Harry Potter - Fanlore

Harry Potter

This article is about the series of books. For the multifandom letterzine, see HP.

Name: Harry Potter
Abbreviation(s): HP, SS/PS [Harry Potter and the Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone], CoS [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets], PoA [Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban], GoF [Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire], OotP [Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix], HBP [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince], DH [Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]
Creator: Joanne K. (J. K.) Rowling (1965-)
Date(s): 1997-2007
Medium: book
Country of Origin: UK
External Links: Harry Potter wiki, JK Rowling's site
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Contents

Harry Potter, the seven-book series written by J. K. Rowling, tells the story of Harry Potter, a young orphan marked by fate to fight an evil wizard Lord Voldemort.

Harry Potter has also been adapted into movies by Warner Bros. The first five films were released between 2001 and 2007. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released in July 2009, and the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be made into two movies.

The Harry Potter Phenomenon

Harry Potter was a massively popular series which touched even people who aren't active in fandom.

The thing about Harry Potter is that, honestly, no matter what anyone would like to say or argue about the writing quality, the popularity, the way she kind of can't help but fuck with her fans a little (which I personally love, by the way), etc., the one fact remains that the books do something.
When you go to see a movie in the theater, half the fun is sitting in with a bunch of strangers experiencing the film together. Usually it's for the first time. It's almost like a religious experience at times.
Books aren't like that. They're solitary. They're private. These are two different approaches to worship, if you will.
But Harry Potter makes the private occasionally public. This is what I find truly awesome. [1]

The Fandom

The Harry Potter fandom presence online is massive; for example, on FanFiction.Net it has more posted works than any other fandom. Het, slash and gen are all popular, although femslash is less common. J.K. Rowling is supportive of fan activities; she has given her blessing for fanfiction[2] and gives awards for her favorite fansites [3].

Fandom has embraced myriad forms of fan activities, such as fanfic, fanart, fanvids, conventions, podcasts, cosplay, knitting, wizard rock, discussion forums, etc. While the canon was still open, speculating about future plot developments was also widely popular. Hot topics included which ships were going to happen in canon (Harry/Hermione vs. Ron/Hermione) and whether Severus Snape was loyal to Lord Voldemort, Albus Dumbledore, or just himself[4]. During the long wait for the next novel, some theories became quite fanciful.

Indeed, the fandom is so large and diversified that fans in one corner may have no idea what is happening in another corner. This balkanization is often deliberate.

Fanfiction

Anime/Manga Fandom vs. Media Fandom

It has been suggested that a large number of Harry Potter fans got into fanfiction, fanart, and even fandom in general through anime and manga fandoms rather than through Western media fandoms. This is hypothesized to have had a stylistic effect on fanworks and contributed to a lower overall age than in some other Western fandoms. It has also been suggested that Harry Potter fandom has an unusually high proportion of fans who have never been in a fandom before, i.e. was a threshold fandom.

"Canonical" Pairings

Shipwars and debates over which pairings count as canon are common in many fandoms; however, Harry Potter fandom is particularly notable for the large proportion of fans who supported pairings as canon that were later proven not to be. These included Harry/Hermione (see also Harmonians) and Remus/Sirius among others. The latter is especially unusual for being a same sex pairing.

Marauders Fic

Some segments of fandom are devoted solely to fanworks set during the main characters' parents' school days. This typically focuses on the Marauders, made up of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Probably the most famous example of the genre is the Shoebox Project, a serial fic recounting the entirety of the Marauder's school years and some time after.

By far the most popular pairings in Marauder fic are Remus/Sirius and James/Lily. The Remus/Sirius shippers suffered a series of blows following the third book, including Sirius' death, Remus' relationship with Tonks, and the revelation that the Marauders had quite seriously bullied Snape. As a consequence, fanac was at its height during the Three Year Summer and dropped noticeably with the release of each new book.

Marauders fic often portrays a few key scenes that are attested in canon: Remus Lupin nearly killing Snape in the Whomping Willow, the Marauders' discovery that Remus was a werewolf, Remus' discovery of their Animagus forms. (The Shoebox Project contains all of these.) Much of the fic contained character bashing of Peter Pettigrew, to the point where authors often assured readers that this fic contained no Peter hate.

Little Black Dresses

Various characters have been described as the HP fandom Little Black Dress, including Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and others.

Fanzines

Harry Potter fan fiction appeared mainly in the form on online fan fiction. Based on the timing of the books and movies (post-Internet) as well as the fact that JK Rowling was protective of her intellectual property, printed fanzines were not the norm. However a small number of fanzines - gen, het and slash, were printed. In addition to traditional fan fanzines, Harry Potter also created a small but thriving amount of doujinshi 'fanzines' in both English and Japanese. The presence of a large number of anime and manga fans most likely also contributed to the wider acceptance of doujinshi fanzines. For a list of Harry Potter fanzines on fanlore see: List of Harry Potter Fanzines.

Fan Art

Communities

Mailing Lists

Harry Potter fandom had a significant presence on yahoo groups but, like other fandoms, was affected by the removal of adult groups from the yahoo groups search directory in 2001. Many groups dwindled or were deleted after the majority of their members moved to livejournal.

Some significant lists, past and present, include:

On LiveJournal

By the end of 2002, many Harry Potter fans had migrated to Livejournal. Many of the older HP LJ communities first saw significant traffic in early 2003.

Strikethrough

When LiveJournal began deleting journals and communities that featured underage sex in 2007 a number of Harry Potter communities were affected as well, such as the popular Pornish Pixies. As a result a portion of the Harry Potter fandom (especially Harry/Snape fans) moved to other journaling platforms such as JournalFen and InsaneJournal, where they could continue their practice without fearing oppression from corporate entities.

The main Harry/Snape fest Snarry Games moved to InsaneJournal for the 2008 round of the Games. Even after LiveJournal reinstated some of the deleted journals and people slowly started to move back, Snarry Games remained on IJ.

The main het Christmas exchange Smutty Claus moved the fest to JournalFen in 2007, but in 2008 Smutty Claus was back on LiveJournal.

[This spawned communities like X and Y and Z on JournalFen &c.]

[Members of Harry Potter fandom responded to the persecution by A, B, C]

Archives

large archives

character & pairing-centric archives

special genres

Fan-Run Conventions

Fests & Exchanges

Harry Potter has had more than a hundred exchanges and fests. Some continue year after year. Some are a single event. Either way, there have been and will continue to be a huge number of Fests & Exchanges in Harry Potter fandom.

There are Big Bangs and holiday exchanges and every type of fest from Death Eater's to Gen and everything in between.

The list that was here quickly got out of control. Check out the new HP Fests & Exchanges page and feel free to add whatever fests or exchanges that are missing.

Newsletters


See also Newsletter Communities.

Podcasts

After podcasting took off in 2005 [?needs citation], HP fen were quick to jump on the bandwagon. Here are a selection of HP podcasts, past and present:

Notes

  1. ↑ Great moments are always best with pretty girls. (Accessed June 30, 2010)
  2. ↑ Rowling backs Potter fan fiction, BBC 27 May 2004. Accessed October 2008
  3. ↑ J.K. Rowling Official Site
  4. ↑ The Great Snape Debate - Borders Exclusive
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