I'm so bummed about Rowling. I loved those books so much growing up. Its such a shame the person who put such whimsy and magic in the world has gotta spew that hate. RIP Harry, a wizard no more
Spew hate, fund hate, systemically implement hate and violence, politically platform and fund hate, and do horrific disgusting acts to individuals all the time.
Jkr is evil. Not a trash person, not a politically polarizing person, not just an outspoken person I disagree with. But an actual. Evil. Fucking. Human.
I'm pretty sure that the examples I'm remembering are from a video essay on youtube which I don't expect anyone to go and watch if they wouldn't be interested in spending time that way anyway. But I found it interesting.
People who are overweight, except molly weasley because we like her, she's in our group
Stuff about house elves, goblins, professor trewlany, Rowling tends to decide if a person is good or bad, and then their actions are viewed in that lens, with good and bad often indicated by group membership, like what house you are in, who's your blood ancestor,..
I mean, personally I agree the magic system is lazy and the world is nonsensical, but "good" is more subjective than that. I disliked the books and never even finished the series, it tool YEARS before I even read 5&6, and I don't think I've seen past the 3rd movie. Except meme clips anyway.
But if someone else wants to lament how something they liked is tied to a bigot, let them lament in peace.
Yeah, I too personally never really cared for them. Like, they were OK, I read the first 3 books and yeah, it was a story but I never really got into this "world of wonder and whimsy" stuff. I read the rest of the books as they got released just to finish the story and I don't think I saw any in the cinema.
But that was me, one of my closer friends at school though was utterly obsessed. They purchased all the merchandise, watched all the films in the cinema, multiple times, read all the fanfiction (and the naughty fanfiction......), played the games etc. etc.
So yeah, I agree that for me I, never really cared about it, it meant nothing more to me than any one of the number of kids books I read. But for others it did form so much of their childhood, it was important. From writing their own fanfiction to drawing art or programming games, I'm sure a lot of people have had it influence their adult life really heavily and, especially those who don't quite understand the level of harm she is doing and maybe don't even know anyone personally who is being harmed, this could seem like a real attack on their childhood, we should be able to recognise that and treat that with compassion rather than say the books are crap and you are an evil person for still liking them, which will only serve to harden them.
You're allowed to like horrible things made by horrible people! There's a rice dish my mom used to make that's kind of my not-quite-comfort food. I just wouldn't recommend it. Its trash. And when I make it, I don't even burn it every time.
Harry Potter is trash. It's not the worst thing ever, but it's not worth your time. Anyone's time, really.
I'm not defending Harry Potter, I don't even like it myself, but Christ that first sentence rubs me the wrong way. Maybe things can be subjective and not every art piece is just "good" or "bad" in the end. There's no reason to be so passive aggressive and belittling in your response here.
Its morally horrible technically uninteresting creatively uninspired. Sorry, I'll be more nuanced in my broad thesis statements rather than the main body of my comments. I forget sometimes people only read headlines.
No like... There's subjective stuff about what food is good. Is the best food curry? A perfectly grown raw strawberry? Caesar salad? Expresso gelato? Engineered hypernutritious silicon valley bodybuilder slop? but like... Harry Potter is a gas station burrito with some popcorn ceiling sprinkled on top, rolled in the author's opinions.
I can pirate and indulge in my inner child from time to time knowing that cast and crew created lifetime bonds and had that experience with us - the fans.
Rowling? There aren't enough buses on earth to toss her under.
If it makes you feel any better (and sorry if it does the opposite), she sort of plagiarised from earlier series including The Worst Witch and The Adventures of Willy the Wizard. Kinda all of it, including the premise (magical vs ‘normal’ kids called to a magical school, houses, many of the spells and plots, etc. So much so that the latter sued her over it (that author lost, because it wasn’t a word-for-word lift).
If you like the genre, I’d recommend reading those series instead now.
True. From what i gather, though, it was much more than the general concept. A lot of specifics were the same, which was why that author sued in the first place.
The fact that she recently threatened to sue amnesty international and posted an upskirt picture of a (trans) woman (claiming it contained genital, and stating it's because this woman refused to debate her) would in most circumstances convince people to drop her. But for some reason we're still struggling to convince people that they can live without this series.
It was important to my childhood too, but I don't get to have nostalgia the hatemonger who wrote the books made them into something deeply associated with extreme bigotry against me, I wish that ruined it for everyone else too.
I may be the minority, certainly the sales numbers indicate it as such, but it's ruined for me.
My happy memories tied to Harry Potter are intrinsically also tied to my trans friends. Everytime she opens her mouth she assults those memories (and my friends' existence). I have no interest in fueling hate against people I know and love.
Yeah and in case anyone is curious here's a source after all, I'm just some lady on the internet with a bias, you shouldn't trust me.
But yeah, it's really fucking bad. She should be arrested for it, but we all know she won't face any consequences. Hell with how the uk has been lately I wouldn't be surprised if the victim gets charged. No mercy for "evil trans predators" especially when they're mad at "brave citizen journalists who are simply documenting their sex"
Disgusting, I plan to make sure she gets none of my money. She hasn't really since the last main series movie came out. I just wish people would get over their nostalgia and see how this woman is using the money gained from tgeir love to fuel hate. I have never eaten ChicFilA and don't plan to for instance. I do my best to not support problematic shit when I can. Buy bootleg merch if you want the stuff and pirate the movies and games.
