Current Events > The more I read about Harry Potter the more problematic it becomes.

(+) Yeah! (+)

cjsdowg posted...

And people were cool with this book when it was coming out.

you mean literal children? yeah

SpaceBear_ posted...

But there's a black girl with the surname Brown.

Not black in the books.

SpaceBear_ posted...

An Asian called Patel.

Patel is an Indian surname.

SpaceBear_ posted...

. A Jewish kid named Goldstein.

Don't remember this at all but Goldstein is a common surname.

SpaceBear_ posted...

An Irish kid called Seamus Finnigan (who is dumb and blows things up ).

Doesn't blow things up in the books, this is another thing exclusive to the movies.

SpaceBear_ posted...

A Jewish kid named Goldstein. An Irish kid called Seamus Finnigan

I mean........ how is this bad?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegan_(surname)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstein_(surname)

Maybe not the most original names, but those are real surnames that tend to belong to people from specific cultural and geographical backgrounds.

Gobstoppers12 posted...

I mean........ how is this bad?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegan_(surname)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstein_(surname)

Maybe not the most original names, but those are real surnames that tend to belong to people from specific cultural and geographical backgrounds.

The big issue is that they're all extremely stereotypical names for the one or two kids that represent entire groups. And Cho Chang, c'mon, she just smashed together two Asian sounding names and said "That's good" even tho they make no sense.

"Cho Chang"is like naming your one Hispanic character "Martinez Rodriguez"

codey posted...

The big issue

It's not that big of an issue, actually, though.

Its a kids book, you use names that they would recognize, how in the bloody fuck is this hard to understand?

You make it as simple as possible, not something they would have never heard of.

I thought the intelligentsia here prided themselves on logic?

hockeybub89 posted...

"Cho Chang"is like naming your one Hispanic character "Martinez Rodriguez"

that would be fucking hilarious

cjsdowg posted...

The Sorting Hat is basically a eugenics program.

A person actually wrote this.

SpaceBear_ posted...

By itself, it's not a huge deal. But there's a black girl with the surname Brown. An Asian called Patel. A Jewish kid named Goldstein. An Irish kid called Seamus Finnigan (who is dumb and blows things up ).

There's more I'm forgetting. Put it all together and it gets a bit weird.

thats still not too bad aside from the Irish one actually being a character that blows shit up, but I would leave that for Irish people from Ireland to speak on, particularly since this is a British author

hockeybub89 posted...

"Cho Chang"is like naming your one Hispanic character "Martinez Rodriguez"

what about Michelle Rodriguez?

Gobstoppers12 posted...

It's not that big of an issue, actually, though.

I'm a writer, and for me it's a big issue because it's lazy. It's the exact same thing as a white writer having a Mexican American randomly throw Spanish phrases in a sentence, or someone from an older generation writing a young character as speaking in weird and probably already dated slang.

With these characters, Rowling created characters from other cultures without actually writing characters from those cultures.

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Granger would be the name there, but I meant to identify differences when you arent working with a visual medium.

Must everything be explained like you are 12?

Zeeak4444 posted...

what about Michelle Rodriguez?

"Cho" is a Japanese/Korean personal name, so that would probably be more accurate than "Martinez Rodriguez" as a big part of what makes Cho Chang so funky is that it's clearly just Rowling throwing together whatever she thinks sounds the most Asian and calling it a day.

codey posted...

I'm a writer, and for me it's a big issue because it's lazy.

I'm a writer too, and I acknowledged that it's not the most creative thing in the world, but it isn't offensive, either.

How many British authors of children's books were creating British Asian love interests for their white protagonists in 1999?

It's not like Cho Chang is what you might consider a stereotypically Asian character. If JKR had made her a hyper nerd who speaks broken English and talks of the mystical elements of the orient then I think people would have a valid point. Instead she's a jock who doesn't really have any character feature that could identify her as being Asian other than her name.

Cho Chang obviously is not an 'authentic' Asian name but if that's the worst thing you can say about the character then I think there's not a lot to say.

Alteres posted...

Its a kids book, you use names that they would recognize, how in the bloody fuck is this hard to understand?

You make it as simple as possible, not something they would have never heard of.

I thought the intelligentsia here prided themselves on logic?

You expect way too much of CE.

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My mistake, I thought you enjoyed being combative, if you wish to have a productive conversation I am perfectly open to it.

KeeperOfShadows posted...

You expect way too much of CE.

if that was was Rowling's logic she wouldn't have named one of her characters Hermione, a name she has to explain how to pronounce in later books because no one in the world knew how to actually say it.

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Sure they do, but we aren't talking about those names nor are we talking about the U.S.

All the names are simple and lazy.

Literally a British kid named Harry Potter whose dad is named James Potter.

Btw, strictly speaking Cho is never actually identified as being Asian in the books at all - it was always just assumed because of the name.

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Ngl I first started reading the books after seeing the first movie. If I hadn't seen the movie I never would've known how to read that name.

DarthDemented posted...

Ngl I first started reading the books after seeing the first movie. If I hadn't seen the movie I never would've known how to read that name.

A lot of people thought it was "Her-me-own" when first reading it. Including me when I saw it written about.

Kastrada posted...

You've said that word "implication" a couple of times. What implication?

You know, youre alone on the water.. theres nowhere for them to run..

Just gonna jump in to point out that Padma and Parvati's last name is Patil, not Patel.