Harry Potter Fandom Also Paved The Way For The Mainstreaming Of Fandom And Geek Culture
Harry Potter has a tremendously outsized cultural reach: One 2011 survey suggested that a third of all American adults ages 18 to 34 at the time had read at least one of the books. But what really makes Harry Potter stand out is the way people loved Harry Potter.
First and foremost, the series helped make it cool to be a geek. People generally didnt read the Harry Potter books in isolation they wanted to talk about it with their friends, and then find more friends who loved the books as much as they did. This pattern coincided with the rise of Web 2.0 that is, an increasingly interactive and social internet. As more Harry Potter fans became more active online, they made discussion of YA fiction, fantasy, and science fiction seem commonplace.
And Harry Potter fans creativity is still being felt in and outside of the fandom. In the early 2000s, Harry Potter fan forums, fanfiction and fan art archives, and email discussion groups exploded across the internet. Harry Potter conventions drew thousands of fans, and Harry Potter cosplay became a well-known sight at larger geek and comic cons.
A number of Harry Potter fans also went on to make significant marks on mainstream culture. As a member of the University of Michigan theater troupe Starkid, a young Darren Criss starred as Harry Potter in the viral YouTube video A Very Potter Musical, and his popularity catapulted him into the role of Blaine on Glee and a career on Broadway.
The Fantastic Beasts Screenplays
Unless you’ve been living under a rock this entire time, you’ve probably heard of the two new Wizarding World movies that have hit Hollywood in the past few years. Led by actor Eddie Redmayne and an all-star ensemble cast, the Fantastic Beasts films tell the story of Newt Scamander, Albus Dumbledore, and the dark battle against Gellert Grindelward in the blackened days before Lord Voldemort entered the scene.
Of course, you can choose to simply watch the continuation of the Wizarding World on-screen but reading the screenplays of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: the Original Screenplay and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald The Original Screenplay will undoubtedly give you that extra level of depth and insight into the characters.
All The Harry Potter Books In Order: Your Jk Rowling Reading List
Of all the zeitgeist-defining fiction to come out of the past twenty years, perhaps none has been more universally beloved than the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. An incredibly imagined fantasy bildungsroman, it follows the eponymous boy wizard as he attends the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and contends with his destiny to fight the Dark Lord, Voldemort. Fortunately, he always has clever, loyal friends Ron and Hermione by his side plus the invaluable mentorship of eccentric but wise Hogwarts headmaster, Dumbledore.
As fellow Potterheads will know, its virtually impossible to rank these books from best to worst, since each one is brilliant in its own way. Thats why weve decided to simply present all the Harry Potter books in order of chronology/publication, hitting the highlights for longtime fans to happily reminisce and to help budding fans get a taste of the series genuine magic.
Heres a quick catalog of the series, so that you know what youre in for:
Read Also: How Long Is The Longest Harry Potter Book
What Is Jk Rowlings Real Name
J.K. Rowling was born Joanne Rowling. After her publisher recommended she use a gender-neutral pen name, she chose J.K., adding the middle name Kathleen. She published her crime fiction series, which includes The Cuckoos Calling, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
J.K. Rowling, in full Joanne Kathleen Rowling, pen name of Joanne Rowling, , British author, creator of the popular and critically acclaimed Harry Potter series, about a young sorcerer in training.
After graduating from the University of Exeter in 1986, Rowling began working for Amnesty International in London, where she started to write the Harry Potter adventures. In the early 1990s she traveled to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language, but, after a brief marriage and the birth of her daughter, she returned to the United Kingdom, settling in Edinburgh. Living on public assistance between stints as a French teacher, she continued to write.
Chapter 1: The Muggle
- “Oh yes â an old family heirloom. The S stands for Selwyn… I am related to the Selwyns… Indeed, there are few pure-blood families to whom I am not related… A pity, that the same cannot be said for you. âParentsâ professions: greengrocers.â ”
- â Umbridge, about the locket
Moody’s eye
After being separated, Harry discovers Alastor’s magical eye has been taken by Umbridge. Thinking it a disgrace to Alastor’s memory to keep it stuck in Umbridge’s door, he steals the eye, so as to give it a proper burial and the respect it deserves. Once Harry reunites with Hermione, he witnesses the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, set up to convict Muggle-borns of “stealing” magic, at work. Enraged by what he sees, Harry stuns Umbridge and the Death Eater Corban Yaxley, who is now head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Hermione takes the Horcrux, which Umbridge had falsely used to bolster her Pure-blood credentials, from Umbridge. By the time Harry and Hermione begin freeing the Muggle-borns, the Ministry knows that there are intruders in the building, having discovered Alastor’s eye missing. Once they reunite with Ron, they encourage the Muggle-borns to flee the country.
