BBC News – The End of Harry Potter? It’s Hardly Begun.
Sorry to be a bit twitterish here, but just wanted to share this article about JKR and the future of Harry Potter with you. 🙂
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I’ll certainly be interested in what happens to the fandom after this point, especially after Pottermore, and how the fanbase will develop and change over the years.
But looking at the preparations for the last film remind me of one thing: it’s been a long time.I grew up with the HP books and movies, and they helped to fire my imagination at a young age. Albus and Minerva and the Trio and Lupin and and Tonks and Moody were my companions since I was a little kid. I very literally grew up with them, from Sorcerer’s Stone to the Deathly Hallows.
Looking at how far HP has come since then, I feel both nostalgic and a little sad. Then again, there’s always fanfic, and the adventure will never end! 🙂
It is very interesting how much the on-going publication of Harry Potter shaped the lives of so many children and adolescents over the course of that decade. I can’t think of an equivalent experience for other generations — not a “literary” or fictional one, at any rate.
I know how distressing this must be for HP fans. However, HP fanfic will now become even more important. – Mickey Murphy
Some people have been saying that HP fanfic will die, but although I think it will change, I don’t think it’s in any danger of completely dying. And after all, people have been writing Sherlock Holmes pastiches for many decades, and Conan Doyle’s dead! In a way, the end of the series gives more scope for fanfic writers — they know what canon consists of — and they can also be free to write more “background” books about the characters we met in the HP series, particularly the adult characters, or to write “next gen” fics, or to write about Harry & co. as adults.
The HP universe is a large one with a lot of room for new fanfic, so I think you’re right, Mickey!
I, for one, wouldn’t mind buying and reading a book based on the adults. Give me more details of their lives and the struggles with Grindelwald and how Riddle came to power in the first place. I don’t think that would damage the integrity of the other seven books at all. In fact, I think it would only add to it. However, I have no desire at all to read books about the trio’s children and their life at Hogwarts. No dark lord to defeat would be page after page of them getting into normal mischief and the like.
As for Steven Speilberg’s comment about not directing the movies because it was a “slam dunk” … I think we’re all better off without him. Chris Columbus and the others did an amazing job in bringing these people to life and the big screen. It would have been more of a “flash in the pan” gimmickry if he’d had his way. Was I disappointed with some of the movies (POA, in particular) … sure I was, but that didn’t stop me from loving the series and moving right along with it.
Fanfics will live forever and so will the characters as long as those of us who are truly interested keep reading AND REVIEWING those authors which best capture the essence of the characters. When we fail to review, authors lose their encouragement and I speak from personal experience, that can chase away all those little plot bunnies.
So, happy reading, reviewing, and LONG LIVE HP!!
I’d be happy either way — if JKR never wrote another HP novel, that’d be fine with me, or if she wrote a “prequel” or two. I wouldn’t mind a story set in the “future,” after the end of the HP series, either, depending on what it was. I’m sure there will always be all manner of baddies and beasties out there, and a novel wouldn’t necessarily have to have a Good v. Evil in the epic proportions of the HP series to still have a good dose of adventure and suspense. I agree, though, any book that just was a school novel about the next generation of kids getting into normal mischief wouldn’t really appeal to me. There’d have to be a “hook” of some sort — an intriguing mystery or a threat to be overcome — to make the story interesting.
To be honest, I’d prefer to read a story set in the years after HP than in those preceding it simply because I have created such a dense and textured backstory (which became very AU after DH!) that I’d probably find it difficult to write in that fanfic universe again if we were given entire books about the Grindelwald war & Dumbledore’s relationship with GG, or one about the early Riddle years. Although some more first Riddle war years probably wouldn’t mess with my muse too much! LOL!
I suppose I fear that fanfic will become increasingly based on the movies and less on the books. The movies will always influence fanfic, of course, but I hope that people still read the original books and really get the flavor of the universe that JKR created — and the way she wrote the characters, as well — and don’t simply watch the movies over and over again and forget the books! 🙂
Thanks for your comment — and the note about reviews. There are a couple places where I simply stopped posting my fics because it seemed pointless. After all, if on one site, readers review and on another, there’s no response whatsoever, why continue to post on that second site? I think a couple archives are slowly dying because of the decreasing number of new stories posted, but it seems to me that authors are posting less because fewer people are reviewing on those archives than used to in the past.
In addition to a sense of validation & a non-monetary reward for the time and effort that went into writing the story, an author can feel a part of a community when she or he receives reviews and develops a dialogue with readers. I write for myself, but I upload my stories to the archives to share them. If it’s no longer rewarding to upload stories, eventually, the muse dies or the sharing becomes selective — via email or some other method.
I think there are some people who genuinely don’t care about reviews, and that’s fine — you can often tell those people because on the archives where review responses are visible, like TPP, the authors never acknowledge reviews let alone reply to them. Of course, they may also think of reviews as being more for the benefit of other readers — back when I used to read more fanfic, I would sometimes quickly scan reviews to see whether the story looked like one I might enjoy. I think reviews/comments are important for most fanfic writers, though, as well as being informative for potential readers.
Well, I could go on and on! But I think I’ve rambled sufficiently. 😉 Thanks for the comment! It got me thinking about stuff!