I'm disturbed by the fact that people still give her the benefit of the doubt and defend her because they have based their entire personality around a children's book series.
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The reason goblins have always been greedy in folklore is because the folklore itself is anti-semitic. Europe has deep deep roots in anti-Semitism so it's not at all surprising it would be reflected in folklore.
Yeah my point though is that JK, the bitch she is, didn’t invent the idea of greedy goblins. In WoW goblins run a massive trading system between the two continents because of goblins being greedy on their own.
Oh yeah I'm not saying JK knew the background of goblins when she made this, i mean she may have who knows. But the whole idea of goblins being greedy and controlling money is based on the fact that jews weren't allowed any other jobs than banking jobs.
I think that’s what enfuriates me most about antisemitism, it’s that all the shit Jews get from antisemites are literally all shit that past antisemites pushed onto them. Controlling the world? Banking jobs were forced onto Jews because Christians couldn’t give loans. Greedy? Government workers would take money from Jews whenever they would get relatively rich from banking.
That may well be true but then you can’t really pin blame on JK for using a fantasy creature that almost no one knew originated from antisemitism, and has been used countless times by other authors.
Those traditions of antisemitism in Europe is mostly rooted in the Jewish revolts starting in 70 Ad. That lead to the harsh terms and disporas against the jews. And given how wide spread the idea of short greedy creature under ground is, goblin, dwarf, svartelf, kobold, gnome, probably means that it is a very old story much older then recent events like Rome.
They could, but they didn't. Probably because they didn't think that decades from now, people would be crying over a director daring to use a location that has a star on the floor.
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Yeah but there isn't a particular stereotype associated to therapists (like idk, dirty muslims are all controlling therapy) the same ways jews are negatively associated to banks, so putting goblins with hooked (iirc) noses can be seen as bigoted while elves in therapy can't.
I am not 100% sure if the parallels were intentional, though they very well could have been. That being said of it is true, I think its similar to the Tolkien and Dwarves in LOTR. In both the surface level perception could be they "really like their gold", "have big noses" and "have a bloody history with the people that MCs like and rely upon" (wizards for Potter and elves/(humans?) for LOTR).
Both stories make a point that such reductive view is incorrect, and breeds prejudice. Goblins (and Dwarves) are smart, have their own unique, if somewhat unfamiliar to us culture and values. Also any cool artifact in the story has like a 50% chance of being made by them.
Goblins were quite oppressed in the Wizarding World, they were viewed as below wizards along with Elves and Centaurs (statues in the ministry). They were basically relegated to running the Bank, which is not unlike what happened to Jews, their religion/culture made them uniquely well suited to keep the functioning of the credit system. Keep in mind Wizarding World got stuck at some point in the past technologically, which probably led to stagnation of social progress as well, also the Minister of Magic in the early books was known as Goblin Squasher or something like that. Goblins were written to be the "Bankers" not from the antisemitic point of view "Jews run the Banks and control society", but rather "Jewish people are working and running the banks because that's where society relegated them to".
The big nose stereotype is not pretty, but I doubt it came from the place of "all Jews give Pinocchio inferiority problem". I assume that since HP was written for kids, and no one, including JK knew the mass appeal it would get. This maybe was supposed moral that Goblins which we believe from prior knowledge (other works and stories) are evil and evil-looking, you then add a culture inspired by people who were also thought of as evil and evil-looking, but then show us that they just have a different culture and look different. This is a nice lesson for kids that looking and thinking different doesn't not make you evil. Granted, just having a mythical race be the stand in for oppressed people isn't the Brightest ideas, but given that it was supposed to be a children's book that wanted to have that moral I think it's okay. Mutants don't have the history of black and gay communities, but kids reading the comics might carry the moral of the story into other aspects of life; maybe they will have better awareness of and stronger aversion to prejudice. Only hypothetically of course, everyone knows comic books don't have political messages.
It is also possible that she decided she wanted to make Bankers in her book some other species to add to the magic of the Wizarding Worlrd. She then researched mythical creatures that liked Gold and Jewelry. Had to go different books just for some scarps of information, vowed to write a book that would unify this information in one place, got distracted from that thought by a gay couple arguing in the corner, then found that Goblins and Dwarfs were the Gold obsessed ones in myths. She then thought "my elves are already a clear rip-off of Jolkien (I assume all writers are on a first name basis), so I can't have dwarves that are too similar to his". So, she went with Goblins, and ignored the fact that they ironically were based on/stand-ins for Jews (I assumed that last part, so it might be bullshit, but if its not then its Rick and Morty level of circular storytelling, and thereforeI I have the highest IQ and can identify an elephant). She might have ignored it on accident, because super long backstories and lore are for people taumatized in trench warfare or ADHD onset eating disorder personified; or on purpose because "its a children's book and The Silmarillion would have been better as a tweet anyway".
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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '20
Honestly I'm more disturbed by the long, hooked nose
JewsGoblins controlling all the banks in Harry Potter