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Harry Potter fans: do you like Pottermore?


Mister Gaga

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Mister Gaga

http://www.hypable.com/pottermore-jk-rowling-harry-potter-canon/ It's long. But please, read it!

J.K. Rowling uses Twitter and Pottermore to expand the Harry Potter universe. But for every new piece of canon, I feel the reality of the Wizarding World shattering.

First of all, let’s get this straight: J.K. Rowling made up Harry Potter and she can do whatever the hell she wants with it. If she decides to make Harry tragically fall off his Firebolt and die at age 40? Fine. If Ron one day leaves Hermione for Viktor Krum? Sure (and totally in character). It’s not my place to dictate what an author does with their own book series, and I would neverassume I had that right.

But just as it’s J.K. Rowling’s choice to expand her universe, it’s my choice whether or not to accept the new content. And I’m opting out.

To tell you the truth, I stopped reading the Pottermore content a long time ago. All I know is what I’ve read on Hypable (heyooo) or seen people discuss on Twitter. And it’s not just that I forgot my Pottermore username; I genuinely began to feel my heart sink every time a new piece of canon was released.

For a long time, I didn’t understand why I wasn’t excited. I saw people lose their minds over Moaning Myrtle’s real name, or Teddy Lupin’s sorting, and I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm. The lengthy essay on Minerva McGonagall (one of my favorite characters) took me ages to get through, and once I had, I felt empty. I felt, inexplicably, like something had been taken from me.

I kept silent about it, because I felt like a fraud. I’ve loved these books since I was 12; before the release of Deathly Hallows I consumed every interview, every fan theory, every hint on JKR’s old website that might give me just a little bit more. And I wanted (still want) the encyclopedia so badly, so why would I relish in reading a chapter on McGonagall in a book, and yet despise her story just because it was released on Pottermore?

I finally figured it out. Actually, I had a very cathartic moment on this month’s episode ofMuggleCast, which finally allowed me to express my frustration. I figured I’d write about it, in the hope that I’m expressing other fans’ frustration, too.

 

The books don’t make ‘Harry Potter’ real, your mind does.

The Harry Potter series did something for me which few works of fiction have quite managed (at least not to this extent): It opened my imagination, and inside my head, the world becamereal. Every sentence I read opened up new possibilities, new backstories and locations, new character connections and motivations. The Wizarding World grew massive in my mind; I let myself wander off the pages and into new areas of Hogwarts, I followed Hermione when she left Harry behind, I brought the secondary characters to life and gave them independence and inner lives that the narrative simply did not accommodate for.

The Harry Potter book series served as a springboard for my imagination. The narrative was rich and engaging, but it did not make the story real — my mind did that. That’s how fiction works, when it works. Like a Peter Pan fairy, it doesn’t exist unless you believe it does, and the more people believe in it, the more powerful it becomes.

When you read a good book, you take the words off the page and weave a rich universe full of color and nuance around them. You only believe in the central story because it fits into a larger, imaginary universe the author has built for you to play in. And the story doesn’t end when the book does, because you still have access to the world and its characters in your mind (even if a wild epilogue appears and removes some of the ambiguity about what happened next).

I still remember getting to the final page of Deathly Hallows, overcome with emotion, crying like a baby, but ultimately relieved. Because all was truly well: We’d made it through, me and my favorite characters, and now I got to grow up and live the rest of my life knowing that Harry and his friends were out there doing the same.

Pottermore vs the encyclopedia

I’ve been trying to work out why, if I’m so opposed to random bits of new info, I wouldn’t mind having it all collected and released as a book. Surely the medium (book vs online) isn’t thatimportant?

Turns out, it really is. An officially published encyclopedia would be an edited, indexed, bound, solid, unalterable reference guide to expand the Wizarding World, filling in backstories, adding dates and names to this universe and making it feel more real and tangible.

Pottermore and J.K. Rowling’s tweets, by contrast, don’t feel like expansions of the world, but rather like they’re limiting my own interpretations of it. Each bit of new information, released at any time and demanding my attention, closes another door in my mind, eliminates more possibilities. It feels whimsical and arbitrary, paper-thin and precarious in a way an official companion simply wouldn’t.

But as I said before, how or when Jo chooses to release more details about her world is out of my control. I can live with the anxiety of waking up every morning and wondering if this is the day Jo will kill off Ginny Weasley, because it’s not like I have a choice.

What bothers me is the sporadic, shaky medium through which this new “canon” is released. An encyclopedia, bound and printed and existing as a physical thing, would feel real. But random facts, scattered between political debates and rugby fangirling (as glorious as that is) just reminds me that it’s all made-up, and more subject to the author’s whims and moods than we ever want be reminded that all fiction is.

By skimming over Rowling’s timeline and seeing her cheer on Serena Williams in one tweet, and send James Sirius Potter off to Hogwarts in the next, I feel the reality of the Wizarding World becoming less stable. Seeing blocks of canon on Pottermore interspersed with Fantastic Beasts movie news and weird listicles further destroys the illusion my imagination is still trying to cling on to. Mixing the universes of the movies and the books confuses my mind. I just don’t like it.

If I were to enjoy new canon from Jo, it would be because I believed it was real. But because of the way it’s mediated — online, as part of a meta, selectively-in-universe patchwork of content, subject to deletion and alteration at any time (see: Lavendergate 2015) — every new piece of canon only serves as a further reminder that it’s all made-up, and can be altered at will. Pottermore may be official, but it’s still just a website. It’s a product, now full of pictures from the movies, that should have nothing to do with Jo’s writing. How could I possibly buy into the reality of Harry Potter, when I’m being forced to accept “canon” as a shifting, fluid thing?

