A Harry Potter Rant

In today’s edition of “my brain won’t let this go,” we are presented with the question of whether still being obsessed with Harry Potter makes you a trans hater or not. (Spoiler: I land in the company of not) My brain has been worrying with these thoughts like a dog worrying a bone because someone on Threads essentially said that if you are still obsessed with Harry Potter you hate and are hurting trans people. I did not care enough at the time to screenshot the post or remember the name of the poster and I don’t care enough to go looking for it. Pretty sure it’s a sentiment shared by a lot of people due to J.K. Rowling’s views on trans people, so trying to find the exact post would be insane.

Anyway, my basic thoughts are actually neatly summed up by a quote from the Harry Potter books:

“The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters.” - Sirius Black

Meaning: you can still enjoy Harry Potter and have zero problem with trans people. Like me. J.K. Rowling can go take a hike off a cliff for her views on trans people, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop enjoying her most popular work… the entire series of which I owned before her nonsense became public! I honestly find black and white thinking like this very reductionist.

At this point, I feel like my views are going to be expressed through repeatedly condemning J.K. Rowling’s views in every single Harry Potter related blog post I do and through my wallet. I’m not purchasing any official Harry Potter/Wizarding World merchandise, including the books. I’ve asked that any remaining Harry Potter items on my wishlists are purchased used rather than new. Whether or not the purchasers will listen is ultimately up to them, but I feel like I’ve done my part. I've barely bought any Harry Potter merchandise to begin with, so this isn't actually making much of a difference, if any.

It really, really sucks when an author you’ve looked up to for a good chunk of your life turns out to have some trash views. It sucks when it’s anyone you’ve looked up to, really. The problem is Rowling specifically is that she was a big part of our lives for so long. I was in Junior High when I fist discovered Harry Potter and I was pretty much hooked from then on. I know I'm not the only one who's had Harry Potter around for most of their life. We had the books, we had the movies, and there’s still Harry Potter stuff coming out to this day for us to consume. Most Millennials can tell you what their Hogwarts House is and put more stock in that than even their Zodiac signs. It’s hard to separate from that kind of thing.

You can see from this blog that Harry Potter is not the only thing I have read or am reading, but Harry Potter was definitely a gateway into the kind of books other media I’m into now. My dad handing me “The Hobbit” at 12 definitely didn’t stick. Harry Potter was far more accessible, even if I was borrowing it from a friend and hiding it under my covers from my mom at the time.

Also, can we just take a moment and acknowledge that Rowling wasn’t the first and definitely isn’t the last in a long line of disappointing public figures/creators? Orson Scott Card, Joss Whedon, and H. P. Lovecraft are just a few of the names that come to mind off the top of my head. Rowling just happened to have blown up a whole generation with her work and we refuse to let it go even as we condemn her.

And we go condemn her. The fandom has condemned her. The actors who played her iconic characters have condemned her. So why is it that I hear more about J. K. Rowling than anyone else? Because of the trans thing or because a whole generation and then some grew up on Harry Potter? Because our fandom is still so very alive and kicking?

I really feel like the best thing we can do right now is to stop giving Rowling our headspace. Separate the Harry Potter fans from her in your head. We are not one in the same. I might not be as obsessed with The Wizarding World as I once was, but it's still a part of my life and part of me.

Also: How much are we really hurting Trans people by continuing to enjoy a media franchise? Like, really. I feel like there are actual, hurtful things we could be doing. Continuing to read books and watch movies and talk about a series that has zero actual representation of LGBTQ+ people in it doesn't seem very hurtful to Trans people or the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. And yes, I am of course aware that Dumbledore is gay and they pretty explicitly said so in the latest Fantastic Beasts movie, but that's barely there and I don't feel like it counts for much at this point. But anyway, I feel like I would be hurting Trans people much, much, much worse by, I don't know, voting against their rights or something. All I'm doing is continuing to enjoy a series that is very near and dear to my heart while always, always condemning the views of the author. That doesn't make me a bad person. Seriously.

Trans men are men. Trans women are women. Harry Potter fans don’t share every single one of their views or values with the author.

 

You can pry my Slytherin Crest from my cold, dead hands.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany, Jack Thorne, and JK Rowling

Originally Posted to GoodReads: August 4, 2016

If you are planning to purchase this book, please do so used in order to curb J.K. Rowling's spending on her transphobia.

