Opinion
Jon Stewart joins the Twitter mob in attacking JK Rowling
Apropos of nothing, he is re-litigating the Gringotts Goblins from Harry Potter
January 5, 2022 12:38
1 min read
Apropos of nothing, he is re-litigating the Gringotts Goblins from Harry Potter
January 5, 2022 12:38For what feels like an eternity, JK Rowling has been a global household name. For most of my life she’s been referred to reverentially, a titan of publishing who single-handedly created the best-selling book series in history and amassed a phenomenal amount of wealth and influence in the process. Great, good for her.
Since the last Harry Potter book came out nearly 15 years ago, I’ve had remarkably little awareness of JK Rowling. She wrote a book that I liked, that was about it.
And yet now, despite my very best intentions, I am forced to read the name JK Rowling week in and week out as more examples of her being an apparently terrible person are dredged up and given endless amount of discussion, both online and in supposedly legitimate news publications.
The statements and writings of Rowling are picked over and examined and screamed about as if she were actually in charge of something real, rather than just a successful author who has opinions on the world around her.
The most recent salvo in the War Against Rowling comes from US comedian and former host of the hugely successful Daily Show, Jon Stewart. On his podcast, Stewart, apropos of nothing, decides to re-litigate the Gringotts Goblins from Harry Potter, comparing them to antisemitic cartoons and questioning why no-one in the 25 years since the book was published has said anything.
Now look, the Goblins in Harry Potter are bankers and there is a Star of David displayed on the floor of the bank in one shot, and maybe that did genuinely really upset Stewart when he first saw the film over two decades ago. But also maybe, as some have suggested, the portrayal of Goblins was much more informed by folklore depictions and JK Rowling -who’s been a staunch ally of the British Jewish community - wasn’t thinking about Jews when she wrote them.
Either way, whether you agree with Jon Stewart or not, it just feels somewhat cynical that when people on Twitter have declared open season on JK Rowling, Jon Stewart manages to find his own peg to get angry at her about.
I personally stopped caring about Harry Potter and JK Rowling when I finished the books as a 13 year-old. I’d encourage Jon Stewart to do the same.