I think it's also important to remember that they're not going to articulate it to themselves as "hate," when they think they're only passively supporting someone who is hateful. Liberals conceive of morality as individual actions and intent exclusively, which is partially why we still have to teach adults that racism is more than one person calling another a slur.
The idea that financially supporting -- let alone merely endorsing -- a franchise owned by a hateful person is inconceivable to them as an act of hatred when they have no ill-will toward any trans people individually (if they even know any). I'm sure we've all experienced the family member who shuts down at the notion that they have to be better than simply not committing hate crimes directly.
I made my kindergarten teacher call me Harry Potter for like 2 weeks when i first got glasses. They were HP branded glasses too. I had all the binders and everything. Harry Potter, Star Wars, and LOTR were all pretty equal in my mind as a little kid. (i now recognize that LOTR is superior and SW is better than HP).
JK Prowlings actions shattered me. Even though i was no longer that level of fanatic by that time. She was just getting super vocal about her trans hate and racism as i was coming out and starting my transition. What a cunt. Ruined a good thing for so many because she couldnt just not be the worst.
I have the pirated Full Cast audio books. After book 3, they slowly get worse. First 3 I can defend as simple kids solving over the top mysteries. Reminds me of the Enid Blyton and The Secret Seven books I read as a kid.
But the casual elf slavery. Dumbing down politics for kids. The torture being used for detention in book 5. Pushed me enough to buy the inkheart audio books.
There are probably other books for teens that have magic and fantasy, but I am reccomending Inkheart by Cornelia Funke right now.
Yeah it's actually been pretty handy to my language learning process to have a full series of books written at a child's reading level that it's easy to find secondhand or on Anna's archive etc translated into multiple other languages. They're mediocre and the author sucks but they've had a massive cultural impact worldwide and if you read them as a kid you'll be able to follow the plot pretty well even while you're still learning the language. I needed hardcopies because my job benefits from me being as analog as possible but like I said it's so easy to find translated copies of them for cheap.
As a side note, having gotten into the western esoteric spiritual traditions (tarot, astrology, etc) where she pulled a bunch of her worldbuilding from, idt people realize how deep the TERF roots are in that culture. There's a huuuge emphasis on a woman's reproductive status being the source of their power. It's much easier to separate yourself from that kind of thing with an esoteric religion compared to an institutional one like mainstream Christianity but it does still require being mindful of what outside sources you integrate into your personal philosophy. There's definitely times I've been vibing along reading about somebody's homebrew ritual practices only to have a record scratch moment when they start talking about their inner mother goddess expressing it's power through her womb like bitch the only reason I even kept the thing was to maybe donate it some day jeebus.
It does seem like the only tarot books worth a shit are written from an LGBTQ perspective and they work on de-gendering and decolonizing it. I don't fuck with astrology, because... it's astrology. Also, at its core, it's about judging people based upon when they were born, and that makes as much sense as judging people based on their skin color.
Well the thing is that if you get real deep into tarot (which is amazing for introspection and helping others explore their emotions in a spiritual context) you basically have to learn astrology.
As an example, the Thoth vs RWS decks place the major arcana differently because they disagreed on how they should be ordered to best correspond with the orders of the fixed elemental signs. You also see the signs depicted visually especially in the RWS deck, which is what most themed decks are based on (haven't gotten into Marseille yet, but that's probably my next step).
And then when you get down to it you realize that the MBTI is literally just astrology with a self deterministic twist (they're both ultimately based on four humors / temperament theory), so when you layer that, you can usually find a datetime either tropically or sidereally that represents you or an important event in your life that can then use to tell a story about yourself that feels richer spirituality and symbolically. So for instance tropically I'm an earth sign and my chart overall leans very yin, but when calculated sidereally I'm a fire sign with strong Yang elements and it also fits better with MBTI-ENTP (although it's an air its very fire adjacent).
In the end, all of it is so vague that the whole point of it is to just find something to latch on to give yourself identity and connection to a wider culture, it's just important to understand that that's ultimately what you're doing.
TLDR; astrology glyphs are prettier than MBTI letters
And the TERF thing itself isn't even really colonialism it's actually somewhat integral to the original belief systems. Fertility cults are some of the world's oldest religions. Especially in the case of something like Easter, colonialism actually reduced the influence of the fertility ideology. The anti TERF sentiment that's (thankfully) taking hold is more of a modernization than decolonization.
It's also wild to even talk about decolonization with tarot specifically when the very first tarot decks were literally Italian where it started as a trick-taking table game and a children's card based RPG and was then adapted into a sellable game by the VERY white order of the golden dawn and printed and sold by a board game company. It's been the occult / gnostic tails side of Capitalist Institutional Christianity coin basically the entire time it's existed, there's nothing to "reclaim."