So... the problem with reviewing The Cursed Child is, simply put, a matter of bias. I was biased toward the story before I'd heard reviews of the play itself. I was biased upon reading about certain plot details. I was even more biased after hearing reviews about the play. And now, after having read the script myself, I'm not sure quite where my own thoughts on it lay... I do know that I enjoyed reading it.

This next section will be some of my thoughts in a bullet-point format. They will contain spoilers.

SPOILER SECTION. THERE ARE SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT.

• I have gotten used to the idea of Delphi existing, even if I think her existence makes no sense.
• I hope we now understand the many reasons why J.K. Rowling destroyed all the Time Turners in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
• Really not sure how I feel about the potential for a future Rose/Scorpius match... even if they are rather popular in fanfiction circles.
• I enjoyed the dark, Voldemort run future, if only for the Snape and Scorpius interactions.

That's really all I have to say for now... I'll amend this review later if I have anything else to add. 

Favorite Line

"Consider me engorgimpressed." - Scorpius Malfoy

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Illustrated Edition by JK Rowling

Re-Read Review

If you are planning to purchase this book, please do so used in order to curb J.K. Rowling's spending on her transphobia.

I have probably read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at least 20 times. This time, I read the illustrated version with a few jumps back over to the paperback because spiders are just not my jam. The Jim Kay illustrated version is beautiful. I loved almost every moment of it with a special highlight being the full 2-page spread of the phoenix. The illustrations really added to my enjoyment of the book, which is not really one of my favorites of the Harry Potter series.

Chamber of Secrets is definitely one of those books that both flourishes and suffers upon reread. The flourishing part has to do with the massive amount of foreshadowing and set up Rowling seeds throughout. Like, really, the amount of stuff from Chamber of Secrets that is more relevant because of later books is astounding. Not entirely surprising if you’re a massive Harry Potter nerd like I am or find out that Rowling originally wanted to have a lot of Half-Blood Prince stuff in Chamber of Secrets, but still really impressive. The suffering actually has more to do with Rowling’s magic system and the holes I saw in it… which of course is what this review is going to focus on.

Okay so, somewhere in between taking off from London and getting pummeled by the Whomping Willow, the Ford Anglia managed to gain sentience. Unless it was sentient from the time Arthur started working magic on it… in which case, how??? This is where Rowling’s magic system really starts getting into the weeds of “how does that happen” and we’re apparently not supposed to notice because “magic.”

I honestly feel like this is the most sinister Tom Riddle ever is. There’s just something special about a more quiet villain, which he definitely is at this point. I’m not sure I felt this way in my first read, but this time around it’s like “ooohhhh crap. Harry doesn’t have a clue and Riddle’s just smiling and doing his own thing…”

On a side note, “werewolf cubs”? So… not kids bitten my werewolves, but hereditary werewolves? The implications of this are not actually touched on here and are never brought up again and I have questions.

I find it interesting that intent has nothing whatsoever to do with freeing House Elfs. Lucius just vaguely threw the sock in Dobby’s direction and Dobby is freed. No intent on Lucius’ part. I feel like, if the House Elf enslavement thing was magically binding, there would have had to be some intent on the part of the wizard to unbind the House Elf. Slavery is gross to begin with and the method of keeping House Elfs enslaved is also gross and brings into question some logistics, but yeah… this really jumped out at me on this reread.

Anywho, Chamber of Secrets is really where the Harry Potter series starts to show its darkness. I know this isn’t revelatory for us older fans, but it’s very, very true. Chamber of Secrets is still ostensibly geared toward younger readers, but it’s unmistakably dark.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

2013 Spoilery Reread Review

Originally Posted on my now defunct blog 6-17-2013

Seriously, there are spoilers for the entire series here. 

