Kingkiller author Patrick Rothfuss doesn’t feel J.K. Rowling is an “ethical storyteller”

Not many fantasy books are as beloved as the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Its impact on pop culture is enormous and its fans are legion, but it does have its critics. For instance, Patrick Rothfuss — the author of fantasy series The Kingkiller Chronicle — has some issues he laid out during a recent Twitch live stream.

Rothfuss frequently hosts live streams on his Twitch page, where he does everything from play video games to answer questions from fans about The Doors of Stone, the long-awaited final book in his series. He also raises money for Worldbuilders, which funds humanitarian efforts worldwide.

And sometimes, the New York Times bestselling author voices his opinions on other beloved fantasy works like The Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones. This time it’s Harry Potter’s turn. Watch the video below — he spends pretty much all 12 minutes talking about his issues — and then we’ll cover some of the highlights:

“I don’t have a life-long love for her creation,” Rothfuss said of J.K. Rowling’s series. “I thought Harry Potter was pretty nice, but honestly, I had real problems with her books before it became fashionable to hate on her.”

So far as it being “fashionable” to criticize Rowling goes, Rothfuss is probably referring to the hot water Rowling is in because of her rhetoric over the past year. But what exactly are his problems with her books? “Some of J.K. Rowling’s politics are deeply problematic,” Rothfuss said. “Given the reach of her books, I’ve felt for a long time that, especially because they were targeted towards children, I just never felt like she was a very ethical storyteller. Never really seemed to think about the long-term consequences of some of the things that she included.” He singles out the Hogwarts houses — Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff — as one of the most “accidentally, unhelpful things” she included.

"She’s like ‘oh, there’s four types of people, you get sorted into a house depending on who you are.’ And those four types of people are: smart, courageous, evil, and helpful…[T]he thing is, if we’re gonna survive and be good to each other, we need to think about people in all their wonderful and baffling complexity. If you reduce a person to a characteristic, that’s a huge disservice to the person. And if you reduce a group of people to a characteristic, that’s a hate crime. And if you encourage someone to identify themselves exclusively with one characteristic with the implication that you can’t be both helpful and smart — or helpful and courageous  — it’s so unhealthy."

And if you think Rothfuss is making too big a deal of this and wonder how Rowling’s idea of the Hogwarts houses could harm people, Rothfuss has an analogy for you. “It’s not unhealthy in the way that you start doing it and suddenly you’re a monster,” he explains. “It’s unhealthy in the way that unleaded gasoline was unhealthy, in that it chafes into the environment in a way that makes everyone just slightly shittier and some people way shittier and it’s everywhere and it’s impossible to undo in an easy way.”

Patrick Rothfuss has problems with the representation in the Harry Potter books

Rothfuss also takes issue with Rowling revealed that Albus Dumbledore was gay during a 2007 Q&A session after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published, despite not ever making it clear in the actual text of the books. “[S]he didn’t make Dumbledore gay except after her series was finished, and even then it was like months late,” Rothfuss said. “And then people are like ‘you can see it, you can see the clues’ or whatever. Or ‘oh, it shouldn’t matter,’ but it’s lousy. If you’re gonna make a gay character, you have a character be gay.”

"I didn’t do nearly as much as I should’ve — or maybe I would’ve in Name of the Wind — in terms of being inclusive and being diverse. I mean, I did the best I could at the time, but I didn’t finish my whole series and then say ‘p.s. this person is genderqueer and they’re gay, and this person is asexual, and this person is this.’ Like, if it’s going to be in your book then you put it in your book."

Basically, on account of her size and influence, Rothfuss thinks Rowling should be a more responsible writer. “If you’re as big as Rowling, you should do those things because it’s healthy for people to see good representation and you can afford to lose some readers and lose some sales.”

And that’s most of what he has to say on the subject.  Be sure to watch the full video above to hear him chat about some other stuff!

Funnily enough, Kingkiller has drawn comparisons to Harry Potter in the past, but they do both have a “magic school” that’s central to the plot. In Harry Potter it’s Hogwarts, and in Kingkiller it’s the University. He made light of the comparisons in an interview once. “These books started off as fanfictions.”

The second novel in Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle series — The Wise Man’s Fear — is now 10 years old, and fans are still waiting for The Doors of Stone. These live streams are a poor substitute, although he does like to tease the book during some of them. Let’s hope that when it comes, it meets expectations!

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