Yeah, the 20th century versions of western esoterica are really bad about that for the most part. To the point that transfeminine pagans have a few specific directions we're typically recommended towards. Off the top of my head it's largely Avalonianism, Cybelianism, and Inanna/Ishtar worship.
i don't want anyone to feel conflicted because they like harry potter and hate jowling kowling rowling. i want them to feel peace with not watching or reading harry potter because it's a terribly written story by a talentless hack who got extremely lucky. literally everything about it is awful, the characters, the plots, the conclusions...
please get over your nostalgia. you're not a child anymore, just think about how much you projected your own good will into a story full of bigotry and vile.
Right? I feel bad for adult Harry Potter fans in a way, because it's almost certain that they've simply never read another book since they were literal children.
They are missing out on some actual really good shit because they've formed their personality around a mediocre series of books written for literal children.
Everything matters more than Harry Potter. Harry Potter is fantasy slop, it is insanely unoriginal in so many ways. There's better stuff out there to read and support. I don't understand why people go gaga for this shit.
Childhood nostalgia is a pretty big deal for nearly all humans. That is why a Charizard card sells for 10k. There is something in your life that you miss, it is just not Harry Potter.
A lot of people look back for many reasons and everyone has their own attachments. It is upsetting to lose an attachment and have part of your childhood tainted by the present.
Let people grieve for the past, it is normal and healthy.
The first 2-3 books maybe, but Joanne really tried to push for a more mature tone, with none of the writing skills to back it up. Slavery, creatures that devour your soul, date rape, torture to the point of insanity, political corruption, the rise of fascism, grief, child soldiers, analogies about aid-riddled homosexuals targeting children. None of these are topics for a children’s book, let alone one written by a bigoted idiot.
I don't think the books suck. They are suitable for the age group they are intended for. People act like they're supposed to be great literature or something, though.
It doesn't matter that they're unoriginal - the target audience don't know that. It's the first time they've seen these things, so they feel original to them.
Holllld up. No reason to act like kids don't deserve media of a higher caliber, or that media created with them in mind can't be just as enjoyable for adults. Harry Potter is far from my hyperfixation but I can't stand these arguments no matter where they crop up.
Oh they certainly do. It's always saddened me that these books are what grabbed the imagination of a generation when Terry Pratchett's books were right there.
But that said, they did get a lot of kids into reading and I hope they explored further. It feels like a lot just hyper-focused on HP, though.
That is an utterly useless kind of critique. If you don't like 'fantasy slop' on its artistic merit that is a purely personal opinion that adds nothing to the justified critique of JKR.
Don't judge people for what they enjoy. It's just a fact that HP was a major party of many people's childhood and that many of us dreamed of going to Hogwarts and casting spells as kids.
Belittling that does not strengthen your case against JKR's anti-trans bigotry - just makes you look like a bigot and a snob yourself.
the sad thing is that harry potter was one of the only things that kept me alive before i came out of the closet/transitioned T_T mostly for leaky, starkid, and pottercast not so much anything rowling did
(i like land of stories now more because chris colfer is a FAR better author and person than rowling)
Wouldn't pirating kinda solve the issue? The fiction itself is not inherently bad and if you pirate you are not supporting the author. Normalize pirating harry potter stuff ig.
Arr.
Tell me if I am wrong tho i cannot really see dislikes.
The argument goes that while pirating doesn't inherently support the author, continuing to participate in fandom perpetuates the cultural influence that the author has in society and can encourage others by proxy to go spend money on the author's work.
Sure, if you read a book and never tell anyone you did it you aren't participating in fandom. My point was more about people who continue to be "Harry Potter fans" and explicitly do participate in fandom (posting about it, writing fanfiction, whatever) despite not wanting to support Rowling.
Well I didn't consider that because I have no friends-
Jokes aside that's fair lol. But like of you go to watch it somewhere that supports her it's kinda not pirating anymore. But I guess uou are more likely to do so if you already consume the content ig. I doubt anyone would in an scenario like this tho. But it is a big world ig.
It's pretty bad. Remember how abolishing slavery is literally a running gag? Or his there's one character of every non-white ethnicity? Or the prose kinda sucked? Or how dumb the magic sport is? Or...
Edit: if you want someone from the same place writing genuinely whimsical important meaningful bullshit wizard stories, try Pratchett's 'discworld' novels. They're far from perfect, but the author died of old while never being outed as a raging piece of shit, so I think you're safe. There's also one where all but one of the main characters turns out to be trans or in drag.
Caroline Easom did two videos on the women in the books, and makes a really good argument that Rowling doesn't really seem to like anyone but like, white men. She hates women, particularly women of colour.
For example, you have Parwati and Padma Patel, who are basically the same character, filling the same role; being backup ladies that Harry and Ron to settle with bringing to the ball. The difference between them? One wears their hair a braid! Ooo.
Hell, even Hermione who is ostensibly a main character is treated really poorly in the books.
It's pretty bad. Remember how abolishing slavery is literally a running gag?
It's not just a running gag, but the one character who takes an issue with it is ridiculed for it.
Honestly, it makes no sense that Harry is so relaxed about the slavery thing, he's also from a "muggle" background, and should be affected just as much as Hermione. Then again, he's a pretty insensitive prick, and shows very little care for the people around him.