If you are planning to purchase this book, please do so used in order to curb J.K. Rowling's spending on her transphobia.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I'm a Harry Potter fan. As such, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the book that got me into J.K. Rowling's magical world. That said, I tend to skip over it when I reread the series. This is for several reasons, which I will outline below, before I get to the reason I shouldn't skip over Sorcerer's Stone as often as I do.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is largely a setup book. The reader gets what is basically a book-long info-dump interspersed with actual plot. That said, much of the info-dumping is necessary as the reader is in the same shoes as Harry: neither has any idea what the Wizarding World is like. However, in large info-dumps serve to make the book choppy. While we don't necessarily need to know what's going on hour-to-hour and day-to-day, I personally felt as though delving into the day-to-day stuff more often would have been helpful to break up all the jumping around that happens. There are also a lot of plot-conveniences throughout the book that hinge on characters being in certain places at certain times to overhear random bits of dialogue in order to create the red herring villain: Professor Severus Snape. I enjoyed Snape as the villain on the first read, but knowing about that upon reread ruins the magic, as it were.

What I really enjoy about rereading Sorcerer's Stone is the foreshadow-y clues sprinkled throughout the pages. Sirius Black is mentioned in the first chapter, though he doesn't come back up until Prisoner of Azkaban. Horcruxes, while not explicitly named or expounded upon, are mentioned. We see the after-effects of Voldemort using one of them. It's the only way he could even show up in the book. Professor Snape is initially set up as the villain. By the end of the book, and ultimately the end of the series, we see that he's not. We get a slight mention of the Marauders in this book, or at least a mention of their exploits, when Dumbledore tells Harry that James saved Snape's life. These, along with many other bits and pieces, are reasons rereading Sorcerer's Stone is so much fun.

In addition to the foreshadowing, there were certain bits of the story I really enjoyed. The depiction of Hogwarts at Christmas really stands out. I also quite enjoyed the Gringotts plaque -- I've got that thing memorized. I do really want to punch Ron in the face for all the things he said to Hermione in this book, though. That was before they became friends, but even so, he was really cruel to her.

If you are reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time -- I don't know why you're reading this review if you are, first off -- this is the book that gets you into the series. It might not be the best example of Harry Potter brilliance, but it works as a nice introduction to the series.

2022 Spoilery Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads 12-7-22

Still manages to draw me in and keep me reading. This particular reread is being done along with Mugglecast’s reread, so I’m only keeping to a few chapters at a time to go along with the podcast. That said, it’s a little hard to stop reading when I need to; a testament to Rowling’s effective writing.

Noticing this time around how much I get things mixed up with the movie. Just, the order of things, really. The Sorcerer’s Stone film is quite a good adaptation, even if they did cut out and rearrange some things. However, I’d completely forgotten that Vernon and Petunia were in the room and actually silent through Hagrid’s explanation of Lily and James’ deaths. Kind of weird, actually, and one of the choppy bits I talked about in my 2013 review. The mood swings completely from Hagrid being outraged to all calm to outraged again in the space of a page or two. I also have a hard time believing Vernon and Petunia were wrapped up in Hagrid’s story enough to not interject more than they did, but, well, it happened so shrugs all around.

Also find it interesting that Hagrid, who was expelled in his third year, is just randomly using non-verbal magic all willy nilly. Non- verbal magic, we find out later in the series, isn’t taught til the sixth year. So it just struck me as odd this read-through.

I had somehow forgotten just how short this book is. Like, it felt like the whole Norbert/Detention thing should have happened earlier, but there also wasn’t time for it to have happened earlier. You go straight from that into the finale, which happens really quickly. There’s just a lot crammed into the last three chapters, it’s a little nuts but also masterfully done.

Dumbledore is incredibly deep with the thoughts he shares with Harry at the end of the book. I think a good chunk if the most famous Dumbledore lines come from Chapter 17. He’s also incredibly frustrating, especially on a reread. Harry’s straight up asking about the prophecy without actually asking about it because he doesn’t know and Dumbledore is just like “nah, you’ll find out when you’re older.” I kind of want to punch him in the face. Also interesting that he apparently has little regard, or maybe even knowledge at this point, about Snape’s feelings toward Lily Potter. He, like Quirrell, puts Snape’s actions down to hating James and wanting to basically square away the life debt Snape owed James. Just so interesting when all the fan discourse around this stuff if put down to Snape saving Harry for Lily’s sake.

So anyway, it’s been fun revisiting one of my absolute favorite series again. The Sorcerer’s Stone is really a comfort read for me, though I don’t read it near as often as some other fans. Still a fantastic beginning to the series.