And, to be perfectly honest, I miss the old Harry Potter fandom.
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Note: this essay is untitled and is referred to here by its first sentence. |
| Creator: | nothosaurus |
| Date(s): | November 17, 2018 |
| Medium: | Posted to tumblr |
| Fandom: | Harry Potter |
| Topic: | Changes in the HP fandom over time; J.K. Rowling, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them |
| External Links: | on tumblr, archive capture |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
And, to be perfectly honest, I miss the old Harry Potter fandom., is a short essay where nothosaurus reflects on the changes in the Harry Potter fandom from 2011 to 2018, the year of posting. Some topics mentioned include the growing rift between Harry Potter fandom and J.K. Rowling, which has increased since the posting of this essay. The post also references the controversy around the use of Native American religious elements in the backstory for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The Post
"And, to be perfectly honest, I miss the old Harry Potter fandom. The one I remember from 2011, back when we were all “fangirls” and posted gifs and edits and fanart, not “discourse”.I miss when everyone actually, really loved J. K. Rowling, when she was “our queen” and “my childhood” and “the best writer EVER!!!”.
I miss when Severus Snape was appreciated properly as a tragic and complicated figure and not broadly despised; when the crux of his motivations and characterization wasn’t reductively warped into “being friendzoned” and “wanting to fuck Lily”. [...] I miss when people didn’t get mad at an author for drawing elements from real-world mythologies and incorporating them into her own because they “aren’t hers to use”.
I miss when social identities weren’t the be-all and end-all of a fictional character’s public reception. [...]
Most of all, I miss when we really loved and exalted these books and the wonderful woman who wrote them; this story was everything to us, it was what we lived and breathed. I don’t see any of that love anymore and I miss it." [1]
Responses
[karasmv]
"I don’t necessarily agree with all of this, but man the current state of the HP fandom is so fucking toxic it’s just not fun anymore. [...] When exactly did people start hating JKR so much? She’s human and therefore flawed and has done and said and written things that made me cringe, but people are speaking about her like she’s complete trash and I just…what? Why is this the way we think now? I still love and respect her even though she’s disappointed me plenty of times, I don’t need my heroes to be perfect or their thoughts to 100% align with mine. I truly don’t understand the absolute vitriol towards her. [...] I just wanna enjoy things, dammit. It used to be much easier to ignore the negativity and I miss that."[2]
[allhailthedramallama]
"I miss the times when there were no people trying to gain, at best, reputation and woke points, and at worst actual money from hating on something that once upon a time we all collectively loved."[3]
[niniane17]
"People had a lot of things to say about Rowling even in the 2000s, but the situation has really gotten worse. The Snape Discourse ™ is just one example out of many"[4]
References
- ^ Original Post, archive link.
- ^ A reblog chain including karasmv's comment and one response. Archived here on November 11, 2020.
- ^ Reblog by allhailthedramallama, Archived version Accessed and archived November 11, 2020.
- ^ Reply by niniane, source accessible by clicking "note" on tumblr or the wayback machine.