Dangers of Writing a Political Fiction for Kids

Rich Political Commentary Would be Wasted on Kids

: JK Rowling Example

What I was never able to understand about JK Rowling is not her non-existent 'transphobia', but why did she have to write a lot of complex political commentary into books aimed primarily at kids and young adults. Again, nothing wrong is with writing political fiction for ADULTS, but kids and teens? They lack both experience and wisdom to understand all its nuances and all its complexity.

Just in case, I'm speaking not only of Harry Potter books. JK Rowling's latest two novels aimed at kids mostly, not at teens even - 'The Ickabog' and 'The Christmas Pig' - are full of complex political commentary as well, especially 'The Ickabog'. It tells about two dishonest and corrupt ministers who made the whole population believe in non-existent threat, and hence created a society of paranoia ruled by their tyranny. This 'political fairy-tale' could be applied to current COVID fraud and tyranny splendidly, by the way. Yet, I'm somehow convinced most of this brilliant political commentary would be entirely lost on kids - its primary readers. Again, why had JK Rowling had to do that - to write such a brilliant political commentary for those who most likely would fail to understand and to appreciate all its beauty? Again, it looks like a big waste of a great political commentary - adults who would understand it and could make a great use out of it (possibly up to opening up of their eyes to the current COVID medical fraud and fear mongering), would most likely not read it; and those who would read it - kids - would most likely not understand it. Then what's the point of writing it at all?

Again, I'm not saying that kids should be completely shielded from politics. No, they should acquire a basic understanding of it, and perhaps fiction might be a good way to develop a political awareness in people from the early age. However, to write such complex and dark political commentary which even not all adults would understand into books aimed at kids and young adults? Yet this is what JK Rowling had done. In her HP books she had raised so many complex political issues (not only most quoted 'wizard supremacy'), most of which many kids simply wouldn't neither fully understand nor care for. In last HP books JK it seems had completely forgotten that she was writing for kids and young adults at all - so dark, complex and political they had turned.

Again, writing of such complex political commentary into fiction aimed at kids is wrong for many reasons imo. At best, it's a waste of a good political commentary. At worst, it's indoctrination of kids with a bad one. Because yeah, kids are highly perceptive and are easily impressed. Even if they won't understand all the complexities of the political commentary, they would still imbibe it and its main ideas. And imbibing some political commentary without having a full understanding of it is dangerous. How exactly? Let's have one simple example. Let's say one homophobic author would write a novel for kids with a message that 'homosexuality is a deadly sin', and would prove his 'point' by depicting few particularly nasty gay characters. Thus, kids would learn to hate gay people before they would properly understand what sexuality and homosexuality particularly are even! That's why a political fiction for kids might be extremely dangerous. Kids are highly perceptive and can imbibe all ideas, both good and bad, pretty well. Yet, they lack a proper understanding of those ideas and all their complexity and nuances, hence, they might easily either imbibe craftily disguised bad ideas, or fail to understand properly the good ideas.

This is I think what had happened to Harry Potter fandom - it might actually explain why HP fandom is so Woke currently and had so easily turned against JK Rowling herself when she had fallen from the Woke grace by publicly disagreeing with radical trans activists. Again, this had happened only to HP fandom. For example, Tolkien or Lovecraft fandoms aren't turning on their beloved authors because of their alleged racist views. Yeah, it might be because both Lovecraft and Tolkien aren't alive at the moment to be a ready target. But still, I argue that it's not just that. There's not so much condemnation of both authors inside their fandoms themselves. Woke rage on Tolkien's and Lovecraft's racism comes mostly from public literature critics, not from the fans. In case of HP, the rage and condemnation are coming from the fans as well, however. Why is it so?

Again, not that Tolkien and Lovecraft fans deny or defend the racist views of their beloved authors - nope, they're well aware that both Tolkien and Lovecraft were at least somewhat racist, just like almost everyone at that time. Fans also acknowledge that there might be some though very few racist elements in their fiction as well. Yet they aren't as mad at them as HP fans are mad at JK Rowling for making 'politically incorrect' comments outside of her fiction. Why so? Well, maybe because both Tolkien and Lovecraft fans understand well enough that racism was in truth a VERY SMALL PART both of their authors' worldview and their fiction to be so unhealthily obsessed with it? Indeed, neither Lord of the Rings nor Ctulhu mythos teach you to hate people of color, even though some toxic racial stereotypes and tropes might be found there. Still, in most part these books aren't racist and aren't about race at all. Tolkien books teach us universal values of friendship, love, courage, etc., and condemn universal evils such as power-hunger and corruption. Lovecraft fiction is a triumph of imagination which opens up the limits of space and time for a perceptive reader. Only race obsessed and actually racist people (just like the Woke are) would ignore all this and see only racism in their books. Yet, it seems that HP fandom is so gender and transgender obsessed that sees nothing but transphobia in their beloved author at this point. Why is it so?

I argue that the reason is because HP fandom is much more politicized compared to LOTR (Lord of the Rings) and HPL (Howard Phillips Lovecraft) ones. And it's Rowling herself who is to blame for the high politicization of her fandom. By writing a highly political fiction aimed at teens and kids, by making regular political commentary on the current events outside of her fiction, JK had groomed a fandom of highly political young adults. And exactly because they're young and inexperienced, but very eager to 'bring justice', they are jumping on popular Woke trends with a lot of very bad ideas and dangerous theories, without any thinking. What's ironic there is that JK Rowling had turned many of them political herself by her HP books. And now fans thus weaponized by her are turned on her herself. Now, she's like Dolores Umbridge or Bellatrix Lestrange of her own books for her former fans, no less. This is one more danger of writing of political fiction for kids - it might turn your fans against yourself at some point.