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Harry Potter and the Clueless Journalist
Fresh in from clairvoyantwank: A reporter for the Guardian Observer attended Lumos and has since written a not exactly flattering article about HP fans, Harry Potter and the mystery of an academic obsession
Now, I'm not in Potterfandom. Potterfandom is scary. Besides, my major fanfic squicks include chan and teacher/student ships and I hear there's quite a bit of that. And while I really like the books, I was never driven to look for fanfic (after reading the first part of the Draco trilogy and finding it lacking).
I have read the books, though. I mean, who hasn't? Other than the writer of this article, that is... Ahem: I may have rather overstated my familiarity with the work. I read The Philosopher's Stone on the plane.
That does explain her insistence that it's just a series for kids. The Philosopher's stone, yeah, it's a kids' book. From Prisoner of Azkaban on I wouldn't be so sure. There's a distinctive shift in mood, for once, and I don't see why one would label the last four books kids' literature. Hasn't JKR said they aren't? But ymmv. [eta: besides, since when is children's lit unworthy of study, as she implies? Maybe she should actually read the series before judging its literary merit. The more I think about it, the more I'm annoyed by that blatant display of ignorance.]
What actually made my morning was this part: This is Harry Potter for adults. A concept that I'd always thought of as one of those minority tastes like quantum physics for children. Or Star Trek for girls.
*blink* That's an impressive display of ignorance about genre.
Girls who like Star Trek. Just imagine.
[eta: don't miss her thoughts on yaoi]
All that said, I completely agree with her wrt the Hermione/Snape panel. "if it was 200 men talking about rape narratives involving underage schoolchildren, it would be a matter for the police, and I don't think this is empowering anybody. "
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upstart_crow pretty much nails it.]
--- Speaking of Harry Potter and fandom... just in case you haven't heard, there's a twin piece of sorts to the MsScribe disclosure on Bad Penny, The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle. Not quite as tightly written as Charlottelennox's report, but equally well-documented. The WTF-factor doesn't reach that of the MsScribe story - but then it's hard to rival that level of batshit insane. Still, the extent of plagiarism in the Draco Trilogy exposed here is staggering. As is the argument of CC's defenders, that copying from other sources without citing is okay because 'it's fanfic and everybody does it'. Um, no.
(We're not talking occasional quotes and allusions to pop-culture, by the way, but the copying of several lines up to whole paragraphs and scenes, woven into the story in such a way that they appear to be the author's creation.)
Also, fun to count all the different, creative ways of spelling 'plagiarism' and 'copyright'.
Now, I'm not in Potterfandom. Potterfandom is scary. Besides, my major fanfic squicks include chan and teacher/student ships and I hear there's quite a bit of that. And while I really like the books, I was never driven to look for fanfic (after reading the first part of the Draco trilogy and finding it lacking).
I have read the books, though. I mean, who hasn't? Other than the writer of this article, that is... Ahem: I may have rather overstated my familiarity with the work. I read The Philosopher's Stone on the plane.
That does explain her insistence that it's just a series for kids. The Philosopher's stone, yeah, it's a kids' book. From Prisoner of Azkaban on I wouldn't be so sure. There's a distinctive shift in mood, for once, and I don't see why one would label the last four books kids' literature. Hasn't JKR said they aren't? But ymmv. [eta: besides, since when is children's lit unworthy of study, as she implies? Maybe she should actually read the series before judging its literary merit. The more I think about it, the more I'm annoyed by that blatant display of ignorance.]
What actually made my morning was this part: This is Harry Potter for adults. A concept that I'd always thought of as one of those minority tastes like quantum physics for children. Or Star Trek for girls.
*blink* That's an impressive display of ignorance about genre.
Girls who like Star Trek. Just imagine.
[eta: don't miss her thoughts on yaoi]
All that said, I completely agree with her wrt the Hermione/Snape panel. "if it was 200 men talking about rape narratives involving underage schoolchildren, it would be a matter for the police, and I don't think this is empowering anybody. "
[eta:
upstart_crow pretty much nails it.](We're not talking occasional quotes and allusions to pop-culture, by the way, but the copying of several lines up to whole paragraphs and scenes, woven into the story in such a way that they appear to be the author's creation.)
Also, fun to count all the different, creative ways of spelling 'plagiarism' and 'copyright'.
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I've marked the 7th, by the way.
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I mean, Yay, that's great! groan. My stupid keyboard has switched to English again and I don't know how I'm doing it.
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Not like I'm surprised that she was taken aback by some of fandom's more exotic aspects. I can totally see how to Average Joe (or Jane) even the idea of slash, mainstream inside fandom, takes some getting used to. Or of fanfic itself. Not like I haven't been there myself, many years ago.
What irks me somewhat is how she's criticizing the content of the meta without even having read the source text... that's practically flaunting your ignorance. That, and that she's apparently quoting people out of context and giving full names when asked not to.