In Which the Internet Reminds Me of That Fiasco of JK Rowling's in the Run-up To "Fantastic Beasts"

[grundyscribbling]

If you're just here for the Tolkien, skip this one. I'm not sure if it's an essay or a rant, but it's about the ridiculousness of one JK Rowling. I had managed to forget about this, but since Ms. Rowling will insist on saying foolish things on the internet, it has resurfaced, and I am irritated all over again.

Long long ago, before the plague, in the run-up to the release of the movies "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them", JK Rowling released some material on her website meant to get everyone excited about seeing magical North America. (Well, magical USA, really. I don't think Canada or Mexico got a look-in.) It did quite the opposite for a number of people, me included. Because it turned out the Rowling Did Not Do The Research. At least, not beyond watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Her account of the early colonization of what eventually became the US matched Linus Van Pelt pretty much point for point. Then she threw in some incoherent crap about Natives who were grateful to get English witches and wizards instructing them, and seasoned it all with a dose of 'the Magical Congress waited out the Revolution in Washington DC'.

Leaving aside the stunning ignorance of American history evident in that last bit*, let's focus on the Native part. (There's still stunning ignorance here, by the way. Not even some basic Google searches.) Because this is really where my train of HP-related enjoyment not only came to a screeching halt, but derailed catastrophically, to the point where I will accept the 7 published books, the Red Nose day books (Quidditch, Fantastic Beasts) and Babbitty Rabitty, but nothing else, up to and including anything else JKR has to say or release on the internets about the magical world of Harry Potter.

In her established canon, JK Rowling has told or shown us several things that have a bearing on the way events play out in magical North America. To wit:
1. It is possible to magically enchant an area to keep unwanted persons out. (In fact, there are multiple methods to achieve this.) More than that, it is possible to enchant an area such that the unwanted persons will not even know it exists. (Fidelius Charm.)
2. It is possible to magically arrest the motion of objects, rendering projectile weapons (such as 17th century firearms) largely useless.
3. Magical persons have highly resilient bodies and are largely immune to 'Muggle' diseases.

On her website, Rowling stated there were magic users among the Native Americans.

Combining these facts, how does Rowling expect that the colonization of North America would proceed exactly the same in her magical world as it did in our non-magical history? Because to me that sounds like the most arrant nonsense ever uttered, even with her attempt to excuse it with 'Natives didn't have wands'**. Why on earth would the Native populations not have been protected by their magic users? Why would they not have enchanted their territories to make it difficult to impossible for the colonizers to take over?

More to the point, why would the governance of magical North America correspond in any way to the geographical map of current North America? Hundreds of Native nations, and she thinks one unicameral body that seems to be dominated by Europeans would be it? (And that's just for the US. I suspect in a magical timeline, the Natives were on a stronger footing vs the Europeans, so the Natives would have had the upper hand. The Magical Council of Turtle Island thus likely skews Native, deals with an area that crosses real-world geographic borders as it was established before the borders were, and speaks many languages.)

And the thing I find most outrageous about all this is not the Did Not Do The Reading part. (Although that certainly doesn't help.) It's the complete and utter failure of imagination. You can't posit a world with magic, then handwave away the magic to make everything look exactly the same anyway and expect that to be compelling.

*Really, if you want proof she didn't crack a book at all, this is it. Yes, why wouldn't the wizarding governing body take refuge in a swampy area not yet named for the man who was at the time nothing more than a rebel officer?
**Yeah, so what? We've seen magic without wands before. No reason the Natives can't be badass wandless magic users.

Comments

[independence1776]

Well, this is the woman who didn't realize she was writing fantasy until she was most of the way done with the first book. So... yeah. A lack of imagination, for all the neat stuff she put in the books, is definitely there.

She lost me on the larger magical world worldbuilding in GoF when Europe only had three magic schools, one for Great Britain and two for the rest of the continent. Couldn't buy that then or now. What she did to the rest of the globe... you wrote a lovely rant.

[grundyscribbling]

Yeah, for all the nifty stuff she did, consistent worldbuilding isn't really her strong suit.

