People really like that Three of Kind trivia mini, so it’s back, this time with a focused geeky area, Harry Potter and the Wizarding World.
I’ll give you three things from the books and movies, you just tell me what they have in common.
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It seems like there’s less Harry Potter trivia after JK’s heel turn.
DGN – 7 Points – You’re not lobbing softballs, are you!
I can live with my score, I am not sure that I’d have done much better if I had my coffee.
There’s definitely less appetite for them, but the fanbase is strong. I go back and forth on it. I know Millennials and Gen Zers who found their “tribe” through HP (like we Xers did with Star Trek & Star Wars). So I can understand them not wanting to put it down.
I typed a long post before my coffee. It’s the sort of thing that I’d put behind a CW on Mastodon, so I am spoiler tagging it and warning everyone it’s a lot about separating art from artist:
[Edit: Or I would, if the tag was working.]
[spoiler]
I heard a lot of similar discussions when it came out that Joss Whedon was a dick to some of his stars. There was a comment by someone else who worked on Buffy that they were proud of the show they had made, and just because one part, even the founding part, had turned sour they didn’t want everyone to abandoned everything else they did because they liked what they had made.
I think there’s a bit of difference if the author of the thing has taken their toxic view and interwoven it into the work. That is, and underlying tenant of Joss Whedon’s shows wasn’t “Disregard your actors and treat them as your own personal action figures.” Some artists do work their toxic view into their work, like Ayn Rand. In this case, I think that the books are obviously JK’s view entirely, but by the time you get out and into everything that was put into the WB movies and merchandise it becomes much harder to determine.
For my own personal view, it also seems like a lot of her intolerance stemmed from the reaction she got when she expressed a viewpoint on it. Had she had a gentle friend who took her aside and explained why what she was espousing was something that was damaging to a swath of people, things would be different. As it stands, the most shrill of internet forums attacked her, and she seems to have reacted badly, causing an afflicted group of people to be seen as the villains by her. She seemed bitter towards that group as a reply, seeing them as an enemy, and entrenched herself more and more towards the wrong side of history. I also think all of that happened long after Harry Potter was written, so while there may be some seeds of it, it isn’t really a part of it. (The allegory of a willing servant class in the house elves is a different issue I am not exactly comfortable with, but that’s not the hill that JK decided to dig a grave on.)
[/spoiler]
Some of her early comments (before things blew up) echoed what I’ve heard from other women who have been the victims of abuse by men, they’re worried about their safety in public restrooms and other spaces.
Now, history has not shown this to be a legit fear, but I could see why they were worried. I think the larger discussion needs to be among men as to why we’re awful to women and why are they so afraid (remember the man or bear discussion from last year).