Harry Potter is authorless.
No. As an English major and a transgender person, no. We do not take this attitude.
Harry Potter is a culturally important work and JK Rowling wrote it.
So many culturally important works of literature were written by people with bad views by today’s and even their time’s standards. Shakespeare? Racist, sexist, islamophobic, xenophobic, anti-Semitic. But we don’t erase his name from those plays. Because if we try and claim that those plays were authorless it gives us an awfully convenient excuse to ignore all of the flaws within them and how we may or may not agree with those flaws on a subconscious level.
In the world of literary analysis these days the author is no longer dead. We don’t do that anymore. The author is a ghost hanging over your shoulder. You can interpret their work any way you want and they can have no say in it. But you as a reader must also acknowledge that their original intentions are there. Their personal history and the times they lived in are there.
JK Rowling wrote that series whether you like it or not. Whether that makes you comfortable or not. Harry Potter is one of the most culturally important book series of the last century and it was written by a transphobe. It was written by JK Rowling. Face up to it. Look it dead in the eye. Recognize its flaws and like it anyways if you still want to. But don’t. I repeat don’t. Do not claim that it is authorless. No work of literature is.
We’re holding JKR accountable like mature adults and embracing the reality though it hurts us to admit something we love was written by someone who continues to dig her grave but we must
hey do you think you could expand a bit on separating the art from the artist? clearly you’ve done it with jk rowling but what are your thoughts on it as a general idea?
Okay, but you’re not going to like the answer.
Here’s the truth: you can’t separate the art from the artist. Not entirely. HP Lovecraft was an incredibly talented, but much more incredibly racist man. It would nice to say you don’t agree with his views but you can enjoy his works without that leaking in but…. well, I’m afraid that would be misunderstanding his books entirely.
Consider, for a second, that Lovecraft’s works were horror stories about extradimensional creatures having mutant children with humans; they were about invasions from distant aliens; they were about the purity of quaint, white, American towns being tainted. Now consider how this may have all been influenced by the fact that he just simply despised anybody who wasn’t white. Consider how his opinions on “mixing the races” might feed into this; consider why being unable to maintain the “purity” of white Americans was the scariest thing of all to him.
This extends to Rowling too.
I would love to say we can just acknowledge that she is an awful, racist, antisemitic, transphobic person and then say “but at least her books are good,” because, well, they are, aren’t they? I would say so, for sure. But to suggest that one can separate her from them is…. ridiculous, and it’s an insult to fans, can know and do better.
Consider why an antisemitic woman wrote about a species of goblins who live among us, but who for the most part keep to themselves and are maybe a little discriminated against on an individual level, but also hold all the cards, all the money, run the banks.
Consider why a racist woman would write about a species of slaves who loved being enslaved, who enjoyed working for no pay, and cleaning up after humans, with the only small caveat of that they didn’t want to be beaten. Imagine that only the most radical of their species wanted to be free, and he still spent the rest of his life working for no pay and helping out a little white boy and his friends wherever he could. Consider why the only person in the story who thought they should be free, that they should have rights, was treated as an overzealous joke, who was acting against the wishes of those slaves who really LOVE being enslaved. Consider that Rowling went on to say that she kind of considers that girl to be black, now.
Consider why JK Rowling, an open and proud transphobe, wrote Rita Skeeter as having a large square jaw, thick “manly” hands, and dressing incredibly gaudily with the most obvious fake nails and fake teeth and fake hair and fake everything. Consider why a woman who tweets about how trans women are “foxes pretending to be hens to get in the hen house” might write this Rita Skeeter character to then illegally transform her body in order to spy on children.
Harry Potter is full of Rowling’s bigotry, start to finish. Not even tangentially, like, “oh the goblins are bad, Rita Skeeter is bad, the house elves are bad, but most of it’s good!” because the deeper you dig and the longer you think the more you realise the entire story is based on her prejudices.
Harry Potter pretends to be an aracial story about found family, but if that were true, why are Harry’s distant ancestors important to who he is today even in the seventh book? Why does Harry have to live with his cousin and aunt and uncle? Because magic inherently prefers blood ties. Whilst Rowling was writing a story that seemed to say, “your heritage is not that important and doesn’t make you better than others” she was still writing a story about a boy who got all of his money through his bloodline, who was protected by living with his bloodline, no matter how evil, who was uniquely able to stop Voldemort because his bloodline passed down the invisibility cloak for generations and generations. Any step Harry takes he is compared to his perfect parents who were exactly like him — he looks just like his father, but he has his mother’s eyes, you know! — consider WHY a woman who is racist might’ve written a story like this. A story that on its surface, condemns a blood caste, but still in every step it takes, validates the idea that blood is thicker than water, and your geneological origin is what makes you special.
