Throwback Thursday, Fandom Edition: "Wondered again if I am, in fact, a Muggle"

[nevanna]

I shared my personal countdown to the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, with full recognition that plenty of people might not want to read a post about that series or its fandom. (Do I still have some misgivings about making such posts? Occasionally, but I am still not convinced that it is possible or necessary to retcon the the cultural impact of the franchise out of existence.)

Comments

[someonefromthewater]

I don't think younger!you can be blamed for not anticipating JKR's brainweasels.

[nevanna]

I don't think most readers realized the direction that her politics would take! (Some people smugly claim that they Always Knew her books were Problematic, but even if that is true, our early interpretations of the text do not say anything about our moral worth.)

[nightforest]

I don't really remember GoF coming out (though I was definitely reading the books by then and I think would have been excited about it) but I sure remember Order of the Phoenix! I was working at Best Buy and they actually stocked it there, along with a very small number of extremely popular books. I seem to recall that I was working on release day and immediately bought it with my employee discount, then stood there at my cash register reading whenever I could get away with it. XD Like you, I am not okay with Rowling now, but that was undoubtedly a fun and exciting fannish time.

[nevanna]

I was a bookseller when Deathly Hallows dropped and actually worked at a midnight release party, which is one of many positive memories that remains intact even though the cultural conversation around this franchise has changed.