i never hit reblog so fast in my life

“I hope you find someone you can’t live without. I really do. And I hope you never have to know what it’s like to have to try and live without them.” ― Kiera Cass, The Selection

Love this book...

Press conference at the Hotel George V in Paris, 3 May 1973 © Tony Grylla

drouot.com/

The Problem Expanding the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The Harry Potter series is deeply loved all over the world. I, too, grew up and fell in love with reading, because of early exposure to the Wizarding universe. However, I think we can all admit the series does have its flaws and plot holes. It happens in every book. There’s always a matter of suspension of belief, especially when it involves magic/super powers in the same world we live in.

The problem with J.K. Rowling’s new “History of Magic in Northern America” is that she’s expanding into the world, when to hold together, her story needs to stay on a smaller scale. Native Americans have been angry because J.K. has essentially erased the prejudice and violence they faced, because “wizards all respect kin”. This is offensive and harmful and doesn’t even fit with the focus of the Harry Potter series, which revolved around harmful blood purity prejudice, so obviously Wizards don’t respect all of their kin. 

My main point is that as J.K. expands into real world history, you run into inevitable issues. In the Harry Potter series, Wizards are often ridiculously ignorant of muggle-behaviors, despite having lived on the same planet since forever. Logically, it is very unlikely that wizards could remain so oblivious to muggle habits. The fact that muggle studies wouldn’t be required so wizards could blend in (In the first Harry Potter, they talk about all the wizards in strange clothing that muggles notice on the night of Voldemort’s supposed death. Yes, very subtle.) and not draw undue attention to themselves is bizarre and not very helpful to living undetected.

Now, continuing with the idea the Wizards aren’t involved with the muggle world, you bring in history. She talks about Native Americans. Are you telling me that Native American wizards never cared about the prejudice they witnessed? That they didn’t use magic to prevent white people from hurting, harming, and terrorizing their land. Even if you try to say, well, the Native America wizards had their own secret tribe, what about a muggle born? Wouldn’t that Native American wizard want to stand up against violence and oppression like that? With such power and ability, it would be easy to stop such issues. Even just putting barriers around tribes would’ve been successful. 

This becomes an issue as you apply it to other historical events. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes place in the 1920s, full of segregation and racism, but also the Harlem Renaissance. If there are any black characters, will they just ignore the racism they see everyday? Would they feel no kinship or empathy? Even white characters should be concerned. Did no wizard ever have a moral compass, especially muggle borns who saw their family struggle and deal with these very real issues?

You can’t tell me no Jewish wizard was ever tempted to apparate into Hitler’s sleeping quarters and Avada Kedavra his ass. Or, taking a less violent route, they could’ve wiped his memory like Gilderoy Lockhart. There would be tons of spells and things they could do to keep malicious world leaders like Hitler from happening. And even though the laws in place may not allow it, would those muggle borns or wizards of the same race/sex/opressed class not want to help? No matter how small the wizard numbers are, I can’t imagine they wouldn’t try to get involved with these things. But applying that power to real world history causes the world building of wizards to fall apart. It makes wizards look like assholes who stood by with no concern for the killings of millions of people because they’re superior wizarding class. That could be considered prejudice in itself.

I deeply, deeply love Harry Potter. It was the first story my parents read to me as a child. And I do love reading the tidbits JK writes for Pottermore. But the wizarding world and its stories need to be kept more insular, like the books mostly taking place in Hogwarts, a small school community. Reading stories in a small setting, its not a concern how wizards affect history and social justice, but applying them to the world at large does. 

JK Rowling is an excellent writer in my opinion, and definitely very revolutionary for the world of writing and publishing. Even so, her world needs to be kept smaller for maintaining suspension of belief. While I appreciate her trying to flesh out the world, it just isn’t going to hold up under any scrutiny.  And JK is currently erasing racism and prejudice for her stories to work and that is offensive to many readers who want to be able to see themselves in the wizarding world without erasing their history and struggles.

-Dakota

tl;dr Writing magic from Harry Potter into a more real world setting is very complicated to keep it from falling apart and works better in smaller settings, like Hogwarts. If JK does keep expanding, she’ll need to try harder to mix magic and reality and NOT erase people/culture/races because its easier. That’s just lazy.

aunt may does right by her nephew. 

oh my god this is adorable

Quote of the week.

Legit Tip #87

Fill your stories with ordinary people. 

It’s incredibly tempting to go for wish-fulfillment and to cram your stories full of the people you sometimes wished existed. You want to give them incredible intelligence, fashion sense, you want them to be attractive, you want them to be witty…

But the best characters, the ones that stick around in your heart and your soul, are the ones who are absolutely ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances or given extraordinary gifts. 

Harry Potter may have been the “chosen one”, but deep down he was just some kid who happened to fill some arbitrary requirement in some meaningless prophecy. He didn’t have superior magical ability or intelligence. His greatest skill was his athletic ability, until he learned other important skills, like leadership.

Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a quiet nerd who gets sucked into the world of the Slayer and who, despite becoming perhaps the most powerful witch in the world, still maintains that shy, nerdy personality. 

Remember too that even a character with no powers or special abilities can do extraordinary things. Just as important as those characters who do have abilities are the characters like Neville Longbottom, who show us that hard work and determination can sometimes be the most important thing to helping you overcome obstacles. And don’t forget the important role that even Dudley Dursley plays in showing us that even muggles can overcome prejudice. 

Fill your stories with ordinary people, and let them shine in the face of adversity. Not just because readers identify with these characters, though that’s important, but because these are the characters who have the most room to grow, to change, and to let you tell a good story. 

Pretty much my teaching philosophy. Big hit at interviews. 

Charlie-and-books small giveaway

I received my Owlcrate, and I found there are a couple things in it this month that could go to better homes. Why? Well, the Funko Pop of Ron Weasley I already have, and so it shall be given away to one of you. The bookmark is from The Raven Boys, and unfortunately for me, but fortunately for one of you, I do not like that series at all, and so a better home can be found for it.   Therefore the 2 prizes are:  Funko Pop of Ron Weasley  The Raven Boys Bookmark and one book ( worth up to £10) from Book Depository  The first person picked will get the choice of what they want, the second person picked will get the other item.

Of course, as it is a giveaway, there are a few rules:

Finally, good luck

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” -Henry David Thoreau

book piracy isnt cool stop this thank you

authors are paid so little already and its not like there was any legal way to read books for free/cheap, right?

THE LIBRARY, kindle unlimited, used book stores

let alone the consequences if you get caught stealing books. yes, it’s stealing. and you’ll receive the same treatment for this as you’ll get for pirating games or movies.

don’t be a dick. don’t steal books.