This is probably a minority take, but I feel like it might be important to watch this show if you want to have conversations with people in your life about JKR. If you don’t want to have conversations, absolutely ignore it.
Obviously, don’t spend money on it supporting her, but the overwhelming likelihood is that the show will be at least passably good. For better or worse, it’s a beloved IP and HBO has a solid history.
The conversations about the show will happen, and if I want to steer that conversation in my life, I need to be able to offer and interject something other than “Hey, did you know JKR is the richest woman in Britain and a massive piece of shit?”
Know thy enemy.
My pet peeve with Harry Potter is the Confederate ideology with slaves and house elves. If I want to have that conversation (I do), I’m going to need some familiarity to offer critique and highlight how they’re treating it and if they’re treating it differently.
I’ve historically been an advocate for separating the art from the artist.
For example, I know that Kovarex is a piece of shit but I still enjoy factorio. I actively avoid learning about the musicians I listen to. I do not want to know about the personal lives of the authors of the books I like.
But this bitch has taken it too far. There’s only so much I can ignore. I will never spend another cent on anything related to her works, nor will I recommend them to anyone.
Pirate the shit of any JK Rowling related thing…
Best way to punish RFK, sorry I mean JKR is for some LGBTQ+ people to shoot videos telling how HP helped them to come out of hiding and reveal their true self to the world. They can go onto to say things like HP has given them the courage to fight for this cause and in some cases, thanks to this courage, they ended up working in institutes that sets policies regarding LGBTQ+ rights.
her books were always about her “real beliefs” just hidden behind her writing. family guy joked about her writing-anti-trans years before she went full terf.
OK, this is a tough one and what I’m about to say might get me some dislikes. Let me just say something that might soften the blow: Fuck Rowling, her transphobia, and the bigots that defend her wretched views. Even if she decided, in an alternative timeline, decided her loudmouth shut, she would still be the scum of the earth for her views on trans people. I repeat, Fuck Rowling.
Now, with that out the way, let’s address the crux of the issue. I know that many of you in the LGBTQ+ community grew up with the franchise and enjoyed it long before Rowling exposed her true colors. If you’re LGBTQ+ and you decide to reconcile, in some way, with the franchise without directly supporting Rowling, you’re well within your rights to do so. The nostalgia you feel for something that brought you joy in your youth is yours to keep. No one, not even the creator themselves, can take that from you. As for the products themselves? You can: buy the books secondhand, pirate the movies, pirate the EPUBs if you have an e reader and buy fan-made merch from LGBTQ±friendly sellers.
If decided to not reconcile with the franchise, you’re also well within your rights to do so. Rowling has to made aware of the damage her views have on people. Demonstrate the hypocrisy of writing about a group of outsiders finding a place of acceptance and discovering their true selves and espousing bigoted rhetoric towards a discriminated group wanting acceptance for their true selves. There’s plenty of other fictional universes you can draw your attention towards (more on that in a moment) that are far less problematic and worthier of your time.
If you’re an ally (like myself), it’s best that we don’t engage with the franchise all together out of support. For me, this isn’t a problem since I didn’t engage with the franchise all that much in my youth (I was more of a LOTR fan). If you do decide to reconcile, much of what I have already said still applies.
In short, the question of reconciliation is a personal matter. So long as Rowling isn’t benefiting, you should be happy with your decision and the stand you take. As for alternatives? Well…
The already mentioned Lord of The Rings
Dune series
Discworld
Elric of Melniboné
Wheel of Time
Potheads are tiring.
The best way to enjoy something that may benefit a problematic person is to simply acquire it in a way that doesn’t benefit them. Perhaps whilst on board a ship with a nice barrel of grog.
I have never even had an inner monologue about wanting to support of continue consume the work of someone who made something I like after they’ve got outed for bad shit. It’s just and instant “damn, sucks to loose that thing but that’s all there is too it.”
I seriously don’t understand people who do that and the whole “separate the art from the artist” shit.
We have more than enough of literally everything, you aren’t giving up something that nothing else can replace. There’s more stuff to like and discover from nice people than anyone can fit in their lifetime.I don’t know, but as I grew older and the world became more harsh, out of cynicism I stopped investing in so much pop culture and especially personalities who have or could possibly make an about-face.
So many people in this thread defend J.K. Rowling, or at least the Harry Potter works, under the guise that Rowling’s anti-trans positions are just an opinion. She does so much more than just talk. She uses her personal fortune made directly from Harry Potter to fund legal attacks on the rights of transgender people in the UK.
Imagine if Elon Musk showed up one day to fund a civil case against you for playing rec league soccer or to get you fired from your job. This is what the beginning of genocide looks like. It may take years to get to the camps and the ovens, but we will get there. Hell, the camps are already built here in the US, and they will house more than the transgender.
https://www.advocate.com/news/jk-rowling-anti-trans-organization
Your outrage is meaningless. You’re screaming into a void that either already agrees with you or doesn’t give a shit.
I don’t give a shit. Your argument is hollow and rings of hurt feeling and betrayal. Of the hundreds of upvotes most consume corprate media that funds worse people.
This isn’t a noble grand stand, you’re just butthurt and picked a popular target to hate. Manufactured transphobe Nickleback.
When I see this shit I want to read HP. Not because I like it, I hated the books, just out of spite.
I think we should normalize acknowledging reality. JK Rowling is a POS, Neil Gaiman is a POS, many others are POS or problematic for different reasons. A lot of products are owned by problematic companies. Some have better alternatives.
