disapparater

There is NO "death of the author" with JK Rowling - she controls and continues to profit from her IP, and uses that money to fund hate groups.

It isn't about cancelling problematic media, idgaf. We're capable of reading books we already own with a critical eye.

I actually would like to talk about Lello and their relationship with Harry Potter and also just ask you to visit the bookstore.

So, anyway, Lello opened in 1906 in Porto, North of Portugal.

JK. Rowling lived in Porto for a bit in the 90’s, where she first started writing the Harry Potter series. It was said she might have frequented it and some important stairs from the book were based on Lello’s stairs. In fact: The book release of Harry Potter and The Cursed Child happened in Lello.

What this meant is that this bookstore ended up having to fight to remain a bookstore. There are so many tourists, a lot of them that only wanted to look at it because it was Harry Potter related somehow and buy nothing. There were (and still are) insane queues to enter the bookstore.

Lello, who wasn’t particularly interested in becoming a Harry Potter museum, ended up having to make a system where people have to pay to enter. If you buy a book that goes above the price you paid for the ticket, the money you paid will be deducted from the book price.

I can tell from going there fairly frequently that they try to be less connected to Harry Potter as possible if they can manage. Yeah they have the books for sale but they also have a plethora of books and their own merchandise to choose from.

Despite JK. Rowling’s involvement with the bookstore, in the Portuguese Wikipedia page, even in the part about the famous writers that went there, there isn’t a single mention of her. Zero. Not in the history nor anywhere else. It’s beautiful.

Last time I went they had an exhibition about José Saramago’s work (portuguese author who won the Nobel Prize) and on the upper side of the stairs had an enormous collection of winners of the Nobel Prize and authors Lello concidered had the quality to also have won (it the Nobel Prize existed when they were alive) and authors that might win.

It’s quite interesting because all was very thought out and you had a whole reason as to why those books were there. Me and my mother ended up chatting for a long while with one of the bookshop employees (they have a lot of young employees btw) and we even ended up chatting with other foreigners that went there shopping.

Also, did I mentionthe bookshop is gorgeous?

As are their book editions (my English edition of Tom Sawyer I bought there)

Have also a photo of the bookstore from 1906 :)

Harry Potter was so huge that fan works developed their own followings. Potter Puppet Pals racked up hundreds of thousands of followers and was nearly as relevant as the series itself. For fanfiction, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality got so big that it has a Wikipedia page. The band Harry and the Potters spawned the wizard rock music genre. A Very Potter Musical developed a fanbase and launched Darren Criss's career.

Harry Potter also has extensive ties to fandom history. Everyone in my generation (millennials) remembers coming home from school to read Harry Potter fanfiction on the Internet. Today, most people just post their stories on Wattpad or Archive of Our Own. But at the time, the fanbase was splintered between fanfiction.net and dozens of individual websites and forums, some made for specific ships. Since they all had individual hosts, a lot of those sites have been lost to time.

And there's the infamous My Immortal fanfiction, which is an Internet legend with people still searching for the author. Everybody read that one (and laughed at it) in middle school.

Pre-social media, fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet had massive followings because they were one of few sources for news, theories, essays and fan content. Some of these sites still exist after being around for over a decade and building their own legacy.

Before Deathly Hallows came out, fans were so desperate to know what happened that Mugglenet published a book called What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End? Yep...Harry Potter was so big that people wrote separate books about what would happen in an upcoming book.

And that's not mentioning all the book release parties, Harry Potter-themed events, monuments, fan films, restaurants and even a theme park. A lot of fandoms have those, but Harry Potter infiltrated every aspect of popular culture.

Today, there's a thriving culture of "Harry Potter adults" with themed weddings, baby showers and Etsy stores. Putting your Hogwarts house in your Instagram bio is pretty much a prerequisite for joining the "bookish" community. Warner still produces new content, like the Fantastic Beasts series, although we've all seen what a disaster that's been.

Everyone has at least a few memories associated with Harry Potter even if it's just watching the movies. I had great memories associated with Harry Potter. But looking back at the subculture, history and thousands of fan works, it doesn't seem fun anymore. Studying the fandom or being part of it comes with an awkward tension because you don't want to seem like you're condoning JKR's bigotry but can't divorce her from the series. This subculture was spawned by a woman who turned her legacy of magic and wonder into one of abuse and hatred.

I don't expect people to write paragraphs about how much they hate JKR every time they post about Harry Potter, but it's still uncomfortable to see people make new content or wear their Harry Potter Etsy tote bags like nothing happened. Even if they clarify that they don't support her, it's just a weird, tense situation for everybody.

People dedicated years of their lives to running Harry Potter fan sites, writing fanfiction, cosplaying characters and making fan movies. If I were in that situation, I'd have a mild identity crisis. I'd ask myself "Did I waste all those years? Should I delete my content? Where do I go from here?"

