[bjc]

I am dead set against those who believe that a larger government will be beneficial to our fundamental rights. Your position on JK Rowling, however, is an over-reach. The HP storyline is so open you can read any kind of political philosophy into it, with the possible exception of race-based systems. The fact that the Australian Socialist Party is leveraging it - so what. If Ms Rowling wants to give money to various charities, so be it. If you want to charge her with being a socialist then please provide more substance.

[stripes1776]

I am dead set against those who believe that a larger government will be beneficial to our fundamental rights. Your position on JK Rowling, however, is an over-reach. The HP storyline is so open you can read any kind of political philosophy into it, with the possible exception of race-based systems. The fact that the Australian Socialist Party is leveraging it - so what. If Ms Rowling wants to give money to various charities, so be it. If you want to charge her with being a socialist then please provide more substance.

I also think this article is a bit of over-reach. Rowling writes mythology, not allegory. Therefore her stories are open to many interpretations, from socialist to conservative. The reader will read into the story what the readers likes best, whatever Rowlings personal politics may be.

Now I don't want to equate Rowling with Charles Dickens. Dickens is a much better writer. And he didn't write mythology but simply great fiction about working-class people. (OK, some of the romantic stuff deals with ghosts.) He certainly was not a Tory. He was pro-Labor. But his stories are great reading, some of the best in the English language. And you have to ask yourself why the Brits are such good story-tellers? I don't have an answer, but they simply are.