Let’s get this out of the way right up front, this post is not about Rowling recent and deplorable political/personal/aggrieved writings. On the subject of equality for transgendered people and her stance on transgendered people she is just wrong. As the British would say, ‘Full Stop.’ This about the stated theme of the Potter franchise, a ‘plea for tolerance,’ and how the text of the work itself undermines that goal.
The ideological conflict separating the heroes from the villains in Potter is a properly fascistic mentality that the value of a person is derived from the blood lineage. The villains of the work are obsessed with a purity of blood referring to all wizards with either muggle, i.e. non-wizard parents, or with one of the parents or ancestors that were muggle as ‘mudblood.’ The terminology makes the analog to real world racism evident as it is clearly derived from the slur ‘mud people’ used by white supremist. The very utterance of the word ‘mudblood’ is considered by the wider wizarding world to be offensive. The Death Eater in the franchise stands in very nicely as an analog for the genocidal monstrosity of fascist thinking that places individual human life on a scale of value determine by the accident of their birth. Harry, Dumbledore’s Army, and all the heroic characters of the work stand firmly against this poisonous ideology.
So far so good. The villains believe people’s inherent worth is determine by their ‘blood’ and the heroes stand for equality and intrinsic human value.
Except in the work to be a hero, to be a valued, noble, worthy character you still have to be the right kind of person, you have to be a wizard and that is solely determined by your birth.
Reading the books there are no admirable characters that are not also wizards. The plea for tolerance doesn’t extend to ‘muggles,’ represented by the stupid, greedy, cruel, and fat Dursleys. There are no ‘on screen’ muggles with good character and noble actions.
Yes, the story is centered on the wizarding world, the fight takes place in that setting and the wizard in defeating the Death Eaters are also protecting the muggle world from the genocidal ambitions of the deranged cult but the seven volume series there is room for a few moment where that humanity, nobility, and heroism could have been extended to the non-wizards of the world. With this omission that text makes the same mistake as its villains, though from neglect rather than malice, that value comes from the quality of your blood. Like all ‘Prophesized Ones’ stories the foundation states that to be the hero you have to be born to it but unlike most stories of that trope Potter extends the lineage requirement to all of its heroes.
I am not arguing that the central character or even on of the major recurring heroes needed to be a muggle. That would have never worked in the setting or world-building of the franchise. It is a story about wizards, the wizarding world, and the war that tore it apart. Its central character had to be wizards and a muggle in the center of it would have felt forced and inorganic to the structure, but there is a world of difference between forcing in a character to address this issue and having the sole representation of the muggle be the Dursleys.
I am reminded of the romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle which suffered a similar failing. Throughout the film a recurring concept is the conflict between guy movies and chick flicks. The Dirty Dozen is used as the platonic ideal of a ‘guy movie’ while An Affair to Remember stands in for ‘chick flicks,’ with the commentary that no man ever really gets it. This is sloppy, stereotypical, and reductive. (Side note: An Affair to Remember was written, produced and Directed by men, so clearly men can ‘get it.’) At the climax of Sleepless Meg Ryan’s character is trying to get into the Empire State building to meet hank’s character and she makes a reference to An Affair to Remember to the guard who is stopping her. He comments it’s his wife’s favorite film and just like that Nora Ephron missed the chance to repudiate the stereotyping of men and women the film had engaged in. Had it been his favorite film the whole concept would have been undercut and the diversity of humanity celebrated.
In the same way Harry Potter didn’t need a main character that was a muggle all it need was when Harry and Company were on the run and hiding in the muggle world from assassins just one muggle that showed bravery and heroism helping Harry and the others to rescue the franchise’s central theme. An easy fix that an editor should have suggested and Rowling should have implemented.

As many of you know a dear friend of 40 years died last week from COVID-19. (Wear your damn masks! Wash your Damned hands! And stay home as much as you can!) I wish I did not have so much experience with the death of friends and loved ones. Having that grim specter intrude into your life at a young age leaved emotional trauma that never leaves and forever alters you.

But even with all my experience a death remains an event that sends your emotions spiraling are odd and inconsistent times.

There are moments where the enormity of the event just pushes everything else aside and the realizing that it is all real, it is not some nightmare and that your dear friend is truly gone, pushes all other thoughts aside leaving only the grief and the sorrow.