So ultimately, JKR didn't ruin "just" a book series or even "just" a fandom. She tanked an entire culture, which inspired people to look at Harry Potter more critically. The issues that people brought to the light tainted the series's legacy even without JKR's personal issues.

quidditch (the real sport) has changed its name to quadball

the harry potter alliance (a nonprofit) has rebranded to fandom forward

the sub-subcultures that sprung up within the HP fandom have now distanced themselves from the main fandom and have become independent groups in their own right

HP was so integral to the development of early online fandom (as OP’s mentioned) that now there’s sort of just a weird... hole in the internet

for many HP fans, it took up a lot of their life. three conventions a year, wizard rock shows, HPA fundraising, granger leadership academy, nightly fanfic, podcasts, quidditch games.

when fans (rightfully) shunned JKR and began to leave the fandom, a lot of them (myself included) were left rudderless. how do you reconcile the fact that most of your friends, hobbies, sometimes even jobs, were due to the work of such a hateful person? as OP said, did i waste my life?

i’m obviously not saying that this is the worst part about JKR’s bigotry (the worst part is, of course, the bigotry) or that HP fans are the worst-done-by victims (who are of course trans people)

strange when buds talk on 'separate the art from the artist'. a painting is not just a square that ends at canvas edge. it is history and intention. if you build wall between them you are numbing yourself and only experiencing half the art. the artist IS THE ART, at least to me

Hi friends ❤️

I’m writing a Masters thesis about queerness in the Harry Potter fandom (and its rejection of the author), and I really need some help collecting some insights on your experience in the fandom!

You don’t have to be queer or into queer pairings to participate. Any data related to the fandom is useful for my research.

The survey is completely anonymous, and will only be used by me for this research. It won't give me access to any personal data through Google either.

It should be quite quick, and you don’t have to answer a question if it makes you uncomfortable.

I need this asap, to be honest. I’ll keep it open for responses until Sunday, 4th December.

Your contribution will be immensely helpful. Please help me get a good grade 😩

Please share it with your followers so it can reach more people!

welcome to HP trans fest 2023!

We’re a multi-ship, multi-era, multi-media fan fest, created to celebrate all non-cis characters in the Harry Potter extended universe.

Prompting: 01 January - 15 January Claiming: 15 January - 15 March Posting begins: 31 March, Trans Day of Visibility

For more info, check out our updated FAQ & the fest’s GUIDELINES and stay tuned!

yes cuz i was a child and it was a huge phenomenon that gave me an easy sense of wonder and companionship shared with my peers and i was unaware of many evils of the world

Posting will start today and go on for the next few weeks. We’ll be posting two or three works a day, according to schedule.

We’re looking at all sorts of pairings & triads, as well as gen fic, podfic, and art, from G to E rating! It’s going to be a fun and diverse fest, with works for all tastes.

Stay tuned for lots of quality content to come! 

Click here to Check us out on AO3!

With every fiber of my existence - YES!

JKR statements on that topic have been wrong and hurtful for the whole community. If you care to hear a doctoral researcher in the field of transgender well-being and development, picking apart her essay objectively and with reliable sources, consider watching this video:

Prompting for HP Trans Fest is open from today until 21 January!

You can leave a prompt by accessing this link: https://forms.gle/etddHd2bcGVKT8YA8

Before you do it, here’s a few reminders:

- This fest was created to celebrate trans characters, so we ask that a trans person is the main focus of the prompt you’re submitting; -  We use trans is an umbrella term that covers any identity that doesn’t fit with the gender the person was assigned at birth (all non-cis identities), regardless of dysphoria, or the characters wanting to change their bodies surgically. - All ships and all eras welcome, as well as gen fic (no ship); - You can leave as many prompts as you’d like. Leaving prompts doesn’t mean you’ve got to claim one later; - If you would like to participate in the fest as a podficcer, you don’t have to submit a prompt. When Claiming starts, you’ll be able to sign up as a podficcer without a prompt. - This fest deals with mature subjects and the participants are responsible for curating their own experiences within the fest. This applies to viewing the prompts list, which is uncensored;

-  Around here, we believe in “don’t like, don’t read”, “YKINMKATO”, “ship and let ship”, which means we will not be tolerating any kinds of kink shaming, ship shaming, harassment, hate speech, or general bigotry.

You can check out the prompts as they’re being sent here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lJ0aWQN3JVfClCDmlbTXixI-C1y5VKJD8b78lwJTXg0/edit?usp=sharing

A sorted list for easier browsing will be released once prompting is done.

This includes Stephen King (which coincides with his Twitter drama with Rowling from before), Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, and more big names in the industry.

Look at those beautiful trans supportive authors!

The Google doc with the letter and a list of the authors who signed it can be found here:

Here is a link to an LA Times article:

And here is a link to the Guardian article:

I thought, given all the sincere disappointment I've heard from people who loved her books, at least this gives you an alternative source.

And to those who say, but second hand books and read them, what about the one who buys a second hand book, reads it, thinks wow how awesome is this i need to find more and starts supporting JK not knowing what an terf asshole she is.

You are still perpetuating the fandom.

It does make me wonder if she was a homophobe, racist, facist etc whether her ‘fans’ would still be like - but you can support the art but not the artist’ She isnt like Lovecraft who everyone knows he was a racist bigot. He is dead, his work is known for it’s time but it’s not affecting current policy, like JK Rowlings work IS.