The Potterization Of Modern Life

[Icehaven]

That phrase makes me think.  The Potter books paid lip-service to diversity in having ethnic minorities, and implying Dumbledore had a gay fling as a teen-but I don't recall them including a literal cretin-a Down's Syndrome person-or someone in a wheelchair, or with Tourette's or Asberger's.  So they didn't tick the disabled diversity box.

Wouldn't they just cure anything like that with magic? Easy to see why Rowling didn't touch that with a bargepole, having to either have some convenient caveat that means disabilities can't be fixed with magic (which I'm presuming would be unlikely given what else magic can do in the books), or deal with the inevitable hoo-haa of implying disabled people need to be fixed, having angry parents complaining that their 7 year old desperately wants to go to Hogwarts so they can walk, wasting chapters on a child having to decide if they'd rather be a blind human or a seeing cat or something. Minefield. Actually that'd...no never mind.

[Sin Agog]

I'd like to see "The Worst Witch: The Sexy Years".

Here's hoping it's a prequel!

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Wouldn't they just cure anything like that with magic? Easy to see why Rowling didn't touch that with a bargepole, having to either have some convenient caveat that means disabilities can't be fixed with magic (which I'm presuming would be unlikely given what else magic can do in the books), or deal with the inevitable hoo-haa of implying disabled people need to be fixed, having angry parents complaining that their 7 year old desperately wants to go to Hogwarts so they can walk, wasting chapters on a child having to decide if they'd rather be a blind human or a seeing cat or something. Minefield. Actually that'd...no never mind.

Thinking about it, they clearly could cure physical ailments (short of death).  Whathisname got patched up after Harry did that spell that simulated him getting stabbed, in Half-Blood Prince.  But then in that case why did Harry still need glasses (files away as gleefully-askable awkward question to Ms Rowling)?

[Icehaven]

If they could cure physical ailments (short of death) then why did Harry need glasses (files away as gleefully-askable awkward question to Ms Rowling).

Another good point. Any Potter readers help? Can physical disabilities or illnesses be fixed with magick in Potter world?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I'll take Harry Potter over the Star Wars twats, who have blighted my entire life been around for ages.

Trek > Wars, and Narnia > Potter.

They're all cut from the same cloth really. If star wars is a space opera then LOTR is a hobbit opera or something.

Not for me.

[Dr Rock]

Stan Lee taught us that 'with great power comes great responsibility and you have to fight evil and that.' So all these kids graduate from Hogwarts, with all sorts of magical powers, what exactly do they do to make the world a better place? Fuck all.

[touchingcloth]

Another good point. Any Potter readers help? Can physical disabilities or illnesses be fixed with magick in Potter world?

Illnesses and injuries, yes, up to a point. It's never directly addressed that I can remember, but I think the "darker" the magic that caused the injury, the less hope there is of healing it - Harry's permanent forehead scar, for instance. I don't think congenital disabilities are ever mentioned.

Regarding general diversity, there's not a lot of explicit descriptions of people's races in the books, because it's not relevant to anything in the stories. There was a minor furore from the usual types when a black actor was cast as Hermione in the West End, but her skin colour isn't talked about in the books. Come to think of it, I'm not sure the Patil twins are ever explicitly described as being Asian, or the dreadlocked Lee Jordan as black.

[touchingcloth]

Keeley Hawes is also perfectly cast as the drunk and sexually frustrated bra-shop owner Samantha Mollison- in the book there's a great little subplot about her developing a crush on a member of a boyband her daughter loves, buying tickets to see that boyband, and being devastated when she can't accompany her to the show and a friend gets to take her daughter there instead. That was another thing cut out of the series, along with Fats bullying Sukhvinder- it could have done with six episodes rather than three as so much was cut out. Still a fairly good adaptation though.

Was that whole boyband subplot really cut from the TV adaptation? If so, it says a lot about the character and the performance that I can totally picture Keeley Hawes weeping into her chardonnay after being told she can't go to the gig.

[gloria]

Star Wars is just yer typical male infantalisation

The first film at least is the very opposite of this. It's your typical Joseph Campbell tale of an individual maturing.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Stan Lee taught us that 'with great power comes great responsibility and you have to fight evil and that.'

He also taught you Bruce Banner's trousers wouldn't split at the waist, crutch or arse even if he grew enough to totally burst the clothes off his upper body-so pinch of salt there.

[Dr Rock]

Bruce Banner is a scientist, and would always spray his trousers with a serum that would make them stretchy.

[yesitsme]

Cut JK some slack eh?  My missus likes Zombie books (but not films).  I have no idea how she can read so many stories about shuffling bastards after yer brains but as long as she is doing people will keep writin' em won't they?

[ASFTSN]

Fantasy literature for people that don't give a shit about fantasy literature....

...and for their kids too!!!!111

[Twed]

Cut JK some slack eh?

No? Because she's a big rich menace.

[Sin Agog]

The first film at least is the very opposite of this. It's your typical Joseph Campbell tale of an individual maturing.

