like i have my problems with harry potter and jk rowling but it will never stop meaning something to me that rowling was a depressed 30-year single mother living on welfare when she thought of this story, that she was – in her own words– at rock bottom and she managed to put herself out there, to create this brilliant amazing series that has impacted so many people’s lives. there’s something to be said for hope.
Tag Archives: jk rowling
I think what probably gets me deeply into my feelings about this “JKR should have just made her students Of Color to start with, she can’t ret-con and pretend she did it right the first time” is that I grew up with Anne Rice and Anne McCaffery, two female fantasy writers who hated headcanons and fandom and sued people for deviating from their original vision or doing any kinds of derivative works without their express contractual permission.
I feel like people who get irritated with her about defending black!Hermione don’t appreciate how much healthier JKR’s attitude toward the inclusivity movement in her fandom is than theirs was. Or Moffat’s is. Or Gatiss’s. Or Whedon’s. Or Green’s. Or even, until very recently, Lucas’s.
She’s not a PCR, but goddamn, at least she’s passing us the milk rather than pissing in our cornflakes.
Jo is actually almost entirely responsible for fanfiction being what it is today.
BUT WAIT, I hear older fandomers cry. X-Files, Star Trek, Xena, how dare you. And yes, I say to those fandomers, you held those banners first! Be proud of the paths you forged. But Jo–
Jo did something no author or creator had ever done before.
She was a household name who encouraged fanfiction.
When I first began writing fanfiction in 1998, it was common practice to preface your fic with this massive disclaimer about how you weren’t selling it, and it was for fun, sometimes quoting the Fair Use part of the Creative Commons act, and even begging authors not to sue. Because in those days, that was a very real danger. Eleven-year-old me had reams of fanfiction on floppy disks I didn’t dare send to archives because I might get arrested and taken to Plagiarism Jail.
And then there was Jo. And no, Jo said, this is not a private amusement park at which you may stare longingly from the other side of wrought-iron gates. It is a giant sandbox. Here are my pails, here are my toys. Come sit and play with me. Eventually you may decide you like some other sandbox better, and all I ask is that you leave my toys here for others to play with, and not try to take them with you. But why should I lock you out of my sandbox? It is, after all, far more fun to play in a sandbox with many people than by yourself.
People were boggled. They didn’t get it. They thought she was crazy. And the fans? They kept loving, and writing, and drawing, and creating, and Jo kept loving them back. Potter Puppet Pals, A Very Potter Musical, Potter!, Remus and the Lupins, all stuff Jo just kind of went “whatever, they’re having fun.”
And attitudes began to change. And then someone else threw her lot in with Jo, someone who doesn’t get a lot of credit for contributing something massive to fandom culture and should:
Stephenie Meyer.
Yeah, you read that right. The goddamn author of Twilight, who refused to sue teenage girls who just wanted Bella to end up with Jacob. (And who is way more gracious than I would be about Fifty Shades.) She actually has a fanfiction archive right on her website! I’m serious: Smeyer has links to a personally-curated list of Twilight fanfiction she personally enjoyed or found interesting. Whatever you may think of her writing, that loving attitude of “we’re all here to have fun, I love that you love my world and my characters, please enjoy” was such a departure from the days of C&D letters and page-long disclaimers.
These two women changed the face of how fandom works forever. Yes, their work is flawed. They are products of their time and upbringing. But just the fact that they embrace the concepts of “my world as I see it and my world as you see it are not the same, and that’s not just okay, that’s good” is something to be celebrated.
I have a lot of issues with Meyer, but her treatment of fans is not one of them.
This is fascinating and all credit to Meyer and Rowling for being so instrumental in changing the culture. I do just want to add that the producers of Xena actually hired a fanfic writer to scriptwrite on their final season. As it often did (with a female TV action hero, with a musical episode), Xena helped to point the way.
What’s your opinion about the VC lack of PoC characters?
One can criticize a work, create AU fanworks of it, or create an entirely original work. I would encourage everyone to write the story they want to read. Be the change you want to see in the world!
(^Unfortunately, many PoC in VC have unhappy endings. Keep in mind that she’s an evildoer in the book, which wasn’t explicitly stated in the movie. She murdered her clients.)
I’m a straight white lady, but I can understand how frustrating it must be to see one of your favorite authors release novel after novel in one of your favorite series and feel left out of the story bc your race/gender/etc. is not represented (or it’s fetishized, or represented negatively). I can understand how it might feel like the author is saying that you don’t exist (or matter enough) to them to place someone like you on their stage. It may be that they would love to write about a character like you but don’t have the knowledge/confidence/etc. to do the character the justice they need.
However, in my opinion, an author is not a vending machine. No matter how successful they are, an author is not required to cater to their readership. Sometimes they make an effort to do so, as in the case with J.K. Rowling supporting her readers in their headcanon of Hermione Granger as a PoC. (Another concise article on that here: X).
AR has always advised us to write the story we would want to read. Publishing houses turned her work down for years until she found one that chose her story for what it was. Knopf felt her story would sell really well so they took the gamble on it. A publishing house doesn’t want to invest huge sums of money in something unless they think the odds are very good that they’ll make a worthwhile profit. I would ask that the criticism be leveled more towards publishers than the authors of stories which lack representation.
In this day and age it is easier than ever before to self-publish and get your story out there. Anna Todd did that with her One Direction fan fiction, “After”, and here’s a quote from AR (w/ my underlines) about it bc I feel it’s relevant here: [X]
In the same post, AR writes: “And in this great world in which we live, no writer is really in direct competition with any other writer. There’s room for us all. We can each try our personal best to write the books of our dreams and to become the writers of our dreams. And I’m really glad Fifty Shades came along. I am happy for E.L. James. And I’m happy for all the people who like “Fifty Shades.“ ”
“…The amazing thing about the writing world is that there has always been a lot of room in it, and a lot of heartbreak. We’re never directly in competition with some one who makes it big; there are so many avenues, so many spots on the bestseller lists of the world…… We’re really in competition with ourselves, driven to outdo ourselves. That’s how I see it anyway.”
So, write the story you want to see in the world! If it’s compelling, others will want to read it, too.
List of more VC PoC under the cut.
(Not including PL characters bc there are so many! And some ppl do not recognize PL as canon. Go to wiki for those.)
David Talbot – he becomes Anglo-Indian
Davis – from the Fang Gang, not explicitly stated other than “black,” so African American, possibly.
Merrick Mayfair – mixed race
Tarquin Blackwood (I think he is, can’t remember specifically), and other supporting characters in Blackwood Farm.
Akasha – from Egypt
Enkil – from Egypt
Khayman – from Egypt
Avicus – from Egypt
Azim –
Himalayan? Maybe? He has bronze skin. That’s where his temple is.
Benji – Arab, Bedouin
Eudoxia – Can’t remember specifically, but I think she is a VoC. She is described as having white skin, but that may be due to her age (centuries old already when Marius meets her).
I-want-my-IWTV 