"Can I Still Read Harry Potter?" BBC R4 Thursday 12th November 2020

[terryleather]

Just noticed this is in the schedule for tomorrow morning at 11am.

Journalist and fan Aja Romano examines their decision to close the books on the boy wizard and hears different viewpoints toward Harry Potter and contemporary readership.

Aja Romano has been a Harry Potter fan for many years, but after personally disagreeing with statements by their author JK Rowling regarding gender identity, they are considering closing the books for good.

Across the world, millions continue to embrace the Wizarding World in all its forms and JK Rowling has received a lot of support for speaking out on an important issue in a personal way.

With this in mind Aja assesses the different factors at play in their choice, speaking to cultural experts, academics and fans and considering influences such as social media, trends in fan communities, "cancelling" , literary theory and more. With contributions from critic Sam Leith, writer Gavin Haynes , journalist Sarah Shaffi, Dr Ika Willis and fans Jackson Bird and Patricio Tarantino.

Don't think I can bear to listen as I strongly suspect it will give me the BBC radge, but I reckon some of you are made of sterner stuff than I am!

I think I first realised this as a mature student in the 90s with the advent of Facebook. I realised I had a totally different set of boundaries on what I thought it was appropriate to share and what it was better to keep private from those of the "normal age" students. When they explained to me about livejournal and blogging, I was baffled: why would anyone want to share every detail of their lives? And why on earth would they think anyone else would be in the least bit interested? It was as if everyone suddenly thought their very ordinary lives were Samuel Pepys.

Ben Elton tackled this very well in Blind Faith - a society with no privacy where you're seen as ideologically suspect (and potentially reportable to the authorities) if you don't overshare everything online, including the obligatory "loosing my virginity" video. In fact the hero first realised the woman he fancies is "not like other girls" (TM) when he realises her video is in fact not of her, just of another superficially similar looking woman. She's stolen it to preserve a tiny corner of privacy.

”Can I Still Read Harry Potter?”

Yes, as long as you hold your magic wand very tightly and be ready to shout “ExpelliamusBigota” if anything scary appears.

I've only just listened to this and thought it was pretty balanced (given the provocative title) and raised some really interesting questions about the way authors are now the public face of their work - they have to be in order to stand out in a crowded marketplace - and have become public property and moral compasses for their fans. Although I ultimately disagree with Aja, she did a good job showcasing a diverse set of points of view.

Had a depressing conversation with a colleague in her 60s today, who suggested to her daughter that she buy The Ickabog for her GC for Christmas, and was told absolutely not, as JKR is so anti-trans. She seemed a bit sad about it, but obviously believed her daughter. She's a tough northern lass who has no hesitation in speaking her mind on anything, but had obviously just rolled over on this without questioning it.

I pointed her to Rowling's website, suggested she had been misreported, and that she should read JKR's statement and make up her own mind. (That's a summary; I wasn't quite as blunt as that.) I don't want to say too much more at work because management are obsessed with mouthing all the right woke things. Another colleague raised the pronoun issue with me the other day, and I felt I could only go as far as saying I didn't feel comfortable talking about my personal opinions on the subject.

My only consolation is that I work in a public library, and as far as I can see all Rowling's books continue to fly out the door - for the time being. But will the next generation not be given Harry Potter to read at all?

PS It was our newly arrived copy of The Ickabog that started the conversation, so we're not there yet, thank goodness.

It's all "don't find out the facts, this is how you must feel and you DO NOT question this".

If you told them that this approach is pretty much how Trump true believers operate they would have a fit.

@nauticant

It's all "don't find out the facts, this is how you must feel and you DO NOT question this".

If you told them that this approach is pretty much how Trump true believers operate they would have a fit.

Absolutely. I guess it just shocked me to see how it has filtered into a little suburban library in the middle of Middle England, and how a woman who is pretty bolshie in other areas has just rolled over on this. Although I do understand she probably values her relationship with her daughter too highly to disagree over something she doesn't feel she knows much about.