Reprinted from The Paper
Responsible editor: Cheng Yu Author: Zhou Lang Gu Qu
This article represents the author's personal views only
Note: This article contains spoilers.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. European countries have launched grand commemorative activities. The biggest wake-up call from World War I is not only the war itself, but also the post-war bubble-like peace, totalitarian government, and the secret rise of fascism. The background of "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" (hereinafter referred to as "The Crimes of Grindelwald") is such a society. The story takes place in European and American society during World War II from 1926 to 1945. Parallel to the human world are In a magical world, there are different groups such as Muggles (also called No-maj in the movie, that is, no-maj, which is the name for non-magical humans in the United States), wizards, dark wizards and other groups. Muggles and wizards live together, but the differences between the groups are different. Growing bigger and bigger, the dark wizards represented by Grindelwald instigated division and divided wizards into "pure-bred", "mixed-blood" and "Muggle-born". Despising Muggles and non-pure-blood wizards, Grindelwald hopes to build a world ruled by pure-blood wizards, and the entire society is in crisis.
"Blood Noble Theory" in Magical Society
"The Crimes of Grindelwald" is the successor to the first installment, and is also a transitional chapter in the "Harry Potter" series and perfecting Rowling's magical territory. The film has two lines, light and dark. The bright line is Newt's protection of magical beasts, and the dark line is his struggle with Grindelwald and his party. "The Crimes of Grindelwald" not only introduces more novel creatures, such as Zou Wu (also known as Zou Yu, or zōu yú, which is based on the Chinese "Shan Hai Jing"), "the state-owned rare beast of the Lin family is as big as a tiger, and it is colorful and colorful. With a tail longer than the body, it is called "Zuoyu, and it can travel thousands of miles on a day"), horse-shaped water ghost, Swedish short-nosed dragon, divination bird, etc., and also introduced two important things, Obscurus and Obscurial. concept. The so-called silent people are a group of children who are extremely talented in magic but lack guidance. They suppress their magical power, but because of this they produce "silent silence" similar to "inner demons". The so-called silent is a kind of black magic parasitic in the silent person's body. It is aggressive and extremely unstable. When out of control, the silent person will turn into a black mist to attack others. In the film, Babo the Silence wields this power, killing the congressman and his adoptive mother.
In "The Crimes of Grindelwald", the reason why Grindelwald racked his brains to subdue Babo was because of his powerful "silence", Grindelwald hopes to use it for me, so as to further build a noble pure blood magical society. From the Harry Potter series to The Crimes of Grindelwald, the shadow of pure-bloodism has always existed. Voldemort is a Muggle hater, he is the last generation of the Gaunt family, the latter is a direct descendant of Slytherin, in the Harry Potter series, Salazar Slytherin is Hogg One of the founders of Watts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but he and the other founder, Gryffindor, have serious line differences. Gryffindor advocates accepting talents regardless of their origins and is inclusive, while Slytherin advocates the theory of blood nobility and hopes that Hogwarts will only admit pure-blood wizards. From Grindelwald to Slytherin to Voldemort, the undercurrent of blood nobility has been surging in the wizarding world, and the danger of partisanship and genocide has never disappeared.
Grindelwald believes in "Magic is Mght". In order to realize his ideal, he does not hesitate to use brutal repression methods. According to the story line, in 1945, he will fight with his former friend Dumbledore, who is just Is a magician who advocates tolerance, and this battle will be the climax of the "Fantastic Beasts" series, which not only symbolizes the confrontation of the highest magic power, but also implies Rowling's political metaphor and belief, 1945, pure blood theory. , genocide, brutal repression, behind Grindelwald is the rise of fascism on the European continent. During World War II, the regime that admired fascism launched a terrifying genocide, of which the Jewish Holocaust carried out by the German Nazi Party was the most horrific. Tens of thousands of Jews were shackled and sent to gas chambers, and the depths of the camp were full of terror.
JK Rowling wants to depict not only magical legends, but also remind readers of the pain in Europe and the world.
The fatal temptation to recreate the world
This is not the first time JK Rowling has alluded to fascism in a novel. As early as the "Harry Potter" series, she created the role of Voldemort to refer to Hitler. He emphasizes absolute obedience, using the "Coronarium Curse" to control outsiders, slaughtering Muggles, and valuing bloodlines, and every move awakens readers back to the dark age of Nazi rampage and inherits the horrific memory of Auschwitz.
