There are some who have criticized J. K.
Rowling’s new movie as preaching diversity while not being diverse enough
itself. It is true that there are few wholly Black or Asian characters in the cast.
If Rowling was a political propagandist this would be a serious
difficulty. But she is not. Despite her clear concern for social
inclusion and distaste for discrimination as shown in A Casual Vacancy, Rowling is first and foremost a story teller and
not all stories can or should pass some Voigt-Kampt test to see if they are
politically correct enough. So I think
these critics (who, I admit, have not been vociferous and have still highly recommended
the movie) are making a category error
in this minor regard.
Rowling is not only a story teller
however. She is also a kind of
evangelist. Even though the denouement
of the Harry Potter saga was explicitly Christian – after the last volume was
published she said that she had not told anyone that she was a Christian so
they would not guess the ending - I do
not see her as simply a Christian evangelist.
No C. S. Lewis she. But she is
(as I had to argue with too many
Evangelical Christian parents who wanted to denounce Harry Potter as a witch) evangelical about the good news that love is
stronger than hate, good is stronger than evil and light is stronger than darkness. I do
not think that evil can be stronger than goodness. If it was it would have triumphed long
ago. But evil is often more focused and
is always willing to kill to gain its ends,
whereas the good are often unsure where the battle lies and are willing
to die rather than abandon their belief in the ultimate victory of the
Good. The thing about the Good is that
those who chose to try to live it are inescapably vulnerable. But that why it is so strong.
The Harry Potter trio defeated Voldemort
because of their loyalty and courage, doing
their homework (thank you Hermione!) and ultimately because Harry was prepared
to die for love’s sake than kill in hatred.
Love is the ‘old magic’ and too powerful for Voldemort. The Christian story of an innocent man
being cruelly executed rather than deny his faith in the absolute reality of
love and forgiveness may be the most extreme example, but it is not unique.
The Wizard predecessors of Harry, Hermione
and Ron in Fantastic Creatures and Where
to Find Them are not necessarily all good however. To often they do seem to think that the end
justifies to the means (once is too often).
But the movie itself is packed with moral values, some of them lying
just under the surface. But that is best
place for morality in a story. This is
not a parable. So the children who see
this very enjoyable movie will be engaged
by the cast, delighted by the high class SFX, laugh at the wonderful creatures,
maybe cry a little at the dilemma facing the humans, be engaged by a very unlikely hero and absorb
a story promoting diversity and inclusiveness, the idea that those living creatures who are
different to us are not necessarily dangerous and that we need to provide and
protect ecological space enough for them
to be what they are. I think these inclusive
attitudes include people who are white or black, female or male, gay or
straight, able or less able, healthy or ill, young or old. Not to mention the species that we are
destroying at an unprecedented rate. On
top of all that is sheer good fun for both children and adults, without
pandering to either. What more do we
want on a wet November day?