There are moments when you are reminded of the challenges others will now face, those who depended upon him, whose lives were not only emotional but financially intertwined and you fear and apprehensive on their behalf.

There are the trivial and small concerns that sometimes haunt your thoughts, how to properly and with respect deal with his absence when social events like role play gaming resumes.

And there are the brief times when it is not at the front of your mind and prompts a guilt that stalks your mood.

Life is not just.

Life is not unjust.

Life and Death simply are.

On June 24th, 2020, COVID-19 killed my friend of 40 years, Craig Anderson.

He was a quirky, generous, geek friend and there is no amount of words I can use to capture his spirit or our loss. I will share a couple of stories here that capture the essential Craig and illuminate just briefly why he will be so missed.

Flightiness

Craig was gifted a ’66 Ford Mustang and he love driving fast. One evening in the mid-80s I rode with him late at night as he sped along Highway 8. It must have been nearly midnight or so because the freeway was pretty much deserted and Craig was doing nearly ninety miles per hour. (Speed limits at the time were supposedly 55 MPH.0

I looked across Craig as he drove through his driver’s side window and spotted a California Highway Patrol car exited Highway 8 taking a ramp along a north-bound freeway. Apparently the CHPie had more important matters to attend to and turned his car’s spotlight towards us, playing the beam back and forth across the driver’s side.

Befuddled, Craig asked “Why’s he doing that?”

“He wants you to slow down,” I explained.

“Oh.” And  Craig, at least for a while reduced speed.

Humor

I shall not recount any of the nearly endless terrible puns that Craig so loved. He could always be counted upon to find a pun that was truly terrible and rarely actually funny but I do have an example of how humor infused his life.

In the early 80s Craig was struck with testicular cancer. He went into the hospital and they removed one testicle and then proceeded to crock open his chest because they had spotted a shadow on his lungs. Luckily that was not more cancer but Craig endured weeks in the hospital for treatment and recovery. I was unemployed and home when the one-testicled Craig returned to the apartment. He opened the door, dropped his bag, waved, and in a terribly high-pitched falsetto said, “Hi, Bob!”

Generosity

In the early 90s I shared a house with Craig and another housemate Bear. (Truly that nickname is one of the most apt I have ever encountered.) Bear and I were driving back to the house and I was facetiously debating him in favor of Ayn Rand and her Objectivism with its core concept that at heart all people are selfish and selfishness is in fact a virtue. (Not a philosophy I believed then or now but mere fun debating.) we entered the house Craig was sitting crossed legged in the center of the living room. I walked over to him and said that I wanted $20. Explaining that I did not need the money, there was no crucial debt or need just that I wanted it and also that this was not a loan as I would never pay it back. It would just make me happy to have an extra $20. Without a moment’s hesitation he leaned forward and staring taking his wallet say “Sure, Bob.” And Bear died in a fit of hysterical laughter. Objectivism was no match for Craig big heart and boundless generosity.

We will not see his like again.

I don’t want every post to be political but at the moment my brain is working on nothing else.

Riots only appear spontaneous, they are the result of long term pressures and the current one are no different.

Not much else to say this morning.

Today May 14 is my birthday and I feel pretty fine about that. I have friends and family for whom these events no longer happen and sop I know the blessing and privilege it is to have another go around our local star.

We’re here in the middle of a global pandemic with tens of thousands dead and more to come, our economy freefalling and our political world in utter chaos but I can also recognize that my life is going pretty damn well at the moment.

Six years ago, I transition from a contract, read ‘Temp’ worker to becoming a full Kaiser employee and this has hand down been the best place I have ever worked. My associated are good people and there aren’t any that I have personality conflicts with, I am well paid, and I have very good benefits.

Later this year will make 13 years married to my sweetie-wife and those have been good happy years.

March saw the publication of my first professional novel and I am working on a proposal for another book for this editor while waiting for a different house to finish evaluating my military SF book so artistically I have little to complain about.

Peak television and the explosion of streaming services along with the wonderful work done by people like Film Geeks San Diego and Horrible Imaginings film festival are doing wonders for broadening my exposure to interesting and challenging cinema expanding my horizon and making me a better artist.

All in all, I have to say that life is good.

My brain is not in gear this morning. Not burning essays or posts to give to you so I am going to share a photo I took. My skills as a photographer are not great but it’s a pastime I enjoy.

This is a serval cat and I’m rather proud of how this shot came out.