JK Rowling is a staunch defender of liberal democracy, she has publicly stated: "When creating the character of Voldemort, a large part of the inspiration came from Hitler: the importance of birth, the preference for blood purity, the 'non-race' In reality, Rowling has also protested the signs of caring for the "non-race" sentiment, so she has repeatedly criticized the US president for strengthening immigration control. Trump, saying "Trump is a worse person than Voldemort".
In the first two "Fantastic Beasts", Grindelwald's totalitarian and racist atmosphere is very obvious, and at the same time he is very good at packaging himself. In the rally speech, Grindelwald glorified his behavior as saving his fellow man, in order to end the purebred Wizards are suppressed again to prevent them from being destroyed by the wars initiated by humans. Grindelwald calls on purebred wizards to unite to build a better and cleaner new order, and they are the rulers in the new order. He did not directly say that Muggles are a lower race, but put the pretense of discriminating against Muggles in a position suitable for them. He categorically denied that he was a totalitarian maker, but mobilized public opinion in the name of love and defending the truth. engage in racial segregation.
Why is Grindelwald's manifesto so appealing? The second part did not go into details, but combined with the first part and Rowling's creative talk, readers will find that the grudge between Muggles and wizards has a long history. The melons had deep fear and vigilance. They formulated the "International Wizarding Secrecy Act" and established their own secret society, but this still could not prevent Muggles from hunting down wizards. After a few people's inner resentment, the dark wizard Grindelwald took advantage of their inner anger.
Of course, the totalitarianism, control of speech, and apartheid that Rowling criticized do not exist only in fascist regimes. They have not been overcome, either in the past or in the present, and have recurred like ghosts in human history. Years ago, Rowling created a fictional "Dementor" in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", inspired by Cromwell and his fellow Puritans, because during Cromwell's time , the Puritans arrogantly imposed their beliefs on all the people of the country, they issued decrees, aggravated the punishment, and prohibited the people of the country from participating in the hedonistic behavior that the Puritanism did not allow. This kind of bossy behavior is exactly the same as the idea of "Dementors".
The specter of fascism is far from gone
At the end of the "Fantastic Beasts" series, Grindelwald was defeated by Dumbledore, and the horror of genocide temporarily disappeared from the wizarding world. However, many years later, the story of Voldemort began. Rowling wanted to tell readers that pure blood As long as there is still a market in this world, the specter of fascism is far from gone.
In the context of today's world, The Crimes of Grindelwald is just in time. In Europe, the refugee crisis along the Mediterranean coast has boosted the rise of far-right forces, and fierce discussions on the refugee issue have erupted in Germany, France, Italy and other countries. In the United States, Trump threatened to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border during his campaign, and after taking office, he has strengthened controls on the flow of immigrants into the United States. In Central and East Asia, terror attacks have caused panic, and prejudice against Islam and Muslims persists. Globalization has been blocked, local conservative sentiment has surged, and persistent income disparities and social crises have become hotbeds of terrorism and racism. This situation is very similar to Europe in the 1930s, but the situation in Europe at that time was more severe, which gave An opportunity for the warmongers to incite and turn the tide.
It is worth noting that in February 2017, just after Trump took office, Rowling was besieged by anti-immigrants for criticizing Trump's Muslim ban. "A Frenchman even signed a petition on a website asking Rowling to open her mansion to Muslim refugees."
For left-wing intellectuals like Rowling, the upheaval in today's world is something they don't want to see. They once enthusiastically cheered globalization, sought tolerance, and praised freedom and democracy. Now, this set of values has been severely impacted, and cosmopolitanism has been losing ground in the tide of anti-globalization. Rowling and other left-wing intellectuals do not want to sit still, so they have to embed their own values in their works and criticize racism and fascism.
In 2014, Swedish journalist Fredrik Onneva1l said: "I have to follow my inner moral compass." For Lynn, The Crimes of Grindelwald also follows her inner moral compass, a popular story and her political manifesto.
In the "Harry Potter" series, Dumbledore said: "It is not our ability, but our choice, that determines who we become." Dumbledore abides by tolerance, protecting the weak, and defending what he believes in value, even in the darkest years, he had hope. Faith that cares for the weak often fails in the face of power, but it will be mentioned again and again until one day, it falls into the place that truly suits it, and that is the glorious day of faith.
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