• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    There’s a real dark irony in a book about a young boy quite literally coming out of the closet to discover his true self written by a woman who might as well be a Dursley.

    • edible_funk@sh.itjust.works
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      37 minutes ago

      The real dark irony is Jo saying they probably would have transitioned when they were younger if they were aware of gender expression.

    • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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      16 hours ago

      Harry Potter has no true self to discover. From the first to the last page of this pile of rags he is a wizarding Mary Sue with near-infinite privilege and the personality of an oyster. The story opens with “yer a wizard” in the first 50 pages and that’s the end of his character arc. From then on he’s a mere vessel for the reader to experience the world and the author to move the plot along.

      … As a matter of fact, what even is the biggest character arc in that story? I don’t remember much, but Neville and Hermione have a glowup and Harry’s uncle dies or something? And the weasleys open a shop? I certainly don’t recall anything that lends credence to the idea that Rowling even believes that either individual people or societies are capable of profound change. The story begins and ends basically in the exact same place except the characters are 10ish years older.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        From the first to the last page of this pile of rags he is a wizarding Mary Sue with near-infinite privilege and the personality of an oyster.

        I disagree.

        As a matter of fact, what even is the biggest character arc in that story? I don’t remember much

        :-/

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            It’s a generic critique of any fantasy novel protagonist. Potter isn’t any more of a Mary Sue than Aragorn or Rand Al’Thor.

            And “The plot was bad, I don’t even remember what happened”. Bro, what do I even say to that?

            The story wasn’t so bad that it failed to sell tens of millions of copies in dozens of languages.

    • GalacticSushi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      16 hours ago

      At least it’s not more explicit. It’s not like there’s some potion that lets you change your physical appearance at will that is even capable of turning you into a furry. Or a type of witch/wizard whose special ability is to change their appearance at will, as shown by a slightly androgynous woman who regularly changes her appearance based on how she’s feeling in the moment.

  • hoch@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    As much as the author sucks, I enjoy the series too much to throw it away :/

    • nikki@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      18 hours ago

      pirate the media and dont give it exposure then :) any dollar given to that franchise is a dollar spent to harm trans people

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        It harms much more than just trans people. Firstly transphobes think even the slightest form of gender-noncomformity is transgenderism, secondly many of those TERF orgs also oppose other things (wondering if Collective Shout got any money from her, but probably she already blames porn for trans people).

        • UniversalBasicJustice@quokk.au
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          40 minutes ago

          transgenderism

          Forgive me if I’ve been mislead, but from what I understand “transgenderism” is a term used by transphobes to diminish a legitimate phenomenon, implying it is a belief or fad.

          Still upvoted for contributing to the discussion and for supporting an alien in his search for the universe’s best cup of coffee.

    • Another Catgirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      17 hours ago

      as a transfem academic who enjoyed HPMoR, I dislike JKR’s Harry Potter series because it’s poorly written and is not critical enough of the ethical problems it contains

      • Baggie@lemmy.zip
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        16 hours ago

        Oh you mean the fascistic nightmare world where it turns out the only problem is bad actors, not the fact that it’s systemically rotten to the core?

        Motherfucker becomes a cop ffs

        • Another Catgirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 hours ago

          I mean, both worlds are rotten to the core, it’s just that HPMoR is properly critical of the problems therein. Only one of the two worlds has the main character working hard to dismantle the institutional racism he was presented with.

    • ceoofanarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      18 hours ago

      outside of nostalgia which is hard to quantify what is the appeal compared to thousands of better series in the genre? Its not just written by a bigoted monster who uses her platform for harming others its filled with lackluster world building and empty characters.

      • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 hours ago

        Now we’re talking!

        I’m first:

        Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, by Fritz Leiber.

        Very 1980-ish fantasy for adults.

        Your turn!

      • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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        18 hours ago

        Are you assuming that there aren’t trans people that like Harry Potter? Do YOU have any trans people in your life?

        • iamthetot@piefed.ca
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          18 hours ago

          I didn’t assume anything, I just asked a question.

          I do have a handful of trans people in my life, yes.

  • MeatPilot@sh.itjust.works
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    16 hours ago

    Here’s an honest question. Are we allowed to buy Harry Potter stuff after JKR is dead, since she won’t get paychecks from it anymore?

    I don’t but it now, think I missed the hype train by being too old when it hit it’s hype.

    But the biggest issue is JKR getting the money not the franchise? Or am I missing something where the franchise and license owners are also anti-trans?

    I can’t keep up with everything, but I know Harry Potter is getting a lot of hate and I’m out of the loop besides JKR just being a cunt on social media.

    • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      Funny you mention it, because I was thinking of going back and reading all the Dilbert strips I missed out on after Scott Adams went mask-off racist. Am I allowed?

      (edit: LOL, looks like a moot point, I tried going there just now and the server doesn’t seem to be running)

    • GalacticSushi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      16 hours ago

      If she owns the rights she could theoretically put something in her will that states x% of proceeds from her intellectual properties will go to [insert TERF organization here]. Considering she’s made it her life goal to make society as inaccessible to trans people as possible, I assume she’ll make sure she can do so in death as well.

      • MeatPilot@sh.itjust.works
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        16 hours ago

        So she’s well beyond just commenting and is funding things that hurt the trans community?

        I should Google more.

        • DrivebyHaiku@lemmy.ca
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          15 hours ago

          Yup. Just one of her purchases put about 70,000 pounds Stirling in the hands of the lawyers that got gender recognition certificates rendered moot in the UK supreme court. Thats the landmark ruling that has since allowed bathroom, locker room , gym and sport single sex policing completely legitimate by UK authorities and forced “transgender row” in prisons to send trans prisoners to institutions of their birth sex.

          She does a lot more with her money than that but that was her single biggest win so far.

    • Soulg@ani.social
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      11 hours ago

      I mean… You’re allowed to buy it now, whether or not you choose to do so