I'd say the whole Joseph Campbell deal is something apparent in whole swathes of mostly male geek culture- conjuring up from inside of you a mythological superhero figure rather than facing up to what's here on earth (something wimminz tend to do a little earlier in life).  Feels a bit like an excuse to remain encased in a permanent adolescence, and that's cool I guess if you're built that way, but there are nefarious sides to it all.  Like will they ever get to develop an adult view of women as multi-dimensional beings, and will they ever learn how to open themselves up to emotions on a day-to-day microcosmic level, or must they be eked out in the form of a space opera instead?  There is something super-conservative at the heart of a lot of geek cult'jah.  That said, I do dig Star Wars...and definitely a bloody lot more than Haarrriiieeee Pwooartaaagh!

[H Scorn]

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/06/corbyn-jk-rowling-obama-blair-macron

Another "WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE LABOUR PARTY!" wailer living in a bubble.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

The first film at least is the very opposite of this. It's your typical Joseph Campbell tale of an individual maturing.

It's just a young guy helping a bird because he fancies her and in doing so having hassles in a merchant town, space station and mass-spaceship scrap.  Heck, Han, Chewie and Obi-Wan bail his ass out more than not.

[Dr Rock]

How is he a hero? Isn't his main motivation to save himself from Voldemort? I suppose he does help defend the castle or whatever it is they live in, I think. Not much else of any self-sacrificing necessary to make a hero, unless I've missed something.

[Gurke and Hare]

I don't see what the author of The Worst Witch would have to be so upset about. I'm pretty sure there were stories of witches and wizards having adventures before that.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

How is he a hero? Isn't his main motivation to save himself from Voldemort? I suppose he does help defend the castle or whatever it is they live in, I think. Not much else of any self-sacrificing necessary to make a hero, unless I've missed something.

Well, at the end, he faces off for the big shoot-out with Voldy, but finding it was a foregone conclusion deflates it somewhat.

[Dr Rock]

Well, at the end, he faces off for the big shoot-out with Voldy, but finding it was a foregone conclusion deflates it somewhat.

Well exactly, his goal is self-preservation. I think most of his escapades in the stories are to save himself from some trouble or get an advantage, not to help anyone else. Could be wrong, I bet he's saved his three mates at some point (which is still not really altruistic, as he wants them as friends/to fuck Hermione).

[BlodwynPig]

I think the cafe that heavily promotes itself as the cafe where she wrote Harry Potter, The Elephant Cafe, isn't the real one. The real one, Nicholson's, next to the old James Thin bookshop isn't there anymore.

Christ alive. They probably have a replica "Cafe where JK Rowling wrote the Harry books" Cafe in Utah.

[BlodwynPig]

I'm not sure that's entirely accurate actually - while there was a lot of hype, it didn't come straightaway - the first Potter book was published in 1997, but it wasn't until 1999 that they started becoming particularly well known - all that marketing and stuff about the cafe etc only really became a thing after her books had already started becoming popular with kids - it capitalised on it and no doubt helped to increase it but didn't quite originate the initial appeal.  It was more a result of it than the first cause.

I still can't believe it started in 1997...it seems much more recent. I mean, the 90s were a cultural high point and the 00s were the low point.

It's a shame that my favourite fantasy hero Thomas Covenant (a raping leper) did not attract such fandom.

[touchingcloth]

Well exactly, his goal is self-preservation. I think most of his escapades in the stories are to save himself from some trouble or get an advantage, not to help anyone else.

I wouldn't say his goal is self-preservation, as there are loads of instances of him putting himself in harms way when he could be opting for a quiet life. I guess you could argue that it's self-aggrandisement more than selfless heroics in most cases, but that's not really how his motivations are portrayed.

[Blinder Data]

My GF's mum is a librarian and reads children's books all the time. She's lukewarm towards HP (and stuff like Jacqueline Wilson) for the same reasons as Serge. Though they boost bookshops and libraries, many of the books' fans don't tend to explore other genres or authors. They encourage the monopolisation of one style, when a pluralistic approach would benefit readers and authors alike.

I find the continuing obsession with HP baffling. Friends who have mature tastes in all other respects turn into blabbering children on the subject. I was 7 when the first book came out so the perfect age and I loved them at the time, but obviously one's idea of what is good and what isn't should change over time.

Same people who say GoT is THE BEST TV SHOW OF ALL TIME. No it's not, it's a very well executed idea with an excellently fleshed-out world. Likeable memorable characters too. But in the grand scheme of things, eh it's pretty good.

[Alternative Carpark]

My GF's mum is a librarian and reads children's books all the time. She's lukewarm towards HP (and stuff like Jacqueline Wilson) for the same reasons as Serge. Though they boost bookshops and libraries, many of the books' fans don't tend to explore other genres or authors. They encourage the monopolisation of one style, when a pluralistic approach would benefit readers and authors alike.

Something similar often used to be said about Enid Blyton.  There was a time, decades ago, when some librarians would apparently even refuse to stock her work, thinking it a bad influence, or that those who read her works tended to only read her and no other writers.  History repeating itself to some extent maybe.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Well at least Rowling isn't a massive bigot I suppose.

[Repeater]

sure she is

[gloria]

It's just a young guy helping a bird because he fancies her and in doing so having hassles in a merchant town, space station and mass-spaceship scrap.  Heck, Han, Chewie and Obi-Wan bail his ass out more than not.

Metaphors.

[Twed]

Well at least Rowling isn't a massive bigot I suppose.

She's Twitter's TFM, and unfortunately has a lot of power due to her platform.