Muggles. Gotta live with 'em.

[amanuensis1]

Whoa, are we all really that upset over that article in The Guardian about Lumos? I didn't find it negative, really; the article's written by someone who is not only NOT a fan but admits she hasn't even read the books or seen the films ("Well...some of them"). She's not a fannish type at all. She's gone into it frankly baffled by the whole concept of fans who sink into their medium so deeply. She is, to belabor the obvious, a classic mundane (which is what we called 'em before Rowling got Muggle into the OED). And she observes, and there's an air of "okay, this remains distant and odd to me," but, gosh, me, I don't expect anything else from mundanes. I thought the piece was presented with a reasonably neutral "not for me, and some of it's definitely strange to me, but, wow, there's a lot of devotion and variety here" air.

Given that the article didn't purport to be a detached record of the event, I think we got lucky that she didn't shriek "weirdoes weirdoes weirdoes!" all through it. Maybe some of you feel she did? Because she doesn't think Snape/Hermione is so much about empowering women as it is titillation? Because she thought some of the discussions/topics were lame or unfounded? Because the idea of HP bestiality got to her? Shoot, I think we got off light. And she does end on this positive note:

It's all amazing. And seeing anybody, let alone 1,200 people enthused with joy about anything is really quite uplifting. And not just anything. Books! It makes my girlish, swotty heart swell with pride.

Maybe that wasn't enough for fan readers. Perhaps a lot of you feel you've had enough of this kind of "not for me, but, whatever floats your boat" editorializing. Maybe in the same way I don't exactly want to see more films like Brokeback Mountain but rather am waiting for the gay James Bond to unapologetically flaunt the queer all over the screen.

Comments

[the_con_cept.livejournal.com]

I guess I just thought it was an obligation of responsible journalism to do a bit of research beforehand, and having glanced through the first book really made me feel...well, like she didn't make that standard. Also, I did find her tone rather offensive, like the she wrote the whole thing with a slight sneer on her face and only tacked on the ending when she wanted to sound slightly less scornful. But that's just my impression. *shrugs* She has the right to write what she likes, though if she did use names when she was asked not to, that's definitely lacking integrity.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I'm envisioning her department saying, "One of us has to cover this Harry Potter in Vegas thing." "Who here has the most experience?" "I haven't read 'em." "Me neither." "My kid has, but I haven't." "Eh, I read the first one." "Okay, Carole's got the most experience. You go."

The names thing--yeah, if that's the case, I understand the unhappiness. And am less inclined to be gracious if so.

[jamoche]

I'd bet it was more a "hey, who wants a paid vacation in Vegas, we'll use this con as an excuse. Don't bother with research, just do the usual fen-are-freaks that we do whenever we cover any subculture event." Because really, it was just write-by-numbers, the same thing I've seen for SF cons or gay pride marches. She'd write the same thing about the 4000 Apple geeks I'm currently sharing an auditorium with, and probably say we worship Steve Jobs. (We don't. We worship Steve Wozniak).

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

WOO! APPLE! STEVE!

(there, we don't even have to specify which Steve. ^_^ )

And, yeah, I really think your perspective is likely to be right.

[letmypidgeonsgo.livejournal.com]

I guess I just thought it was an obligation of responsible journalism to do a bit of research beforehand, and having glanced through the first book really made me feel...well, like she didn't make that standard. Also, I did find her tone rather offensive, like the she wrote the whole thing with a slight sneer on her face and only tacked on the ending when she wanted to sound slightly less scornful.

my thoughts exactly...the fact that she hadn't read any of the books (she only read PS on the flight over) was rather insulting.

[the_con_cept.livejournal.com]

To me, the fact that she didn't just fucking type "Harry Potter" into Google pissed me off. I mean, I found Hermione/Snape within five minutes of delving into Harry Potter on the internet for the first time. I refuse to believe that the tiniest bit of effort wouldn't have, for the most part, given her some clue about what to expect. Frankly, I have to believe she wasn't half as ignorant as she played, and just wanted to yank the fandom's chain.

[letmypidgeonsgo.livejournal.com]

Oh, undoubtedly. I think more than anything she went into the whole thing wanting to expose our freakishness to the average joes who'd be reading her article, and once slash was brought up, she knew she'd hit paydirt.