You can enjoy Harry Pottwr, of course you can. There are fantastic parts. I love a small group of teenagers deciding to become anarchist rebels and train to fight against fascism in secret. I love the murder mystery plots, I love how the series tells kids that it’s a good thing to be brave, and a good thing to fight injustice, and a good thing to challenge the government. But I cannot separate it from its author because it is such a product of its author. All of the structures of the world, the way things work in the universe, are drenched in Rowling’s beliefs, her bigotries. Of course they are: she made them.
Again. This doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy it. But I think we are past the day where we can pretend that disavowing a bigoted author is enough, and that that somehow separates the text from its bigotry. I think we are past the day where we can pretend that Harry Potter isn’t a deeply, inherently bigoted piece of media. Even the bits we love. I think we are beyond the day where we can truthfully pretend to separate it from her, because she is present through all of it. We MUST recognise its flaws. We MUST admit that she is in every part of it.
honestly the harry potter fandom is so wild like we’ve all collectively refused to accept cursed child as canon but some college kids tell us hufflepuffs are particularly good finders and we don’t even question it
I didn’t truly get the whole “death of the author” paradigm until I watched the harry potter fandom collectively divorce JKR
#also it’s not just cursed child#it’s also all the slytherin kids branded evil#it’s about ending a series with babies ever after#writing an epilogue designed for baby boomers in a series aimed at millennials#it’s harry naming his kid after two abusers#it’s about claiming dumbledore is gay for Diversity Points#but in a movie series featuring his life#and featuring the one he loved#there won’t be a trace of it#it’s about casting an abuser then making excuses for it#when hp is the story of an abuse survivor#it’s about everything to do with the american magical community#from cultural appropriation to the sheer pain of the term ‘no maj’#sorry rowling#you started us off#but now#our city now
Sometimes I think people forget that when JK Rowling said that she wrote Romione as ‘wish fulfilment’, she meant that she liked the idea of someone like Hermione (a character Rowling heavily based on herself) ending up with someone as kind, caring, brave and funny as Ron.
Not the other way round.
jkr on: animal symbolism in HP
gryffindor’s reject griffin lion / ravenclaw’s pseudo-raven eagle / hufflepuff’s badger??? ran out of ideas / slytherin like a snake,
Peter The Rat turns into a rat / 2 Wolf 2 Mann (2003) / sirius is a dog / james staying stag & harry takes after his father,
arthur Weasel weasley / severus ‘lily did it first’ snape / albus ‘eternal self-drag’ phoenix-dumbledore, all of these are gold and i congratulate rowling on her skills in foreshadowi-
My mum has an issue with Newt Scamander’s name because Scamander sounds like salamander and a salamander is a type of newt but I am 300% sure that it is not a coincidence since it comes from the woman that brought us Wolf Raised-by-Wolves the werewolf and Dog Black the black dog
listen, in regards to harry potter, jk rowling did a lot right. she also did a lot wrong. you can acknowledge this fact and still call harry potter your favorite book series. its flaws do not have to diminish your love for it. at the same time, there’s no use in pretending that harry potter can do no wrong. you can love something despite its flaws
mmhm, some happiness for.... no not you...
maybe ron? no but he's supposed to die...
oh but he DOESN'T die there u go
uhhh harry potter, harry potter *laughs hysterically* we'll see, we'll see *wipes tear*
remus lupin? remus john lupin? NEVER, in my life, in all my years of writing have I heard such a *ridiculous* claim
hmmm yes you can die, and you too, sorry sirius at least you're pretty
mhm mhm la da da, always, and down goes the snape, he is dead for always ❤ so cute
good old dumbledore ;) don't u just love the smell of betrayal in the morning
what was I doing again
ah yes, happiness
um
well who needs that anyway lol
and for my next trick, the cursed child a ha
i just wish jk rowling had developed the slytherin house as well as avatar: the last airbender had developed the fire nation
“I think I’d most like to spend a day with Harry. I’d take him out for a meal and apologize for everything I’ve put him through.” -JK Rowling
I WOULD LOVE TO BE A FLY IN THE SOUP AT THIS TABLE
harry: was it really necessary to kill my grandparents?
jk: plot device, harry.
harry: A BROOM CUPBOARD?
jk: they had to have sympathy for you
harry: tim. buttercup. sally. marry.
jk: what are you doing?
harry: I NAMED THE SPIDERS IN THE SODDING BROOM CLOSET, JOANNE
jk: oh
two hours later:
harry: thank you for giving me sass, at least
harry: downs his drink
jk: oh dear
harry: {pulls out order of the phoenix and opens it to chapter 35} let’s talk about what in the hell you were thinking when you wrote this chapter, please…
jk: i’m going to need to buy another bottle of wine, aren’t i?
harry: damn straight. keep ‘em coming.
