Nostalgic Lookback: Harry Potter
Alright, I cannot put this off forever (plus it's now Pride Month, so I'd rather not put off addressing the transphobic bully in the room and the stuff made by her until any later.) I have to talk Harry Potter.
I think it was 1999 when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was selected to be read aloud from on a daily basis in one of my school classes. I didn't really get it at first but as the story went on for day after day, week after week, I got more drawn in to the wizarding world and magical school life that it presented. Despite the controversy over this series of YA novels from puritan-minded evangelical Christians at the time, my mom gave that first book a read too and ended up loving it just as much. With Harry Potter deemed excellent and appropriate reading for the family, I read the second and third book in the series with great enthusiasm, and the much lengthier fourth book that followed through on the dark turn taken in Book 3. Reading about the resurrection of Lord Voldemort and Harry being made to face him once again was such a hype moment for kid me.
Around the holiday season of 2001, the film adaptation of the first book came out in theaters, and it conveniently coincided with when my family started listening to the audio tapes of the books narrated by Jim Dale on our holiday road trips. The film series, to be expected, isn't as good as the books, but they're still quality entertainment that you can tell had a lot of care, heart, and effort put into realizing them and includes many of the finest British actors cast in various roles, most memorably the late Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore in the first two films, the late Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, the late Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid, the late Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonnagle, the still living Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, the still living Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort, and even the still living Evana Lynch as Luna Lovegood. Stellar performances by all!
There was a two year gap between the release of Book 4 and the release of Book 5 (the books were getting THICK, so I understand), but following the tradition that got set, the new Harry Potter book releases became the Summer Blockbusters of literature, with Book 5 coming out Summer 2003, Book 6 two years after in Summer 2005, and Book 7, the finale, two years after that in Summer 2007.
And for me, the story of Harry Potter, Hogwarts, and the Wizarding World ends at the final defeat of Voldemort and that divisive time skip epilogue. (Okay, The Cursed Child is actually pretty alright as a coda, third act strangeness and all). I felt completely satisfied with the way JK Rowling ended her years long, seven book story - I was in no need for any more. And it actually sort of disappoints me that the series' fanbase was so big, so vast, and so diverse that not everyone felt the same, and thus Rowling started bullshitting with the IP, first with nonsensical after-the-fact political nonsense (What do you mean Albus Dumbledore was gay? Where did that come from? I saw no evidence in the text for that!) and then just franchising the shit out of the "The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter", whoring out more merch, video games, a whole ass theme park at Universal Studios with rides and attractions, spinoff books, trading and playing card games, online stuff, phone app games, that goddamn Fantastic Beasts film trilogy, etc. Enough just could not be enough for her and the die-hard fanbase. And ironically, it just served to dilute away the actual magic of the property. It's diffcult for me to associate all this crud with the formative book and film series that I loved so much in my youth.
Joanne Kathleen Rowling authored the Harry Potter series, and for the imagination, heart and passion, story crafting instincts, and considerable talent in putting it all to pen and text that came from her way back when, I will be forever thankful. But for everything else - and I do mean everything else - I say "fuck you and retire already."
Pride Month reminder: please do NOT pay money for anything Harry Potter related, as JKR will use those profits as funds to donate to anti-trans hate groups and further her radical, cruel, oppressive and nigh genocidal cause against trans people and their allies within the LGBTQ+ community. And if you're to engage with Harry Potter at all, do so with free fan-made content and OC-based works of writing and/or art. All fans of this IP and what it brought you, take YOUR magic back from JKR!
