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Just in case anyone doesn't know:
J.K. Rowling uses personal wealth to fund anti-trans org
J.K. Rowling is using her wealth attained from the Harry Potter series to create an organization dedicated to removing transgender people's rights "in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.”
You can "seperate the art from the artist", but can't seperate the Harry Potter royalties from the anti-trans funding.
Don't forget that she also has publicly said that she considers consumption of Harry Potter media as support for her political ideology. She herself literally made it a political stance.
There's a real dark irony in a book about a young boy quite literally coming out of the closet to discover his true self written by a woman who might as well be a Dursley.
Harry Potter has no true self to discover. From the first to the last page of this pile of rags he is a wizarding Mary Sue with near-infinite privilege and the personality of an oyster. The story opens with "yer a wizard" in the first 50 pages and that's the end of his character arc. From then on he's a mere vessel for the reader to experience the world and the author to move the plot along.
.... As a matter of fact, what even is the biggest character arc in that story? I don't remember much, but Neville and Hermione have a glowup and Harry's uncle dies or something? And the weasleys open a shop? I certainly don't recall anything that lends credence to the idea that Rowling even believes that either individual people or societies are capable of profound change. The story begins and ends basically in the exact same place except the characters are 10ish years older.
And then he grows up to become… a cop.
From the first to the last page of this pile of rags he is a wizarding Mary Sue with near-infinite privilege and the personality of an oyster.
I disagree.
As a matter of fact, what even is the biggest character arc in that story? I don’t remember much
:-/
that really doesn't add much to the conversation. you're just
-ing. why do you disagree, Jo?
It's a generic critique of any fantasy novel protagonist. Potter isn't any more of a Mary Sue than Aragorn or Rand Al'Thor.
And "The plot was bad, I don't even remember what happened". Bro, what do I even say to that?
The story wasn't so bad that it failed to sell tens of millions of copies in dozens of languages.
And “The plot was bad, I don’t even remember what happened”. Bro, what do I even say to that?
The story wasn’t so bad that it failed to sell tens of millions of copies in dozens of languages.
Thanks, i can respond to that. It may have not had the best written story, but it was a story that resonated with people (even though we, on reflection, found a lot to pick apart in it) and that's really, really hard to do. Tens of millions of copies each volume indeed.
From then on he’s a mere vessel for the reader to experience the world and the author to move the plot along.
I mean i'm exposing my writing naivete here but if we get rid of the word mere above, isn't the primary job of the MC to be a vessel for the reader to experience the world and the author to move the plot? we kind of come back to the same idea. give a bland protag that the reader can feed their emotions and reasoning into and they connect a little more. the more they connect the better the book sells. it seems like a decent writing strategy if nothing else is working.
given that thought, maybe i should write a novel about me. i can't think of anything blander. maybe that's why they say everyone's first novel is about themselves.
I'd argue Harry is way worse than both Aragorn and Rand Al'Thor. At least there's several attributes added to both of those characters, though Aragorn is a lot more fleshed out. Aragorn is noble, loyal, carries a deep sadness, love towards someone special, etc., you can easily describe him with other words than just "adult man who becomes king". Rand struggles with what he should do, who he is, what will he become, who should he love? all that, he too can be described with not only surface level things.
What qualities does Harry have? He hates people who are terrible? Feels sad when he loses people he cares about? He has no feelings outside of generic things he does in his life, it's like he's on autopilot and just reacts to things like some standard of a person would. How would you describe his traits, other than some generic "a kid that becomes a special wizard and grows up" or his physical appearance? And I don't think Rand Al'Thor is a very good character mind you, but at least he is one. Harry is just an empty shell
Write what you know.
The irony disappears slightly when the whole slave liberation arc was literally Confederate propaganda that was so distasteful and irrelevant to the plot, it was cut from the movies.
The house elves love being slaves. It's the natural order of things.
At least it's not more explicit. It's not like there's some potion that lets you change your physical appearance at will that is even capable of turning you into a furry. Or a type of witch/wizard whose special ability is to change their appearance at will, as shown by a slightly androgynous woman who regularly changes her appearance based on how she's feeling in the moment.
The real dark irony is Jo saying they probably would have transitioned when they were younger if they were aware of gender expression.
People seemed to have no trouble dropping Gaiman after his horrendous behavior came to light, but even suggest people drop their beloved nostalgia books and it's all "but my blorbo! JK bad I guess, but I like my blorbo!".
The sad part is that the HP-verse is so clearly not for us -- that is, not for anyone besides straight white liberal Christians. The stereotypes, the handwaves, the defense of the status quo. But people choose to engage with and perpetuate this media anyway.
People would rather just enjoy the blorbo than take a stand against what it represents/supports. Comfort is "easier" than tension.
My Christian mom didn't let us watch Harry Potter because our church said it was evil. I guess it's not for Christians either, though I think that has changed and it's fine now.
Yeah, I forgot about that satanic panic stuff around HP. Maybe those xtians feel more comfortable now knowing she hates the same people they do.
Nah, that was just boomer panic and the moms now are millennials that read harry potter.
As much as the author sucks, I enjoy the series too much to throw it away :/
pirate the media and dont give it exposure then :) any dollar given to that franchise is a dollar spent to harm trans people
It harms much more than just trans people. Firstly transphobes think even the slightest form of gender-noncomformity is transgenderism, secondly many of those TERF orgs also oppose other things (wondering if Collective Shout got any money from her, but probably she already blames porn for trans people).
I consume it purely through fanfiction and AO3.
as a transfem academic who enjoyed HPMoR, I dislike JKR's Harry Potter series because it's poorly written and is not critical enough of the ethical problems it contains
Oh you mean the fascistic nightmare world where it turns out the only problem is bad actors, not the fact that it's systemically rotten to the core?
Motherfucker becomes a cop ffs
It isn't critical of its ethical problems at all. It mostly doesn't even acknowledge them.
outside of nostalgia which is hard to quantify what is the appeal compared to thousands of better series in the genre? Its not just written by a bigoted monster who uses her platform for harming others its filled with lackluster world building and empty characters.
Now we're talking!
I'm first:
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, by Fritz Leiber.
Very 1980-ish fantasy for adults.
Your turn!
YAaaarrr, we be enjoying content from slimey, bilge-bucket creators without spending a single doubloon on their barnacle-covered arses. 🏴☠️
Rocky Horror is a bit better than Harry Potter. DON'T dream it, be it.
Is there something about stuffed animals in the Harry Potter books I am missing?
The lion, snake, badger, and raven are the animals of the Hogwarts houses.
No. The context is the houses.
Trans rights and stuff