You May Like: What Is The Third Harry Potter Movie
I Was Renting A Room In A Flat Over What Was Then A Sports Shop The First Bricks Of Hogwarts Were Laid In A Flat In Clapham Junction
Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile
JK Rowling has revealed where she started writing the Harry Potter books, contradicting fans who believed for years that Edinburgh was its birthplace.
The Elephant House Cafe in Edinburgh is widely regarded as the place the now 54-year-old author wrote the first of the seven fantasy novels.
While it is true that Rowling used to frequent the cafe in the early days of her writing career, the author revealed yesterday that she actually started the series in London, in a flat above a sports shop in Clapham.
Referring to the sign on Elephant House which reads birthplace of Harry Potter, Rowling tweeted: Id been writing Potter for several years before I ever set foot in this cafe, so its not the birthplace, but I *did* write in there so well let them off!
Rowling then shared a picture of the Clapham flat where she started her writing process. This is the true birthplace of Harry Potter, she said. If you define birthplace as the spot where I put pen to paper for the first time.
For Long Readers Believed That Edinburgh Was The Place Where Rowling Started Writing Her Universally Famous Fantasy Series Well That Does Not Seem To Be The Case
Once a literary character becomes famous, a lot of narratives are spun around its origin, which add to the myth. JK Rowlings famous Harry Potter is one of them and for long, readers believed that Edinburgh was the place where Rowling started writing her fantasy series. In fact, The Elephant House Cafe there is considered to be the hallowed place where the author started writing the first novel.
However, in a recent tweet Rowling has dispelled all those beliefs. Answering an oft-asked query, she wrote, I was thinking of putting a section on my website about all the alleged inspirations and birthplaces of Potter. Id been writing Potter for several years before I ever set foot in this cafe, so its not the birthplace, but I *did* write in there so well let them off!
I was thinking of putting a section on my website about all the alleged inspirations and birthplaces of Potter. Id been writing Potter for several years before I ever set foot in this cafe, so its not the birthplace, but I *did* write in there so well let them off!
J.K. Rowling May 21, 2020
She then went on to further to say, For instance, I never visited this bookshop in Oporto. Never even knew of its existence! Its beautiful and I wish I *had* visited it, but it has nothing to do with Hogwarts!
In a series of tweets, she mentioned the real places that seeped into her fiction. For instance, a building in Manchester helped her invent Quidditch.
Don’t Miss: How Much Did The Actors Of Harry Potter Make
Chapter : Kreacher’s Tale
- “Kreacher failed to obey orders, Kreacher could not destroy the locket!”
- â Kreacher, about Regulus Black’s order to destroy the locket
The first morning there, Harry finds the name Regulus Arcturus Black, the deceased younger brother of Sirius and a former Death Eater, on a bedroom door. Harry realises that Regulus was the “R.A.B.” from the faux-Horcrux Harry found with Dumbledore, and he, Hermione, and Ron begin searching the house for the real one. They soon surmise that the locket had indeed been in the house, at one time. Unable to find it, they call upon Kreacher, the Black family’s house-elf. Kreacher tells the trio that he had helped Voldemort place the real Horcrux in the cave. After Regulus learned of this, however, he had ordered Kreacher to return with him to the cave in order to substitute a fake locket for the real one, as the Black family would have been safer not involved in Voldemort’s affairs. Regulus was killed in the process while Kreacher escaped with the Horcrux locket. Kreacher also tells them that Mundungus stole the locket, and they send Kreacher to find him.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1
After unexpected events at the end of the previous year, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are entrusted with a quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort’s secret to immortality the Horcruxes. It is supposed to be their final year at Hogwarts, but the collapse of the Ministry of Magic and Voldemort’s rise to power prevents them from attending. The trio undergo a long journey with many obstacles in their path including Death Eaters, Snatchers, the mysterious Deathly Hallows, and Harry’s connection with the Dark Lord’s mind becoming ever stronger.
Read Also: What Is Quidditch Game In Harry Potter
I Trained An Lstm Model To Write Like Jk Rowling
It has been exactly 13 years and 9 days since the seventh and final Harry Potter book came out. To read up on the boy wizards latest adventures, youll have to rely on the imagination of an Artificial Intelligence .
I trained an LSTM Recurrent Neural Network on the first three Harry Potter books and then asked it to produce a chapter based on what it learned. Heres a preview of the chapter.
Note: I added a bit of formatting to aid readability.
Despite the nonsensical storyline and grammatical errors, its impressive to see an LSTM generate text in the style of J.K Rowlings Harry Potter. But, as impressive as it may be, the results are definitely on the entertaining side rather than the useful side.