Then again, he is a trust-fund baby that grew up to be a cop. So... Guess all that is par for the course.
They're far from perfect
I don't believe in perfection, but Terry Pratchett's books are terrific.
For an interesting and fairly recent magical school story, I'd recommend the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik, also known for His Majesty's Dragon, a historic fantasy series.
I second this, but I found even his Tiffany Aching novels tougher to read than HP 1-2 for a youngster.
Chris Ridell has written amazing books for the younger audience. The Ottoline serie (youngest public) were the only books I enjoyed reading to kids for the Nth time and you find a similar humour in Lily Goth and such.
I'd recommend the Kingkiller Chronicle (though many might disagree since the third book may never come out) for any adults who seem to be stuck on Harry Potter and want something that's actually good and not written for babies.
I feel vindicated every time i see one of these, because i never liked Harry Potter; But now i actively dislike it after watching Rowling lose her head entirely over trans people.
I was given the books as a kid, I wasn't really into reading like most children and my pet budgie ended up ripping them apart and covering them with shit. :)
If you're talking about the original books you purchased years ago then sure, I guess.
But buying anything from or supporting the HP franchise now, financially supports JKR, and that means she can finance more of her transphobic bullshit that hurts all of us. So in that case no, no we can't have both.
God knows why you'd want to enjoy a story written by a person as awful as JKR these days, though anyway. I know I can't.
I just genuinely can't understand how anyone who agrees JKR is awful could enjoy it now. I used to like it too. But when I think about HP now, it reminds me of JKR, how shit of a person she is, how much she would hate me, and I just can't enjoy it anymore. It's been tarnished by association, in my eyes.
You probably live in a country which committed genocides, take medicine which was tested on humans involuntarily, use fossil fuels that will eventually kill so many people, probably eat meat or dairy which is coupled with animal suffering and so much more.
All of these and the HP thing can excite doxastic anxiety in you. A grown up neurotypical adult should be able to overcome it.
Most oil products have little to no practical alternatives. There are plenty of alternatives to the Harry Potter franchise. And no, the story is not good. If you think it's good, I implore you to explore other children's fiction, because you're obviously missing out.
Enjoy it all you want, but stop buying the content. That's a choice you can easily make. You can't easily make the choice to stop buying petroleum products.
135 replies
Don't forget that Daniel Radcliffe is a huge trans ally
I would consider him averaged sized.
I'm so bummed about Rowling. I loved those books so much growing up. Its such a shame the person who put such whimsy and magic in the world has gotta spew that hate. RIP Harry, a wizard no more
Spew hate, fund hate, systemically implement hate and violence, politically platform and fund hate, and do horrific disgusting acts to individuals all the time.
Jkr is evil. Not a trash person, not a politically polarizing person, not just an outspoken person I disagree with. But an actual. Evil. Fucking. Human.
It's strange to me how they wrote a book about how muggles are oppressed, then they turn around and become Voldemort IRL
From the very beginning she makes it clear which muggles are "good", and which are not, and thus are ok to do violence to. Same with other groups.
Yeah, Hagrid performs body modification surgery on an 11 year old boy because he stole a cake. This is presented by the story as just deserts.
I mean, as a kid there were definitely some people in my life I felt would deserve to have a pig tail
Hopefully your ethics are a bit more developed now
As an adult, i would hope one could tell the difference between a child's imagination and reality.
The Dursleys? They're tories, pretty sure a lot of people here wouldn't mind punching a tory.
This is the exact kind of simplification that I'm talking about.
What do you mean? I don't remember anything like that. There were jerk muggles yes, but also jerk wizard and witches
I'm pretty sure that the examples I'm remembering are from a video essay on youtube which I don't expect anyone to go and watch if they wouldn't be interested in spending time that way anyway. But I found it interesting.
Shaun - Harry Potter. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-1iaJWSwUZs
People who are overweight, except molly weasley because we like her, she's in our group
Stuff about house elves, goblins, professor trewlany, Rowling tends to decide if a person is good or bad, and then their actions are viewed in that lens, with good and bad often indicated by group membership, like what house you are in, who's your blood ancestor,..
They're not that whimsical and the magic is kind of stupid. As in its not good magic and the world isn't coherently built around it.
They're not even good.
I mean, personally I agree the magic system is lazy and the world is nonsensical, but "good" is more subjective than that. I disliked the books and never even finished the series, it tool YEARS before I even read 5&6, and I don't think I've seen past the 3rd movie. Except meme clips anyway.
But if someone else wants to lament how something they liked is tied to a bigot, let them lament in peace.
Yeah, I too personally never really cared for them. Like, they were OK, I read the first 3 books and yeah, it was a story but I never really got into this "world of wonder and whimsy" stuff. I read the rest of the books as they got released just to finish the story and I don't think I saw any in the cinema.
But that was me, one of my closer friends at school though was utterly obsessed. They purchased all the merchandise, watched all the films in the cinema, multiple times, read all the fanfiction (and the naughty fanfiction......), played the games etc. etc.