I didn't register that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were supposed to be the only two other magic schools, I just figured they were the only ones British wizards knew much about. I mean, Italian wizards are probably not attending Beauxbatons any more than the Finns are going to Durmstrang. And I realize Rowling also isn't great at math, but if the UK (+ Ireland if we take Seamus to be Ireland-Irish not just Northern Ireland-Irish) population fills a school, sorry, but two schools for everywhere else in Europe just doesn't math.

[independence1776]

The math was one of the clues for me.

I wanted to like the Fantastic Beasts movies, and thought the find-the-escaped-critters half of the first was charming. The rest of it was bad and the second film even worse. I'm not bothering with the rest.

Like you, I'm sticking with the HP series itself. I rarely pay attention to Word of God stuff anyway, but in her case, I have less than zero desire to. She should have kept her "HP and nothing else" stance.

[grundyscribbling]

Yeah, I really don't get why she feels the need to do this. She's got enough money she doesn't have to keep returning to the HP well if that's not what she wants to do; she has a successful series going with the Cormoran Strike books (though if I were her publisher I might be starting to worry about the book release in September if she keeps talking.)

[narya_flame]

I think at some point I must have removed JKR and Harry Potter from my news feed, because I had to go looking for the offending tweet, and...ugh. Well. I can't say I'm surprised.

(I hate it, because I grew up loving Harry, identifying with Hermione, and wanting to throw the nearest heavy object at Ron while simultaneously being desperate for him to be my best friend too, and I don't want to like something associated with the opinions JKR evidently holds. I am also intrigued by some of the threads left trailing in the Fantastic Beasts films, like where Modesty Barebones went. But. But.)

Hands up, I admit that I too have been a clueless Brit about some of the things you raise - but then again I try not to burden the internet with opinions about things I know I don't understand well.

Tangent, but I also really dislike that Harry Potter has gone from being a magical world that existed in children's heads, to an excuse to make money out of places that had nothing at all to do with the HP franchise. "This random place in Britain is kind of pretty and looks like it might be part of Hogsmeade. Gift shop!" Great, you pushed out three established local family businesses. Well done.

[grundyscribbling]

I decided I didn't care what else she had to say outside of the books after the history of magical North America thing, and having seen her involve herself in several kerfluffles of late, I'm thinking that was a good decision. (This latest foray into talking about trans people isn't her first. I honestly don't get why she has such a bug up her butt about it.)

I still like the books. I just ignore JKR. (I skipped the Fantastic Beasts films altogether.) I also go with what's in my head when what's in hers is...dubious.

That's just it - you know you don't understand it. I trust that if you were going to set a story in North America, you'd actually do the reading. She didn't make even a cursory attempt, and it shows - but she still thought it was ok to put that out there.

Aw. :( I guess I shouldn't be surprised that's happening, but it's still disappointing. Particularly since the local places probably had more character and charm.

[spiced_wine]

I’ve read one author who’s not US born but does his homework so well, that for the first 3 books I did think he was a US novelist (he’s Irish).

Okay they are not magical books, but they have dealt with the supernatural and legends of the US, the different states, and history. He has really done his homework, and also visited the places, talked to people, which JK could well afford to do.

If an author comes off this badly writing outside his/her own country, it really is basic laziness, riding on success and hoping people won’t notice, and yes, a lack of imagination.

[sulien]

Exactly! Thank you! I am so glad to see other people getting annoyed at published authors (and scriptwriters, for that matter) who just don't bother to do any research. Well said!

Speculative fiction/fantasy is always better when it is grounded in a solid foundation of logical world building and internally consistent history and physical science/magic.

[grundyscribbling]

She said the Magical Congress relocated to Washington DC to avoid the [Revolutionary] war! (I wish I had screenshotted it at the time, because it's apparently since been corrected to 'what is now Washington'.) That's not just 'not bothering to do research' that's 'does not actually know anything about the subject and couldn't even be arsed to Google'.

Logical worldbuilding and internal consistency are not really Rowling's thing.

[sulien]

"Logical worldbuilding and internal consistency are not really Rowling's thing."

One of several reasons I wasn't nearly as jazzed about the Potter books as most folks I know. Tolkien was the first fantasy I ever read (well, after Dunsany's "The Bride of the Man-Horse") and I was ruined for lesser authors ever after.

