Each generation draws an analogy to politics based on popular culture today. For decades, this pop culture has been Star Wars. For example, it's not hard to see why Reagan's space-based missile defense network deployed in the '80s earned the nickname "Star Wars." The title has been so persistent that White House chief strategist Steve Bannon recently expressed his appreciation for the dark side in an interview: "Darkness is not a bad thing either, like Dick Cheney, Darth Vader and Satan, they all represent power." But one name was missing from the list: Voldemort.
Over the past few years, as fans have often humorously compared the world threatened by narcissistic dictators to the world in the Harry Potter series, the book's arch-villain has made a comeback. In February, Buzzfeed News launched a quiz called "Who Said It: Steve Bannon or Voldemort?" that may be harder than you might think.
JK Rowling's readers basically grew up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. With hundreds of millions of books sold and the film adaptations being hugely successful, the impact of Harry Potter is immeasurable. Harry Potter presents a generation with a simple story of evil. As a result, the Harry Potter series is often used as a reference for controversy in an era of great political divisions.
During the women's parade in January, many people made their own Princess Leah placards as a sign of a new round of protests, but there were also many Signs from the Harry Potter series, such as "Master Dumbledore", inspirational quotes excerpted from the series, and references to the role of Hermione in Harry's Battle for Survival. After the U.S. presidential election in November, these placards began to appear frequently, perhaps because the people loved the Harry Potter series so much that they began to tweet the introduction of the book. Hamilton screenwriter Lin Manuel Miranda wrote: "The secret orders of the Phoenix Society, gather together. "There's even a Google Chrome plugin that changes everything that mentions the names of Donald Trump and members of his cabinet to the names of members of the Death Eaters." As soon as you install this plugin, your browser will immediately change Bets Divis to Dolores Umbridge, Jeff Sessions to Antonin Dolokhov, or Rex Tillerson to Draco Malfoy.
Jamie MacColl, 26, who works as a guitarist at the Bombay Bicycle Club, said: "When I first started reading the novel, I was probably 9 or 10 years old." Last year, McColl set up an activist group called Unite to ensure that young people's voices get heard during the Brexit negotiations, and he recently appeared on the BBC's Question Time programme. "I still remember the frenzy of being eager to read a new book every time it came out, and I used to queue up in front of the bookstore in the middle of the night to buy a new book." He said he could only think about today's political reality or social messages in the light of JK Rowling's apparently left-leaning tweets. "I think she and I have the same views on politics. But one of the things that appealed to me at the time was that it didn't really matter who you were. Hermione had no witch blood, but was by far the most powerful witch. ”
The overall core idea of the Harry Potter series is diversity and tolerance for difference. As the characters in the book continue to grow, the novel becomes more complex and mature. Political failure to follow this law makes the consequences even more serious and threatening. The demons insisted that pure-bloods were superior to mixed-races, with the implication of ethnic cleansing; the Death Eaters were fascists. Even in the storyline of the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, there is much evidence that clearly shows the existence of these connections.
It is very interesting to follow up on the contrast between fiction and reality, and to think about how Rowling's fantasy novels can be applied to this era. Throughout the series, the Ministry of Magic is full of corrupt, incompetent, and pretentious people whose only ambition is to hold on to power. The press is untrustworthy and ridiculous. In a fantastical phone tapping campaign, columnist Rita Skeeter turns herself into a beetle in order to cover details that no one knows. The Daily Prophet is often used by the system as a tool to manipulate popular opinion. Speaking about the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rowling said: "Part of my inspiration came from the rise of populism around the world. The anti-magic sentiment in New York in the 1920s in the film may be explained in the Brexit of Britain: "When the maks (Americans call Muggles) are afraid, they attack." ”
In 2013, Anthony Gierzynski, a professor of political science at The University of Vermont, co-authored a book titled Harry Potter and Millennials: Research Methods and the Politics of the Muggle Generation with Catherine Eddie. It aims to answer whether the Harry Potter series of stories has had an impact on the politics of the millennium. In his introduction, Gierzynski discussed the comparison of Rick Perry and Dick Cheney to Voldemort on the Internet at the time.
