Separating the art from the artist

Re-evaluating value of the author in light of JK Rowling's increasingly problematic opinions. Is it even possible to separate her from her books?

Joanne Rowling. Sigh.

Millions are in love with ‘the boy who lived’, so many of us grew up with Harry Potter. The boy who helped me live, learn, laugh, cry, and so many emotions that my teenage self could never have imagined!

How do I separate him from his problematic, transphobic, anti-semitic, will not stop tweeting, creator?

Isn’t he a part of her?

JK Rowling, to me, is the living personification of Joker’s famous dialogue. “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” At least for me, I have no real-life example of someone I literally worshipped as a Goddess to from grace so phenomenally.

I have defended her in book-clubs and class debates. I have admired her when I read how she was the first billionaire author, only to again become a millionaire later as she gave so much to charity.

I cried buckets when she said ‘Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home’ at the London premiere of Deathly Hallows. I had someone to welcome me home, someone who made feel a part of her life by sharing her creation with me.

But. It’s funny how they say everything that’s said before the ‘but’ doesn’t count.

But she was an illusion.

The JK Rowling I knew and worshipped never existed. She was simply a mirage. It was a magician’s trick, and they say words are magic after all, her books became a cloak we couldn’t look past.

By gradually adding plot-points and character details that never existed, she tried to add another layer of shroud around her true self. As Cosmonaut Variety Hour put is so succinctly, ‘she wrote an all-white, all straight children’s book in the ’90s, and now she’s embarrassed about it.’

While I love books with diversity, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Harry Potter for not having a gay character. on the other hand, forcing token character in the plot post-publishing, to fulfil a diversity quote of sorts, is unacceptable and despicable.

It makes me wonder whether her constant attempts to appear ‘woke’ were a form of over-compensation.

That these recent transphobic tweets are not an anomaly- she was always this person. To all those on the internet, joking about hormonal-disbalance due to menopause, or other jokes at expense of mental health- just stop.

She willingly wrote an all-white, all-straight series. She willingly gave no voice to the minorities, until it became a necessity to appease fans on social media.

The people who looked different were greedy goblins and elf-slaves. Very thinly veiled caricatures of Jewish and Black stereotypes.

And badly done caricatures at that. The slaves were happy being slaves, for heaven’s sake! What does that tell you about the author?

The story, as I believed, was about strength, equality, fighting fascists, standing up to your beliefs. Maybe those were simply my analyses as a reader, who knows what her authorial intent might have been?

I still maintain that I learned so much from Harry, the boy who taught me unbelievable strength and resilience. Am I supposed to erase him from my memories? Remove his tattoos from my body?

If I choose to separate Rowling from her art, doesn’t that make me a hypocrite? After all, I was so vocal during #METOO campaign about this very issue. On every step, after each new reveal from Harvey to Stan Lee, I was persistant that we cannot be allies if keep separating the art from the artist.

If I choose to club her with series, am I supposed to give up on my love for Harry? It’s not just a book for me, after all. It’s love. I have loved this book and plots and everything in between.

As an intersectional feminist, which I think should be the norm, how am I supposed to support the work of a TERF? (Trans-exclusionary radical feminist).

I’m not sure what’s the right path here.

I hope you do.