The solid completeness of Harry Potter, cemented in seven books and forever ingrained in my mind, is suddenly precarious and fragile. Pottermore makes me nervous. J.K. Rowling makes me nervous. The blow that finally shatters the illusion can come at any time, and I’m not ready to give it up.

If you disagree with my argument, think of it like this: If someone gave you a painting and you loved it, you wouldn’t let the artist take it back five years later to make alterations, right? So why should I let Jo do it with the story she gave me, the complete work of art that framed my childhood? It’s already perfect, and it’s mine. She gave it to me, and I’m not giving it back.

If you enjoy Pottermore and the tweets, fantastic. I’m sure that’s the intention. But I already have what I need, and I think it’s time to peace out before I lose the magic completely.
BY 
SELINA WILKEN

 

 

I can't explain you HOW MUCH I love harry potter. If there's something i love as much as Gaga; that's Harry Potter. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for HP. Some of you alredy know this, but i used to be very fat when i was young, and for that i was bullied to (almost) death. I used to read Harry Potter the whole day. Now a days, i'm still reading it and every time i go into that world, i always find answers to my problems, or at least help. Maybe it sounds dramatic or exaggerated, but that's the way it is. I swear, every reading improves the previous one!! 

I've been thinking so much about Pottermore in the last weeks. I felt defrauded, sad, i don't know. And reading this was such a relief...what do you think? Is Jo milking it? Am i wrong? 

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YES! I started playing it recently, I need to continue, I'm on the 5th book right now :flutter:

The potions can be a pain tho 

I like dancin', and ponies....
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Mister Gaga

YES! I started playing it recently, I need to continue, I'm on the 5th book right now :flutter:

The potions can be a pain tho 

Didn't you read anything...? :coffee:

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JEWRJEWR

the thing is that there are more fans that want to know more about the story than fans that dont want it to continue. 

Fear, she's the mother of violence
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I mean, I was one of the first registerrd.

Thrn I made 5 other more.

But never finished playing all of the cos that time only until Book #2 available.

And now I forgot each passwords for those accounts :lmao:

But it was fun when I played it back then tho!

(ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ✧*:・゚ unknown.. despair.. a lost (*´艸`*) ♡♡♡
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Didn't you read anything...? :coffee:

I did, but it still my opinion :shrug: J.K. has her view on the characters, and she planned them to be that way. If you don't agree with her, just ignore it.

Also, the thread questions was Do you like Pottermore, and I do

I like dancin', and ponies....
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Mister Gaga

I did, but it still my opinion :shrug: J.K. has her view on the characters, and she planned them to be that way. If you don't agree with her, just ignore it.

Also, the thread questions was Do you like Pottermore, and I do

I didn't mean to sound rude, sorry :ohno: Yes, i'll try :deadbanana:

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I didn't mean to sound rude, sorry :ohno: Yes, i'll try :deadbanana:

It's okay, sorry if I was rude to :hug:

But yeah, I don't know what else to say :deadbanana: Try to stay off Pottermore and other HP social sites / whatever 

I like dancin', and ponies....
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FRANK1991

I play Pottermore only when I'm really bored and I remember there's this game :lolga:

the book was enough for me so when I play pottermore I don't actually read all the articles and stuff

I only get the extra info from people sharing it on Facebook or Buzzfeed which tend to be major things

but i just read it for fun and don't take it too seriously 

Cause once you let it go you better know it's gone
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Wow, talk about first world problems.... :coffee:

The writer of the article is an idiot. Does it bother you? Oh well, I'm sure this is the biggest issue in your life. Go outside more.

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Mister Gaga

Wow, talk about first world problems.... :coffee:

The writer of the article is an idiot. Does it bother you? Oh well, I'm sure this is the biggest issue in your life. Go outside more.

1) Slow down

2) "talk about first world problems" I wrote Harry Potter fans in the title for something. This is a forum and we can talk about everything. Last week you did a thread about Justin Bieber's new look and Iggy's plastic surgery, and i didn't complain.

3) No, it isn't my biggest issue, but maybe it is for another person, so you should have more respect

4) "Go outside more"           Creyk: JOINED 16 Jul 2012 

:bye:

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yASSsss

i was one of the lucky users who got the early access to the beta version of Pottermore :whitney: 

i played it for like 10 days,just to see which house i'd be sorted into and what would be my wand etc...but then i got bored and i stopped visiting the site...i think my username was chaserrain82 

the new stories about characters dont excite me,i did read some of them but the excitement was gone,i just read them cuz i was a hardcore fan in my childhood and i didnt want to keep myself away from the HP universe and feel left out.

it does bother me that she's writing a play for HP universe and background stories about the characters..i mean,why can't she write 8 more books about Harry or his children.

 

Call me by your name and I'll call you by mine
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kevinthesheep

Yeah i loved it when it was first released, but not so much anymore. But i completely agree with not enjoying all the new bits and bobs of new information everywhere, it's unsettling. I would kill for that encyclopaedia tbh. I just finished reading the series again for the 15th time no joke, and I still enjoy reading it and pick up on things that i never did, it's such a complex and beautiful story.

Ugggghggg people who've never read harry potter don't understand how much of an impact it has on your life i'm emotional just thinking about it :air: 

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