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Harry Potter’s books lost my interest after I found about JK Rowling’s garbage character.
Since we’re on the topic; what irked me the most about HP is that it feels like a glorification of the aristocracy.
The very idea that individuals born from great families are destined to influence the course of the world while the plebs rot in helpless ignorance is basically what’s wrong with the world. The magic school is clearly an allegory of these fucking ancient private colleges you get to go to if you’re born with status. The whole setup is a privilege fantasy.
This is especially grand considering actual witchcraft was a way to frame, demonize and ultimately neutralize ordinary women’s knowledge and influence, for the sake of tightening the clergy and the nobility’s grip on the layperson.
As someone who grew up on HP, there are way better books in the same genre out there anyway. The hype of Harry Potter is all just marketing from Warner Bros (they own most of the rights on merchandise).
If you want an actually good children’s/YA story about a young person learning magic and becoming the hero, try the Tiffany Aching subseries of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. They are much better written than HP.
Also, “A Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula Le Guin.
Harry Potter and the Transphobic Shrew
Don’t even pirate it!
Harry Potter isn’t even good.
Most of the people talking about Harry Potter and perpetuating its relevancy are trans people ironically
Nope it’s the average person still financially supporting JK Rowling by watching Fantastic Beasts and playing Hogwarts Legacy. We’re boycotting that stuff.
How do you figure that?
Anecdotally I see far far more posts and comments like the OP than I do people just talking about HP.
Kinda the opposite experience from me. I have heard it brought at the local brewery several times, and have even been asked directly what I thought of it as a non-binary person. Granted, that last one was with some regulars and they were legitimately asking if they should get their HP tattoo covered, but still
I literally have not seen anything Harry Potter related outside of trans discussion since the release of that video game and 95% of what I saw about it was not to buy it because of jk.
You have not seen anything about the coming show, the universal Epic HP area and attraction, the theater play or the pop up events that they do in some cities every once in a while?
It’s probably just that you’re not the target market for Harry Potter anymore and the only part of HP that’s still relevant to you is JKR and her transphobia.
HBO and their parent company Warner Bros are making a big deal out of their upcoming TV show. They own the rights to the films and merchandise and HP is a cash cow for them. They flopped with the Fantastic Beasts series, so you can bet there is going to be a push to try to cash in on nostalgia and novelty with the Harry Potter series.
Weird, but I also tend to run in nerdy circles. I have heard lots of other people talk about it just in passing and been asked directly
While I get the desire for escapism, I’ve never understood how the topic of magic had such a strong appeal to so many, anyway. I want an escape that might actually happen. Everyone should know that magic isn’t real, and it’s at best just science you don’t understand. At worst it’s just lies, misdirection, and slight-of-hand - the preference for which so many people have is what’s ruining everything in the real world as we speak.
You’re totally entitled to prefer stories and worlds that are grounded in realism - others enjoy reading stories that are flying high in fantasy far from the places we could ever hope to explore in our universe or anything that follows its rules. Absolutely not a defense of harry potter for what its worth, fuck jkr and everything she makes. But there’s such a wealth of stories to be told that don’t follow our rules, and many magic systems do follow hard and fast rules, they just don’t happen to be the ones we follow in our world.
could’ve just said you don’t like fantasy
I could have, but that wouldn’t be true. I like fantasy just fine, I just prefer that it is grounded in reality and what’s actually possible/probable.
I like metal, as long as it is slow jazz.
That’s not fantasy? That’s pretty much the exact opposite. From Oxford’s English dictionary:
“the faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable.”
E: Are you perhaps thinking science fiction?
You really don’t understand how the power to do literally anything you imagine is something people wish for?
Not when you know the methods depicted can’t effect that result in real life. I’d think if you actually desired such power then you’d want to focus on ways to actually achieve it.
I mean sure - I get it’s nice to fantasize about having such an ability, but as one outgrows other childhood trappings then I’d expect that to be left behind for something more realistic as well. But then, I guess it fits with the fact so many people never grow up at all, anyway.