"It would be too much of an understatement to say that the political situation has changed," he told me, "and the current president of the United States is intolerable, and he has typical authoritarian personality characteristics." Personally, I think there is more correlation between the Harry Potter series and the current situation than in the 2012 election. ”
When Trump first proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States in 2015, Rowling herself agreed with the metaphor of Using Trump as Voldemort. She tweeted: "It's horrible. Voldemort wasn't that bad. This comparison was made by others and is frequent; many have compared the president to the man who can't say his name (He Who Must Not Be Named). (Interestingly, recent celebrities such as Meryl Streep and Kristen Stewart have avoided mentioning Trump by his name in speeches or interviews, a position that many American activists support.) ）
In the case of Trump, Gilzniski thinks a more appropriate reference is actually figures like the incompetent Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge. But he also points out that in the long run, putting the names of fictional characters on politicians doesn't really do much. "In terms of debate, calling anyone Voldemort would cause problems. This will make it impossible for the debate to continue," he said. "If you look at what's going on with these leaders and how those things are going to lead to the exclusion of 'outsiders' — that's the value of the Harry Potter series to me. It can provide you with an experience of how to deal with such injustices and intolerance. ”
In 2016, Diana Mutz, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Institute of Civics and Politics, published a paper titled "Harry Potter and the Deathly Donald," in which she rigorously argued that reading the Harry Potter series or watching related films reduced Americans' acceptance of Trump and his policies. "Fiction influences people's perceptions, and Harry Potter happens to gain a large number of readers. This makes the series more influential than other stories," she told me in an email: "Fictional stories are not just metaphors, they have been ways of influencing ideas since ancient times." Consider how Uncle Tom's Cabin affected slavery in Americans. ”
Like Gilzniski, Mütz argues that it is the tolerance and diversity conveyed by the Harry Potter series that should have an impact on readers, rather than an established notion. But she was struck by the backlash that followed the paper's release. She said: "I received the most aggressive emails for this study as ever, and to be honest it's a bit scary. Obviously, people who like Donald Trump can't accept the findings of this study, but the experimental data is there, and you have no way to choose your own research results. They simply state the facts. (The situation is very bad now, and Gilzniski is worried about it.) There is also some apprehension in our rhetoric. Normally I don't have any worries when I talk to journalists, but now it's different. ”）
It's not just Trump's supporters who criticize Harry Potter as a political metaphor. Last November, Corey Atad wrote in a post-election critical op-ed for Gentleman Magazine that, despite considering himself a "die-hard Harry Potter fan," he found it repulsive to compare Trump to Voldemort and his opponents to Dumbledore's master. "Wordless tweets went on and on, and those brain-dead adults tried to put the election of a president with fascism overtones into areas that were easier for them to understand," he wrote. The Huffington Post did a story titled Trump/Voldemort vs. "Stupidity and Arrogance," and Matthew Dessem, a writer at Slate Magazine, was equally angry: "Are you kidding me with these things? ...... Now it's actually happening. ”
All three were written shortly after the election, and the anger and apprehension was palpable and understandable. But there is precedent for trying to understand and interpret the real world through fiction, and it's no coincidence that sales of 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale have skyrocketed since November. If, as scholars like Moots and Gilzniski thought, the Harry Potter series turned those who read them from an early age into a generation that was more open-minded and more receptive to differences, then that would be more than naïve and oversimplified.
Moreover, quoting Dumbledore on Twitter is not the only thing Harry Potter fans can do. Last June, Yeni Lopez Sleid, editor of wwwayward, made posters that added an inspirational quote to Donald Trump's photo: "There is no good or evil in the world, only power, and the weak who dare not pursue it." Fans may recognize this as Professor Quirrell's quote and recall what Voldemort taught him. Sleidi sold many posters to Trump supporters and donated all the profits to "Family: Transgender and Gay Liberation Movement," a charity buyer who supported the LGBTQ Latin American community who posted posters on the wall and turned off the lights to discover that the posters they bought had a secret: In the dark, Trump disappeared and was replaced by a glowing green image of Voldemort. That's magic.
(Translator: Xiong Xiaoping)
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