this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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I think the concept is frequently called “Death of the Author”. It’s the idea that you can see a text or piece of art without as entirely removed from the artist themselves. In the case of Rowling I would argue this is a bad idea as she is actively seeing support for any of her work, regardless if fictional or otherwise, as active support for her view on trans people.
Also on closer inspection, her writing really revels in grossness like natural hierarchies. I liked HP when i was younger, but knowing who Rowling is now, I can't help but see her sick fingerprints all over that work.
It's possible to fashion a new, better nostalgia for yourself. For my part I'd rather just reread any Discworld book for the dozenth time.
Yeah, I too just can’t unsee her influence in her work. I would have made a deliberate choice to no longer support her with my money, even if I could still enjoy HP. But it turns out my brain just won’t let me enjoy any of it anymore. Things I used to enjoy suddenly being almost revolting to me only ever happened to me with 3 different artists and she is one of them.
Yeah it's also not many for me. Kevin Spacey is another one for me, mainly because he came out as gay and tried to accuse his (often also gay) victims of homophobia. The third one for me is something hyper-local, a band where the lead singer was accused of sexual assault by an overwhelming number of people in the span of 24hrs, where the singer claimed it was transphobia even though most (all?) of her accusers were queer themselves. I just feel extra gross about that because when the first person accused her I did immediately want to defend her because of being a trans woman. But then within the space of the next 24 hours three more unrelated people publicly accused her as well.
The other ones for me are: Neil Gaiman because of the recent sexual abuse/ coercion thing with multiple victims and the band Disturbed because of the political views of their lead singer.
Not from the 800K+ fanfics , or in general from all the fanart.
The Death of the Author is a pre-Internet reflection on personal interpretation over an author's views.
Nowadays, it's way more than that: whole fandoms can tear an author's work to shreds, run with only the parts they like, and not look back. Rowling is no longer in control, or much of an influence, she's merely coasting on her previous fame for those unaware. Right now, most of the fandom is quite critical of her views, not only on trans people, but also some other troubling aspects of her work... and they make the overwhelming majority of works in the Harry Potter universe.