were the lessons that you hope to impart to the next generation?

A: It was conscious. I think that if you’re, I think most of us if you were asked to name a very evil regime we would think Nazi Germany. There were parallels in the ideology. I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the Wizarding world. So you have the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is this great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves on nothing else, they can pride themselves on perceived purity. So, yeah, that follows a parallel. It wasn’t really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry even before it’s taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and love. [Laughter and applause.] So you ask what lessons, I suppose. The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it’s one of the reasons that some people don’t like the books, but I think that it’s a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.20

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