So yeah, I agree that for me I, never really cared about it, it meant nothing more to me than any one of the number of kids books I read. But for others it did form so much of their childhood, it was important. From writing their own fanfiction to drawing art or programming games, I'm sure a lot of people have had it influence their adult life really heavily and, especially those who don't quite understand the level of harm she is doing and maybe don't even know anyone personally who is being harmed, this could seem like a real attack on their childhood, we should be able to recognise that and treat that with compassion rather than say the books are crap and you are an evil person for still liking them, which will only serve to harden them.
You're allowed to like horrible things made by horrible people! There's a rice dish my mom used to make that's kind of my not-quite-comfort food. I just wouldn't recommend it. Its trash. And when I make it, I don't even burn it every time.
Harry Potter is trash. It's not the worst thing ever, but it's not worth your time. Anyone's time, really.
I'm not defending Harry Potter, I don't even like it myself, but Christ that first sentence rubs me the wrong way. Maybe things can be subjective and not every art piece is just "good" or "bad" in the end. There's no reason to be so passive aggressive and belittling in your response here.
Its morally horrible technically uninteresting creatively uninspired. Sorry, I'll be more nuanced in my broad thesis statements rather than the main body of my comments. I forget sometimes people only read headlines.
I read the rest of your comment, you know. The work you're talking about arguably being shit doesn't mean you have to be so passive aggressive.
No like... There's subjective stuff about what food is good. Is the best food curry? A perfectly grown raw strawberry? Caesar salad? Expresso gelato? Engineered hypernutritious silicon valley bodybuilder slop? but like... Harry Potter is a gas station burrito with some popcorn ceiling sprinkled on top, rolled in the author's opinions.
Ah, the heaviest artillery of art criticism: food comparisons.
You can't exactly call it art except in the broadest sense that choosing to splatter shit over one part of the toilet bowl instead of another is art.
I can pirate and indulge in my inner child from time to time knowing that cast and crew created lifetime bonds and had that experience with us - the fans.
Rowling? There aren't enough buses on earth to toss her under.
If it makes you feel any better (and sorry if it does the opposite), she sort of plagiarised from earlier series including The Worst Witch and The Adventures of Willy the Wizard. Kinda all of it, including the premise (magical vs ‘normal’ kids called to a magical school, houses, many of the spells and plots, etc. So much so that the latter sued her over it (that author lost, because it wasn’t a word-for-word lift).
If you like the genre, I’d recommend reading those series instead now.
As much as some people (and a lot of giant corps) hate it, you can't copyright a general concept.
True. From what i gather, though, it was much more than the general concept. A lot of specifics were the same, which was why that author sued in the first place.
I'd argue that trans lives matter more than JK Rowling's life. I'm bringing out the champagne when that bitch dies, and I don't even like alcohol.
The easiest of trolley problems
The fact that she recently threatened to sue amnesty international and posted an upskirt picture of a (trans) woman (claiming it contained genital, and stating it's because this woman refused to debate her) would in most circumstances convince people to drop her. But for some reason we're still struggling to convince people that they can live without this series.
It was important to my childhood too, but I don't get to have nostalgia the hatemonger who wrote the books made them into something deeply associated with extreme bigotry against me, I wish that ruined it for everyone else too.
I'm not trans but people I care about are.
I may be the minority, certainly the sales numbers indicate it as such, but it's ruined for me.
My happy memories tied to Harry Potter are intrinsically also tied to my trans friends. Everytime she opens her mouth she assults those memories (and my friends' existence). I have no interest in fueling hate against people I know and love.
I'm sorry that more people don't feel the same.
Jesus Christ she literally committed a sexual offence ahainst someone while claiming she wants to prevent sexual offences. FFS
Yeah and in case anyone is curious here's a source after all, I'm just some lady on the internet with a bias, you shouldn't trust me.
But yeah, it's really fucking bad. She should be arrested for it, but we all know she won't face any consequences. Hell with how the uk has been lately I wouldn't be surprised if the victim gets charged. No mercy for "evil trans predators" especially when they're mad at "brave citizen journalists who are simply documenting their sex"
Did you make those quotes up or are they genuine Daily Mail quotes? Cos the latter would NOT surprise me
I made them up, fully aware they may be taken out of context and used against me lol
Sad thing is they genuinely could have been real...
Disgusting, I plan to make sure she gets none of my money. She hasn't really since the last main series movie came out. I just wish people would get over their nostalgia and see how this woman is using the money gained from tgeir love to fuel hate. I have never eaten ChicFilA and don't plan to for instance. I do my best to not support problematic shit when I can. Buy bootleg merch if you want the stuff and pirate the movies and games.
People hate trans people so much that if they had any they'd throw any ethics they had out the window to get rid of them.
I think it's also important to remember that they're not going to articulate it to themselves as "hate," when they think they're only passively supporting someone who is hateful. Liberals conceive of morality as individual actions and intent exclusively, which is partially why we still have to teach adults that racism is more than one person calling another a slur.
The idea that financially supporting -- let alone merely endorsing -- a franchise owned by a hateful person is inconceivable to them as an act of hatred when they have no ill-will toward any trans people individually (if they even know any). I'm sure we've all experienced the family member who shuts down at the notion that they have to be better than simply not committing hate crimes directly.