#amazing#this happened and you know it#‘MY HAND STILL HURTS JO’#‘umbridge had to be believable harry’#‘YOU KILLED EVERYONE CLOSE TO ME’#‘but like thank fuck I had ron tho’#‘what an awesome bloke’#‘you’re welcome harry’#‘BUT SNAPE’#‘oh no here we go’#‘WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING’#‘every series needs a creep harry’#harry despondently folds his arms and sniffs and turns away#Jo thinks that he’s broken#but then#he turns around#slides Jo twenty bucks across the table#‘so. how about that seven book marauders series eh?’#‘harry…’#‘THE FANDOM IS ANGRY JO’#'I can’t…’#'why not?’#'I’m sorry…’#'BUT JO YOU HAVE TO’#'and why is that?’#'YOU KILLED THEM ALL JO THIS IS THE LEAST YOU CAN DO’#harry#jk rowling#I love this ok (via alrightpotter)
ALL THIS AND MORE
the restaurant’s been closed for four hours:
very drunk harry: and ‘nother fing
very drunk jo: hmmm
very drunk harry: starts weeping. do- hiccups. dobby.
jo bursts into tears.
harry passes out.
he wakes up the next morning with a lipstick print on his forehead and her secret ao3 account scrawled on the coaster. she’s written him a dobby lives au.
I think it’s weird that we were told we could forgive Snape for holding a grudge against a child for the actions of his father because it just so happens that he was doing the right thing because he loved said child’s mother. Or, that we could forgive Percy for betraying his family and siding with the people that kept them down because he reconciled with them in the end. Or, that we could forgive Voldemort for starting a race war against a child because he was an orphan who never received true, unconditional love.
But, Heaven forbid if we forgive Draco for being a bully because he was smothered by one parent, ignored by the other, and used as a pawn (against his will) by both to make them look good.
I, personally, would love to see an adult Draco realize that Lucius is a hateful man, who was bred to be that way by his father, and that he would never be able to make him happy. He would go through a brief crisis, recollecting how cruel he had been to his classmates because Lucius had ultimately wanted it. He would come to see that his hatred for muggle-borns, the Weasley family, and Harry Potter was, in truth, his father’s hatred for them being projected out through him. Draco might even seek therapy, and become a happier person as a result. And, he would forgive his father for all of this, in spite of how it negatively impacted him.
Scorpius would be taught to find happiness for himself, and that true friends are a valuable commodity to have. There would be an awkward moment in Scorpius’s second year when he was getting ready to board the train for school, but hastily wishes to introduce his father to his best friend, Albus Potter. Draco is surprisingly comfortable with the friendship, and invites Albus to stay with them for a few weeks over the summer, permitting his parents’ permission.
It has always really bothered me how much hatred J.K. Rowling seems to have towards Draco Malfoy and how she seems so unwilling to forgive him for anything when she forgives Snape so completely and unconditionally even though I personally think he is a way worst person than Draco (Snape was an adult who bullied little kids, had a life time to grow and change as a person but never did, and let his bitterness, guilt and selfishness swallow him whole). Draco made mistakes, there’s no denying that, but he was a kid, he has entire life to learn and grow. Snape never did that (Snape may have done the right thing, but he did the right thing for all the wrong reasons). The Harry Potter books are written around the themes of love, acceptance and forgiveness, so why is it that Draco is portrayed as unforgivable. Do we blame child soldiers for their part in wars? No. We try to help them because we recognize that they were placed in situations beyond their control, possibly brainwashed and/or threatened with death to themselves and their families. Draco Malfoy may have done bad things, he may have had a family whose influence was far from stellar and he may have found himself in a situation that he could not get out of for fear of death, but does that really mean he doesn’t deserve a chance to be redeemed? I chance to grow up and learn from his mistakes? I don’t think it does. Everyone deserves a second chance to prove themselves.
Why JK Rowling has seriously, seriously bothered me these last few months. I literally can’t with her because of this. It makes no sense.
Maybe it’s because the movies did more justice for Draco than the books, and she hates that a director told a story about a character’s struggles better than her. And that’s why she wanted creative control of the Fantastic Beasts.