The Harry Potter fandom is an international, informal community drawn together by the Harry Potter series.
Online Encyclopedias
Many online encylopedias, most famously the Harry Potter Lexicon, which was given a "fan site award" by J. K. Rowling herself, have been created to document the series. These sites tend to stick very close to the canon, trying not to jump to conclusions.
Fan Fiction
Fan fiction is fiction written by fans. There are innumerable fan fiction stories on the internet devoted to Harry Potter, and several sites dedicated to Harry Potter fan fiction (such as Harry Potter Fanfiction.com, The Sugar Quill, Portkey.org and FictionAlley), as well as several websites which have entire sections devoted to fan fiction too (such as Mugglenet Fanfiction and USHP Fanfiction).
When asked about fan fiction, Rowling said "I've read some of it. I find it very flattering that people love the characters that much." She generally supports fan fiction (although she has asked that sites that contain fanfic with adult content password-protect the stories so children under 18 cannot access it).
Fan fiction and fan-cognition in general tend to have an interesting derivative view of themes and characters in the books. For example, some believe that the online fan crowd has much more sympathy for Draco Malfoy than the average fan. This has led to the rise of the characterisation known as "Fanon Draco" or "Draco In Leather Trousers" (coined for a scene in noted fanfiction author Cassandra Claire's "Draco Trilogy"), which some fans find annoying and similar to a Mary Sue-ised canon character (also known as a Qanonreip, which comes from The Potter Sue Of The Day Report and is derived from "canon rape").
Another popular figure of the Harry Potter fan fiction is Severus Snape, with many fictions' expansions on canon of this character being widely accepted by the fan fiction community. These include fan representation such as casting him as a Vampire, and in a mocking retort to that, giving him a set of fuzzy bat slippers to wear—a joke which was started on the "All About Snivellus Snape" threads which existed on CoSForums shortly after the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (see also MuggleNet). Whilst the great majority of Severus Snape fan fiction includes a lot of OOC behaviour, a fair few authors also manage to write the character as true to the Harry Potter series as possible.
Shipping in the Harry Potter fandom
- See main article: Shipping in the Harry Potter fandom
One of the most frequently discussed subjects in the fandom are the "ship debates", a controversy that has been going on in the Harry Potter fandom for as long as its participants can remember. The main ship debate centers on whether Hermione should/could/will romantically belong with Harry, Ron, or even Draco (for more about the phenomenon of shipping, which is not exclusive to the Harry Potter fandom, see Shipping (fandom)). Even J.K. Rowling herself has expressed some enjoyment over the "shipper debates" on her website—while letting the shippers know that they should have had the matter figured out by now [1]. However, the ships often seen in fandom are not limited to Harry and Hermione and Ron and Hermione – they also include: Harry and Ginny, Harry and Draco, Harry and Luna, Ron and Luna, Harry and Ron, Draco and Hermione, and Sirius and Remus.
Fan Art
Sites such as ArtisticAlley host thousands of pieces of fan art, created by artists of all degrees of skill, sorted by book chapter, and by character. Also, individual sites, such as Art Dungeon and Seventeen Sickles, showcase the works of talented individual artists. However, artists tend to draw for their ships and create their own personal sites. There is no way to document the thousands of sites like this.
External links
- jkrowling.com: J. K. Rowling's official site, with news and bits of info about the books and characters from the author herself.
- The Harry Potter Lexicon, an encyclopedia of Harry Potter information. Winner of the J. K. Rowling Fan Site Award.
- MuggleNet, a popular fansite. Winner of the J. K. Rowling Fan Site Award.
- HPANA, or the Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator. Winner of the J. K. Rowling Fan Site Award.
- The Leaky Cauldron, popular fan site featuring news, forums, occasional interviews with the movie cast, and other "extras".
- HarryPotterFanFiction.com: Repository of Harry Potter fan fiction.
- Immeritus, a Sirius Black fan club. Winner of the J. K. Rowling Fan Site Award.
- The Patronus, a positive Christian perspective of Harry Potter.
- Hogwarts Fans, a site designed for spirited debate of the past and future of Harry Potter.
Definitive Character sites
Last updated: 08-20-2005 12:37:59