I made my kindergarten teacher call me Harry Potter for like 2 weeks when i first got glasses. They were HP branded glasses too. I had all the binders and everything. Harry Potter, Star Wars, and LOTR were all pretty equal in my mind as a little kid. (i now recognize that LOTR is superior and SW is better than HP).
JK Prowlings actions shattered me. Even though i was no longer that level of fanatic by that time. She was just getting super vocal about her trans hate and racism as i was coming out and starting my transition. What a cunt. Ruined a good thing for so many because she couldnt just not be the worst.
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Most everything matters more than Harry Potter.
And few things matter less than the JK herself.
I agree, but she's rich and is putting her money into projects that are actively hurting people.
Pretty sure what they mean is that JKR is a worthless human being because she's chosen to do those things.
That's right! FUCK Rowling
With a cactus, sideways
Just pirate it ffs, separate art from artist and simply don't give her any money
Attention sometimes matters more than your money. And todays world is all about attention.
We will all do better to ignore such artists altogether.
I have the pirated Full Cast audio books. After book 3, they slowly get worse. First 3 I can defend as simple kids solving over the top mysteries. Reminds me of the Enid Blyton and The Secret Seven books I read as a kid.
But the casual elf slavery. Dumbing down politics for kids. The torture being used for detention in book 5. Pushed me enough to buy the inkheart audio books.
There are probably other books for teens that have magic and fantasy, but I am reccomending Inkheart by Cornelia Funke right now.
Yeah it's actually been pretty handy to my language learning process to have a full series of books written at a child's reading level that it's easy to find secondhand or on Anna's archive etc translated into multiple other languages. They're mediocre and the author sucks but they've had a massive cultural impact worldwide and if you read them as a kid you'll be able to follow the plot pretty well even while you're still learning the language. I needed hardcopies because my job benefits from me being as analog as possible but like I said it's so easy to find translated copies of them for cheap.
As a side note, having gotten into the western esoteric spiritual traditions (tarot, astrology, etc) where she pulled a bunch of her worldbuilding from, idt people realize how deep the TERF roots are in that culture. There's a huuuge emphasis on a woman's reproductive status being the source of their power. It's much easier to separate yourself from that kind of thing with an esoteric religion compared to an institutional one like mainstream Christianity but it does still require being mindful of what outside sources you integrate into your personal philosophy. There's definitely times I've been vibing along reading about somebody's homebrew ritual practices only to have a record scratch moment when they start talking about their inner mother goddess expressing it's power through her womb like bitch the only reason I even kept the thing was to maybe donate it some day jeebus.
It does seem like the only tarot books worth a shit are written from an LGBTQ perspective and they work on de-gendering and decolonizing it. I don't fuck with astrology, because... it's astrology. Also, at its core, it's about judging people based upon when they were born, and that makes as much sense as judging people based on their skin color.
Well the thing is that if you get real deep into tarot (which is amazing for introspection and helping others explore their emotions in a spiritual context) you basically have to learn astrology.
As an example, the Thoth vs RWS decks place the major arcana differently because they disagreed on how they should be ordered to best correspond with the orders of the fixed elemental signs. You also see the signs depicted visually especially in the RWS deck, which is what most themed decks are based on (haven't gotten into Marseille yet, but that's probably my next step).
And then when you get down to it you realize that the MBTI is literally just astrology with a self deterministic twist (they're both ultimately based on four humors / temperament theory), so when you layer that, you can usually find a datetime either tropically or sidereally that represents you or an important event in your life that can then use to tell a story about yourself that feels richer spirituality and symbolically. So for instance tropically I'm an earth sign and my chart overall leans very yin, but when calculated sidereally I'm a fire sign with strong Yang elements and it also fits better with MBTI-ENTP (although it's an air its very fire adjacent).
In the end, all of it is so vague that the whole point of it is to just find something to latch on to give yourself identity and connection to a wider culture, it's just important to understand that that's ultimately what you're doing.
TLDR; astrology glyphs are prettier than MBTI letters
And the TERF thing itself isn't even really colonialism it's actually somewhat integral to the original belief systems. Fertility cults are some of the world's oldest religions. Especially in the case of something like Easter, colonialism actually reduced the influence of the fertility ideology. The anti TERF sentiment that's (thankfully) taking hold is more of a modernization than decolonization.
It's also wild to even talk about decolonization with tarot specifically when the very first tarot decks were literally Italian where it started as a trick-taking table game and a children's card based RPG and was then adapted into a sellable game by the VERY white order of the golden dawn and printed and sold by a board game company. It's been the occult / gnostic tails side of Capitalist Institutional Christianity coin basically the entire time it's existed, there's nothing to "reclaim."
Yeah, the 20th century versions of western esoterica are really bad about that for the most part. To the point that transfeminine pagans have a few specific directions we're typically recommended towards. Off the top of my head it's largely Avalonianism, Cybelianism, and Inanna/Ishtar worship.
i don't want anyone to feel conflicted because they like harry potter and hate jowling kowling rowling. i want them to feel peace with not watching or reading harry potter because it's a terribly written story by a talentless hack who got extremely lucky. literally everything about it is awful, the characters, the plots, the conclusions...
please get over your nostalgia. you're not a child anymore, just think about how much you projected your own good will into a story full of bigotry and vile.