Bashing people for it is just going to make people tune you out though. Just be aware. I’m really not interested in the Harry Potter show. But the movies are a staple. If I see Tom Cruise is in a movie I get a lot less interested in it. I still like Edge of Tomorrow though.
Bashing people
What usually happens is people conflate critique of the media they consume with an attack on them as people.
I wanted to see Edge of Tomorrow so bad because it looked like a cool scifi movie but my wife HATES Tom Cruise as if he’d wronged her personally. Told her he dies like 100 times. I got to see it in the theater with her.
Just don’t pay for it and be done with it.
Enjoy Harry Potter, just don’t give money to scumbag author.
Read some genuinely good fiction? What do you like about them? I guarantee theres better books for that.
As someone who did grow up with the series but doesn’t interact with it anymore, I’m gonna tell you that not everyone needs things to be good.
It doesn’t have to be good for you to enjoy it. Fanfiction alone wouldn’t exist if it had to be good.
I don’t understand this the same way I don’t understand burning books you already own. It’s performative but it doesn’t show any actual thought.
Lack of thought is part of the problem.
I’m not even saying she’s not a terrible person (she’s a self righteous harpy who I do believe is doing actual harm). The books weren’t great but they were okay. But like. At the same time people read for a plethora of reasons and I don’t think it’s fair to be like “it’s not good so you shouldn’t enjoy it”. People are allowed to enjoy things. They don’t have to be good.
There are plenty of reasons to avoid her books without crapping on people’s personal tastes.
Its not the books that are problem. Its the weird self gratification unchallenge cuddle-treats uncritical or even anti-critical consumption of media thats the problem.
I can agree with that up to a point.
But that’s about the psychology of human nature, how it forms memories and attached feelings to them as much as anything else.
That’s pretty much why people feel like they are personally being attacked when you ask them to avoid something that is now seen as problematic. Lots of authors (even childrens book authors) dumb down themes and use tropes that are well known on media to make broad strokes for their audience who don’t at that time understand nuance.
That’s a lot of the “controversy” that comes up around books like the red wall series. Some people think the books are sexist, classist, and possibly racist and I can see their points. At the same time there’s an argument to be made for dumbing down certain themes, removing nuance from them so that they are more palatable to a younger audience.
Either way that’s not really what you mean. I am not trying to take away from what you said. There are plenty of fans who have been critical of Harry Potter as a media franchise for various reasons including sexism, classism, racism and the allegories associated with each as they come up in the story. Accusing HP fans of not being able to do that is a bit disingenuous because they have been taking these books and movies apart to the bedrock for quite some time now.
What I think you mean is that you want them to be critical of why they enjoy the series so that they can do some introspection in order to part with it, but I’m not sure you understand exactly what you’re asking for. There are people who owe their sanity (something they almost lost to the lowest points in their lives) to HP and books like it. The escapism is important for a lot of children who are in dark places.
If the person in that comic had used HP to get them through childhood rape or other abuse, wouldn’t that make a lot of sense as to why they react that way to other people who don’t know them or their trauma trying to take that away from them?
No this is not me saying that because they have trauma they are allowed to inflict trauma on others.
I look at it this way. The way we inform people and talk to people matters. Treating people like our adversaries makes them defensive and less likely to do what we are asking.
Im not saying they should necessarily part with it. Only interrogate their fucking relationship with it.
you just dont understand, some kids were abused and took refuge in literature
You had no way to know how funny it is to tell me this but i really hope none of my neighbors were asleep.
Its like how one cant criticize lenin in front of a tankie without them throwing a fit.
Or, maybe, look at those books with critical eyes for the first time in your life, and realise how shit it is, and how much it is littered with awful terrible takes. And read another book maybe.
how can people enjoy shit made by absolute hags?
like, if you have standards, and you should, that ought to make said products gross, because it really fucking does.
there’s so much more to this world than this one shitty, played out franchise, just move on in life people ffs
Disliking a chefs dish based on their political stance or personal opinion no matter how wrong isnt going to solve anything about it, just a giant waste of energy
lol, keep telling yourself whatever lies you need to stay happy.
but if you had a shred of decency in you, you’d know better already.
Sure, but it’s reasonable to stop going to the restaurant because of the chef’s political stance or personal opinion.
I dont see a prpblem with it as long as you dont pay them. Some of gaiman’s stuff was genuinely good.
The problem is making it your identity. Consuming uncritically. Worshipping. Not reading any other kinds of shit.
enjoy your terfy garbage
No i dont read absolute trash. I think as a kid i stopped reading after they made a pro slavery charicature.
I think as a kid i stopped reading after they made a pro slavery charicature.
I’m confused by someone who knows it’s racist garbage, but still advocates consuming racist garbage. bone apple teat
The problem isnt that the author is a fascist monster livint in a castle full of nazis and absolutely no glorious robot body with machine gun hands that rumor is totally unsubstantiated.
Many talented authors were pieces of shit. Yukio mishima killed himself because the emperor of japan wasnt fascist enough fir him, but god damn could that deranged piece of shit write beautiful prose.
The problem is that the books are trash and people have fucking insane relationships to them.
Richard Wagner was a bigtime nazi who wrote some of the best classical music ever.
Wagner died in 1883. like 50 years before the rise of the Nazis in Germany.
You’ve got it backwards. Nazis were a big fan of his music.
ride of the Valkyries is shite and if you think it’s great, that’s prob your inner der fuhrer trying to drive the bus.
And apparently Gene Roddenberry wasn’t an entirely perfect human being either.
3D print your own merch
