Breaking the Spell
Letting Harry Potter (and J.K. Rowling) Go and Learning to Carry On….
One of the things that got me through 2020 was books. And, while I definitely don’t devour them as much I used to (a side effect of probably being on the internet too much), it’s still one of my great pleasures.
My love of reading, like so many others, was partly inspired by growing up reading Harry Potter. They were the books that defined my childhood and taught me the joy of anticipating a new book coming out, the affirming feeling of connecting to a vast and sprawling community of other fans — I even think my love of studying came from a desire to be like Hermione! Plus, the books deliver an important message about social acceptance and the dangers of giving into hatred.
So, in a year that saw a lot of transformative moments, inflection points of social and political issues coming to a head; a feeling that the world has completely changed — and that we can’t go back or ignore the racism and inequity in American life— it’s especially painful that J.K. Rowling came out as an out-and-out transphobe posing as a concerned feminist. (A T.E.R.F., if you will.)
Now, this whole situation has been brewing for a while, and has been better covered by others – in fact, I wholeheartedly recommend Lindsay Ellis’s video about it and the phenomenon of Death of the Author. It’s also not the only dubious thing Rowling has done in the last few years. It’s just the most bigoted. Her essay delving into her views gives voice to falsehoods about trans people, and legitimizes efforts that seek to do real harm to people already singled out and heavily discriminated against.
This matters to me, not just because I’d like to think of myself as a decent person who thinks trans people deserve to be protected and understood, but also because I’m Queer. An attack on one part of our community is an attack on all of us, because it enables hate and undermines the equality we have fought for decades to achieve. Trans people have been at the forefront of the LGBT Rights Movement since Stonewall and we should never forget that.
I know I’m not the first person to express pain about how shitty it feels to have the creator of the most formative media of your childhood justify hatred, especially since I know I’m not the only come to terms with being queer through reading and loving Harry Potter, but it still hurts.
Then I found Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.
Rowell’s 2015 novel tells the story of Simon Snow, an orphaned wizard attending a magical school while working to fulfill his destiny as the Chosen One to defeat a dark evil threatening his world. Sound familiar?
As obviously grounded in the legacy of Harry Potter as it is, the story is also deliriously fresh and exciting. It is also completely and deliciously Queer to its finger tips. (I read the whole book in just one afternoon!)
Without spoiling anything, its a book that allowed me to feel like it was back in a magical world, caring and identifying with the characters, and thrilling to the plot to the end. But it’s also deeper than that without meaning to be: for one thing, it actually addresses some of the more toxic and difficult aspects of stories like this, specifically questions of dealing with trauma and what a chosen one’s supposed to do when he’s done being a chosen one. Questions that Harry Potter didn’t really have the courage to answer.
But above all, I think the thing that I took away from reading and enjoying this book so much is that it’s showed me the ways that there is still a place for enjoying stories about magic and wizards, while also deserving stories that shows actual representation. As grounded as Carry On is in the culture of Harry Potter, the way the book succeeds in capturing it’s spirit while bringing something new shows the way in which that same culture has outgrown Potter and Rowling. This growth can only be further highlighted by Rowling’s own recent antics.
I feel that this is valid to point out, because the community around Harry Potter has made a point of rejecting her and her views. And, in the the vein of Death of the Author, many have made an attempt to separate Rowling herself from the text of Harry Potter and its community. I want to say that this is valid. But its also hard and messy and difficult.
Carry On showed me that I’ve earned the right to let Harry Potter go; not because I have to, but because I want to.
Mischief managed….