Right? I feel bad for adult Harry Potter fans in a way, because it's almost certain that they've simply never read another book since they were literal children.
They are missing out on some actual really good shit because they've formed their personality around a mediocre series of books written for literal children.
But they already read book! They're done! Shat is this, school!?
Everything matters more than Harry Potter. Harry Potter is fantasy slop, it is insanely unoriginal in so many ways. There's better stuff out there to read and support. I don't understand why people go gaga for this shit.
That's because they're books for children. Has everyone forgotten this?
The average Harry Potter fan is still nostalgic for their lost childhood innocence I guess.
Childhood nostalgia is a pretty big deal for nearly all humans. That is why a Charizard card sells for 10k. There is something in your life that you miss, it is just not Harry Potter.
A lot of people look back for many reasons and everyone has their own attachments. It is upsetting to lose an attachment and have part of your childhood tainted by the present.
Let people grieve for the past, it is normal and healthy.
The first 2-3 books maybe, but Joanne really tried to push for a more mature tone, with none of the writing skills to back it up. Slavery, creatures that devour your soul, date rape, torture to the point of insanity, political corruption, the rise of fascism, grief, child soldiers, analogies about aid-riddled homosexuals targeting children. None of these are topics for a children’s book, let alone one written by a bigoted idiot.
I only made it as far as the first few chapters of book 4. I saw the repeating pattern and realised it wasn't for me.
I hate this attitude that it's okay for something to suck if it's made for children.
I don't think the books suck. They are suitable for the age group they are intended for. People act like they're supposed to be great literature or something, though.
It doesn't matter that they're unoriginal - the target audience don't know that. It's the first time they've seen these things, so they feel original to them.
Holllld up. No reason to act like kids don't deserve media of a higher caliber, or that media created with them in mind can't be just as enjoyable for adults. Harry Potter is far from my hyperfixation but I can't stand these arguments no matter where they crop up.
Oh they certainly do. It's always saddened me that these books are what grabbed the imagination of a generation when Terry Pratchett's books were right there.
But that said, they did get a lot of kids into reading and I hope they explored further. It feels like a lot just hyper-focused on HP, though.
Everyone expects media, other than their favorite, to be perfect.
Things are allowed to be kind of bad and people are allowed to like them anyway.
Things are not allowed to be bigoted, of course.
That is an utterly useless kind of critique. If you don't like 'fantasy slop' on its artistic merit that is a purely personal opinion that adds nothing to the justified critique of JKR.
Don't judge people for what they enjoy. It's just a fact that HP was a major party of many people's childhood and that many of us dreamed of going to Hogwarts and casting spells as kids.
Belittling that does not strengthen your case against JKR's anti-trans bigotry - just makes you look like a bigot and a snob yourself.
Hear hear
It's a pretty good way to train boycotting.
Yes. Yes they always will.
JKR is a fucking ghoul. A projection worst than any of her creations.
the sad thing is that harry potter was one of the only things that kept me alive before i came out of the closet/transitioned T_T mostly for leaky, starkid, and pottercast not so much anything rowling did
(i like land of stories now more because chris colfer is a FAR better author and person than rowling)
I wish that franchise never existed.
You want some real wizardry? Join forces with Tzeentch or Slaanesh.
Lady Space marines ftw \m/
(I don't know the equivalent for that in the old world or mortal realms but whatever)
Wouldn't pirating kinda solve the issue? The fiction itself is not inherently bad and if you pirate you are not supporting the author. Normalize pirating harry potter stuff ig.
Arr.
Tell me if I am wrong tho i cannot really see dislikes.
The argument goes that while pirating doesn't inherently support the author, continuing to participate in fandom perpetuates the cultural influence that the author has in society and can encourage others by proxy to go spend money on the author's work.
I'm not participatiing in fandom by reading a book.
We are all participating in fandom right now.
Bad press is still press.
No, were participating in discussion around the books that even someone who hasn't read them could easily participate in.
If bad press is still press then the OP shouldn't have done so, huh?
I hope we can turn some people off the franchise, but ultimately I expect it to keep growing, partially even thanks to posts like these.
Sure, if you read a book and never tell anyone you did it you aren't participating in fandom. My point was more about people who continue to be "Harry Potter fans" and explicitly do participate in fandom (posting about it, writing fanfiction, whatever) despite not wanting to support Rowling.
That works to an extent, as long as you aren't talking to your friends about the show, who might then go off and watch it somewhere that supports her.
Well I didn't consider that because I have no friends-
Jokes aside that's fair lol. But like of you go to watch it somewhere that supports her it's kinda not pirating anymore. But I guess uou are more likely to do so if you already consume the content ig. I doubt anyone would in an scenario like this tho. But it is a big world ig.
It's pretty bad. Remember how abolishing slavery is literally a running gag? Or his there's one character of every non-white ethnicity? Or the prose kinda sucked? Or how dumb the magic sport is? Or...
