Posted on 12/12/2001 12:46:41 PM PST by Big Bunyip
Children's heroes have a certain ring of racism
Harry and the hobbits might be fun, but they should be recognised as appealing to the racist within us, writes Chris Henning.
We are in deep Pottermania. No child is without its thick spectacles, pointed hat and moon-and-stars cloak. Other fantastic creatures are banging on the gates, demanding to be let in: orcs, elves, ents and the rest of Middle Earth are about to break through into our consciousness when the Lord of the Rings marketing blitz gets under way.
Why this sudden bugaboo frenzy? And why now?
The appeal of the Lord of the Rings is fundamentally racist. Middle Earth is inhabited by races of creature deeply marked off from one another by language, physical appearance, and behaviour. It is almost a parody of a Hitlerian vision: orcs are ugly, disgusting, brutal, violent - without exception; elves are a beautiful, lordly, cultured elite; in between are hobbits, short, hairy, ordinary, a bit limited, but lovable and loyal and brave when they have to be.
Individuals within races don't vary from the pattern. To know one is to know all. The races are either dangerous or they are benign. An orc - any orc - is without question an enemy. A hobbit would never side with an orc.
Tolkien's entrancing vision has long been extraordinarily popular, not least with the far Right. If you have doubts, call up a few white supremacist sites on the Web. Tolkien is recommended reading for families hoping to bring up their children in a wholesome, racialist atmosphere. It sets the racist mental framework in an appealing and unchallenging way.
What about Harry Potter? Surely he can't be a racist too? He's just a kid going to school.
Well, no and yes. He's probably not recommended reading among the supremacists. They are often Christian fundamentalists, a group which is down on witchcraft and any form of paganism. The devil's work, you understand.
But ... but ... Harry and his friends are members of an elite. They are not a race, but their powers are handed down the generations from parents to children. The skills must be inherited before they are developed with teaching at Hogwarts. The reader quickly identifies with this genetic elite, the wizards such as Harry, and despises the talentless, boorish muggles.
How we laugh when the Dursleys get into difficulties! They deserve it. They are, after all, just muggles - hapless, fat, brutal and stupid. They're all like that. Go on, Harry, hit them again and watch them cry.
Our response is no different from our view of orcs in Lord of the Rings. It is a racist view of the world, and to that extent, Harry Potter's appeal is to the racist within us.
But it's fun. And only boring people want to criticise it or condemn or ban it. Millions and millions of children - and adults - all over the world love J.K.Rowling and all her works, just as they love Tolkien and all his.
Just because Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings can be seen as racist is no reason to ban them, restrict their circulation or protect the vulnerable from them. Far from it - they are wonderful stories. But we should see them for what they are, and know that that is their appeal. We should ask why their appeal is so great.
Our clever and amoral Prime Minister has just won a third term, against expectations, by appealing to the racism and insecurity at the heart of the Australian psyche. Can these two disparate things be related in some way?
Perhaps they are related this way. We have been so isolated in our little consumerist, suburban cocoons, being told relentlessly how important we are as individuals - not as a group. Multiculturalism tells us that no culture has primacy over another, no habits are superior. We must tolerate everything. We must esteem our own culture, our own values, no higher than others.
Globalisation tells us that nothing has a value unless it can be expressed in dollars, that flexibility, change and choice are all the highest virtues, that a hankering after tradition or group values is the worst kind of vice.
For many people, the consequences of this - communities destroyed or undermined, values set at nought, habits despised - have been profoundly dispiriting. One Nation has played on this sense of loss, offering racist policies with mixed success. John Howard took over where One Nation failed, and revived his political fortunes.
Harry and the hobbits, with their takeaway racism, offer the same comfort for the whole world: join our tribe, be special with us, despise our subhumans.
Liberals, they always good for a laugh!
What the hell is "takeaway racism"?
Is that like Takeout...as in Chinese takeout? Or, is that racist too? SHEESSHH!
Didn't get to the "Scouring of the Shire" chapter, did you?
What a maroon.
my point exactly.
Seriously, who knows what this guy is on about. He's that all-too-common marvel of anatomy -- an excretory organ that can also type.
Thank you for clearling out some cob webs for me.
Wellllllll... actually, I was under the impression that Gollum was originally a hobbit, or hobbit like creature. And, if I recall, Man was as open to being a bad guy in LOTR as in real life.
So, Bilbo is a racist? Hey Chris, pass me one of those Fosters it seems you've been indulging in.
Then let's go visit the orcs and have tea and snacky-cakes with them.
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