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry and friends return to Hogwarts with a bang the bang of a flying Ford Anglia as it crashes into the Whomping Willow, that is. After being spotted by Muggles and narrowly avoiding expulsion, youd think that the rest of Harrys second year would be smooth sailing in comparison right?
Wrong. When the school caretakers cat is found petrified along with a bone-chilling message that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, fear and suspicions start to arise and of course, only worsen when students start getting petrified too. Nobody can figure out who the culprit is, only that he refers to himself as the Heir and seems to be on the warpath.
But as our young heroes know well by now, if you want a mystery solved right, you have to do it yourself. Which they do through a combination of Polyjuice potion brewing, mysterious flashbacks provided by a sentient journal, and a truly horrific excursion to see a giant spider called Aragog. The book culminates in a visit to the titular chamber, which lies underneath Hogwarts and contains yet another deadly threat that Harry must face.
But of course, this being an early Potter book, its not all din and danger. Comic relief comes in the form of moronic, egocentric professor Gilderoy Lockhart, and toilet ghost Moaning Myrtle who, in true Rowling fashion, ends up being key to the central plot twist of the story.
Don’t Miss: What Is The Cure For Boils Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery
Chapter 1: Magic Is Might
Hermione taking Phineas Nigellus’s painting
- “But if my wife were accused of being a Mudblood,â said Yaxley, ââ not that any woman I married would ever be mistaken for such filth â and the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement needed a job doing, I would make it my priority to do that job, Cattermole. Do you understand me?”
- â Yaxley, to Ron
After a month of spying on the Ministry of Magic, the trio infiltrate it in order to retrieve the Horcrux from Umbridge. They ambush three employees and use Polyjuice Potion to impersonate them with Hermione taking on the appearance of Mafalda Hopkirk, Ron looking like Reginald Cattermole, and Harry impersonating Albert Runcorn.
After Graduating From College She Had A Stint Working For Amnesty International
The author studied French at the University of Exeter, graduating in 1986. According to her official biography, she “read so widely outside her French and Classics syllabus that she clocked up a fine of £50 for overdue books at the University library.” Her Classics knowledge was later used when she came up with the names for spells in the “Harry Potter” series.
After graduating, Rowling worked at the research desk for Amnesty International, doing translation work. She found the work important “I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them,” she said but it didn’t suit her, as she said in a later interview.
“I am one of the most disorganized people in the world and, as I later proved, the worst secretary ever,” she said. “All I ever liked about working in offices was being able to type up stories on the computer when no-one was looking. I was never paying much attention in meetings because I was usually scribbling bits of my latest stories in the margins of the pad, or choosing excellent names for the characters.”
Also Check: Harry Potter Broomstick Toy
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
Theres quite a bit to unpack in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, so well dive right in: after attending an eventful Quidditch World Cup with Hermione and the Weasley family, Harry returns to Hogwarts for his fourth year of school. Its bound to be an exciting one, as Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament, in which students from three major wizarding academies will compete. However, only students aged seventeen or older are eligible for the competition, which means Harry is safe for once or so he thinks, until the ceremonial Goblet of Fire selects him as the fourth Triwizard Champion for no discernible reason.
What follows is a nonstop sequence of thrills, landmarked by the challenges of the tournament in which the contestants must tackle menacing dragons, malevolent mermaids, and a maze full of potentially fatal tricks and traps. But even between the challenges themselves is plenty of riveting drama, especially with Rita Skeeter , Mad-Eye Moody , and Hermiones most recent social justice cause . And as anyone whos read it will know, the GoF finale is unprecedented in terms of dark, difficult material, signaling a definitive shift for the series in a more mature direction.
Chapter : The Dursleys Departing
- “I don’t think you’re a waste of space.”
- â Dudley, to Harry
Dudley thanks his cousin for saving his soul
Harry is beginning to have regrets about not having asked Dumbledore more about his past, but this is soon forgotten as he leaves his home that night. He convinces Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley Dursley that they need to leave as well to avoid being captured by the Death Eaters. Eventually Order of the Phoenix members Dedalus Diggle and Hestia Jones arrive to escort them to an undisclosed location. Before leaving, Dudley admits that he cares about Harry and thanks him for saving his soul during the Dementor attack of 1995, and they shake hands. Petunia burst into tears saying what a gentleman her son was, yet Hestia objected, saying he didn’t really say, “Thank you.” but Harry tells her he was.
Also Check: Doxycide Potion Ingredients Hogwarts Mystery
Background To The Series
The books concern the adventures of Harry Potter at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and his struggle against the evil villain of the books, Lord Voldemort. Harry is aided in this by his school friends, notably Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and by various adults including the school’s headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Harry, by accident of birth and a prophecy foretelling his importance, has become the centre of all attention by both sides in the long running war between Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix and Ministry of Magic on one side, and Voldemort’s Death Eaters on the other.