Edit: if you want someone from the same place writing genuinely whimsical important meaningful bullshit wizard stories, try Pratchett's 'discworld' novels. They're far from perfect, but the author died of old while never being outed as a raging piece of shit, so I think you're safe. There's also one where all but one of the main characters turns out to be trans or in drag.
Don't forget the names of the non-white characters are racist caricatures at best.
Caroline Easom did two videos on the women in the books, and makes a really good argument that Rowling doesn't really seem to like anyone but like, white men. She hates women, particularly women of colour.
For example, you have Parwati and Padma Patel, who are basically the same character, filling the same role; being backup ladies that Harry and Ron to settle with bringing to the ball. The difference between them? One wears their hair a braid! Ooo.
Hell, even Hermione who is ostensibly a main character is treated really poorly in the books.
I don't think there's anything about those books that I want to remember.
It's not just a running gag, but the one character who takes an issue with it is ridiculed for it.
Honestly, it makes no sense that Harry is so relaxed about the slavery thing, he's also from a "muggle" background, and should be affected just as much as Hermione. Then again, he's a pretty insensitive prick, and shows very little care for the people around him.
Then again, he is a trust-fund baby that grew up to be a cop. So... Guess all that is par for the course.
I don't believe in perfection, but Terry Pratchett's books are terrific.
For an interesting and fairly recent magical school story, I'd recommend the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik, also known for His Majesty's Dragon, a historic fantasy series.
I take issue with "they're far from perfect"
Even the ones where you can see his early-onset Alzheimer's developing are excellent
GNU Terry Pratchett
The first two aren't spectacular. They're better than harry Potter, but they don't really pop.
I'll give you that. But .... Night Watch, Small Gods, Carpe Jugulum, The Amazing Maurice, Thud!
The Tiffany Aching books hit so hard too. And anything with Susan Sto Helit
Hard agree!!!
I second this, but I found even his Tiffany Aching novels tougher to read than HP 1-2 for a youngster.
Chris Ridell has written amazing books for the younger audience. The Ottoline serie (youngest public) were the only books I enjoyed reading to kids for the Nth time and you find a similar humour in Lily Goth and such.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoline_and_the_Yellow_Cat
I'd recommend the Kingkiller Chronicle (though many might disagree since the third book may never come out) for any adults who seem to be stuck on Harry Potter and want something that's actually good and not written for babies.
Pirate, then donate to a trans-friendly charity what the books would have cost.
Uh huh..........
Have you tried reading books that were written for adults yet?
I guess if you think it's cool to perpetuate the ideas of a bigoted pile of filth (no)
What ideas? It' a genuine question I don't remember much about the story.
I just mean in general but theres also a whole slave species that nobody really talks about.
They're talked about all the time wym
Oh, nvm then. i just never see it, i guess
Amen to that 🙌
Harry Potter doesn't matter
I feel vindicated every time i see one of these, because i never liked Harry Potter; But now i actively dislike it after watching Rowling lose her head entirely over trans people.
I’m glad I found the first book too boring to finish, and never tried again.
I was given the books as a kid, I wasn't really into reading like most children and my pet budgie ended up ripping them apart and covering them with shit. :)
The important part is that we can have both
If you're talking about the original books you purchased years ago then sure, I guess.
But buying anything from or supporting the HP franchise now, financially supports JKR, and that means she can finance more of her transphobic bullshit that hurts all of us. So in that case no, no we can't have both.
God knows why you'd want to enjoy a story written by a person as awful as JKR these days, though anyway. I know I can't.
You shouldn't use oil products because they contribute to climate change. The same logic I believe
Because the story is good, but jfk is not. Get over it
I just genuinely can't understand how anyone who agrees JKR is awful could enjoy it now. I used to like it too. But when I think about HP now, it reminds me of JKR, how shit of a person she is, how much she would hate me, and I just can't enjoy it anymore. It's been tarnished by association, in my eyes.
You probably live in a country which committed genocides, take medicine which was tested on humans involuntarily, use fossil fuels that will eventually kill so many people, probably eat meat or dairy which is coupled with animal suffering and so much more.
All of these and the HP thing can excite doxastic anxiety in you. A grown up neurotypical adult should be able to overcome it.
You're oddly very defensive of a fictional fantasy world created by a massively bigoted bitch.
I am. Thanks for the highlight
Good luck with that :)
Ugh, this same old tired comparison.
Most oil products have little to no practical alternatives. There are plenty of alternatives to the Harry Potter franchise. And no, the story is not good. If you think it's good, I implore you to explore other children's fiction, because you're obviously missing out.
There are not replacements for that story if they enjoy it. Which is an opinion thing, which you don't control.
I would rather say the alternatives can't replace the nostalgia that a lot of people have.
Basically a rephrasing of what I said with no functional difference. Both are likely true depending on the person
Enjoy it all you want, but stop buying the content. That's a choice you can easily make. You can't easily make the choice to stop buying petroleum products.
Never said otherwise
Then what are you arguing about
AI image?
I think it's just a weird font
The shape varies between instances of the same letter
Edit: nvm I could be wrong
Lmfaooo