[grundyscribbling]

I like the books, but I feel like that might be just because through the filter of my brain they're more interesting than she actually meant them to be. Oh well, there's always fanfic. Maybe I should have another crack at some of my Buffy-HP crosses...the Dawn at Hogwarts one was kind of fun.

[sulien]

Dawn at Hogwarts? I don't remember if I've read that one or not, but I'm game to read it if you decide to continue it. :) I enjoyed the Potter books up until Half Blood Prince, then I decided I would see what direction they took for the last book and never bothered to read Deathly Hallows. The Prisoner of Azkaban is definitely my favorite of the books and I much prefer to read Harry Potter crossovers when it comes to the fan fiction.

[grundyscribbling]

I haven't touched it in a while. (I'm actively trying not to look at the 'last updated'.) The New Girl.

[sulien]

*looks* Ouch, I don't blame you. Now that I look at this, I think I had read it back when and very much enjoyed it but decided to keep tracking and wait until it was completed to continue.

[ysilme]

I loved Tolkien and after that Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover long before Harry Potter even existed, and many other fantasy worlds besides. I refused to read Harry Potter for the longest time as back then I worked in a bookshop and was put off by the extreme hype surrounding it. I eventually caved, obviously (sometime before book 5 came out), and was hooked right away, up to the point that Harry Potter became my first proper fandom where I actively participated, and also published my first fanfic (everything before had always been for my own eyes only). But what hooked me were two characters, Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape, with a few more joining them later on, and very quickly what fandom was making out of it, leaving canon quickly behind. But I've never ignored the myriad of problems and issues with her creation, just chosen to overlook it, or looked at better-working fanon instead.

[sulien]

Right there with you about fanon often being so much better than canon in some fandoms. Stargate in particular, most especially Stargate Atlantis. Yeesh. :-p

"...was put off by the extreme hype surrounding it."

Exactlly! That was why I didn't read Tolkien until the late '70's. Everyone was pushing me to read them from the late '60's on and I loathed all of the hype, so I only picked up the Hobbit because it was on sale at my college's book store. I'm glad I did, because I've been a devoted Tolkien fan since.

[lilith_lessfair]

I had missed the Fantastic Beasts kerfluffle, and I have to say her current bout of idiocy is far more than disappointing.

I have a really vague recollection of someone somewhat salty — I think it was Stephen King but were I to — in the middle of a generally quite positive review of one of her Harry Potter books suggest that there was a certain point where too much success became dangerous. I meant it in the context that no one dared to edit her work properly and so obvious issues were not corrected when they ought to be, but one might find other applications for that comment.

[grundyscribbling]

Unfortunately, this isn't her first time at the 'saying stupid stuff about trans people' rodeo. (And this time she picked a really bad moment.)

Yes, I remember that going around back in the middle of the series, that she wasn't being edited properly, and that was part of why the later books ended up so much bulkier than the early ones. And I daresay you're right that the comment could be applied to other contexts...

[bunn]

I have to admit a small mean part of me is thinking :aha. At last, revenge for all the American fantasy books full of Woo Celtic Wales/Cornwall/Ireland/Scotland. :-D

The same argument applies there, too. If magic users who could hide a landscape from invaders existed, England wouldn't. The history of small-invaded nations everywhere would look like Asterix the Gaul history, and that would mean a completely different everywhere. But I agree, if she'd dropped the whole thing after finishing the series, people wouldn't have noticed.

[ysilme]

This.
Do you know the German saying "was kümmert mich mein dumm' G'schwätz von gestern?" Seems really fitting in her case.
I enjoyed the movies in much the same manner I enjoyed the Hobbit movies - ignoring what bothers me for one reason or other, or what I don't care about, and enjoying what I like - which, admittedly, in Fantastic Beasts is not very much. Mainly the beasts. I hadn't realised that it was THAT bad, though.
On the other hand, I'm not at all surprised: if you take a closer look, so much of her 'verse is unrealistic and doesn't bear closer examination etc. etc.
I still love the Potterverse very much, but what counts for me as the Potterverse goes far, far beyond what JKR originally created, like I also said in my DW post today.
I have to give one thing to JKR, though: the obvious omissions and things not properly thought through and so on made for a great basis to create fanon! ;op