If you're an obsessed Harry Potter fan, Voldemort isn't
the problem. It's Hermione versus Ginny.
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Critic at Large
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
For the Harry Potter fan, puberty brings nothing but trouble. There
was a time when the young protagonist of J.K. Rowling's magical
saga spent his days at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
blithely dodging hexes, solving improbable mysteries and grappling
with his twin roles as savior of the wizarding world and
best-selling literary phenomenon. Simple stuff.
Then came adolescence and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,"
the penultimate installment in Rowling's seven-part series. His
hormones flowing thicker than chilled Polyjuice, a teenage Harry
fell hard for his best friend Ron Weasley's sister, Ginny. Ron, in
turn, toppled into the arms of Harry's other best friend and
Hogwarts' resident genius, Hermione Granger. Kissing and peril and
heroism ensued. Again, simple stuff.
Or maybe not. Enter the 'shippers. In the Harry Potter fandom,
'shipping (short for "relationshipping") simply means championing a
romantic relationship between certain series characters, either
within canon or in works of fan fiction (fan-penned fiction that
spins off an original narrative). Potter fans have long been
divided into camps advocating one 'ship over another: Some
celebrate the pairing of Hermione and Harry, for example; others
want to see Harry and his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, erase the thin
line between love and hate.
Competition has been especially fierce between the Harry/Hermione
and Harry/Ginny camps, where devotees have spent years on various
Web sites, forums and mailing lists arguing the plausibility of
their chosen pairings. "The Half-Blood Prince" should have settled
the matter when it matched Harry with Ginny and Hermione with Ron.
Instead, it's caused an eruption of fannish dismay. "That woman has
completely destroyed my faith in ever having a real relationship,"
opined one Harry/Hermione 'shipper on an online message board.
Another pronounced the book "a large, steaming pile of decaying
crap."
Discontent trebled after administrators from two of the Internet's
largest Potter fan sites, the Leaky Cauldron
(www.the-leaky-cauldron.org) and Mugglenet (www.mugglenet.com),
published an extensive three-part interview with Rowling. Leaky
Cauldron Editorial Director Melissa Anelli and Mugglenet founder
Emerson Spartz quizzed the author on numerous topics, ranging from
character death to magical ethics. Unfortunately, they also brought
up 'shipping. Spartz gleefully referred to Harry/Hermione fans as
"delusional." Rowling chuckled. All hell broke loose.
Spartz later apologized to 'shippers for his remark, but it was too
late: Enraged Harry/Hermione fans announced that they would never
read another Potter book; they slung invectives at Spartz and
Anelli. Hate mail clogged the Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet's
inboxes. Rowling was denounced in colorful and unprintable
terms.
Anelli, 25, who works as a journalist when she isn't overseeing the
Leaky Cauldron, says that most abuse came from a small faction of
vociferous fans. "They've lost the ability to divorce themselves
between what J.K. Rowling is doing and what they'd like to see
happen, and they've taken their disappointment and projected it
onto her," she says. "I can totally understand how you could be
upset if your preference didn't happen, but I can't understand or
tolerate that people who claim to be her fans can be so mean to
her."
Alison King, a 31-year-old Berkeley mother, Web programmer and
Harry/Hermione 'shipper, calls reactions from some fans "over the
top." But she also thinks Spartz's "delusional" comment lacked
tact. "I think it was just carelessness and was not meant
maliciously," she says. "But the way it read, I'm surprised they
didn't realize it would be inflammatory. It was like Melissa and
Emerson were our representatives, and you don't want to hear your
ambassadors be so partisan. You hope that they're speaking for
everyone."
"I was surprised," says Spartz, 18, of the furious response. "But
in hindsight, I shouldn't have been. I forgot how emotionally
invested these 'shippers get. I knew they weren't going to be happy
... but I did not see it generating this much hate." He adds,
"Romance in the books is the most prominent source of debate in the
online fandom, where many of the fans border on obsessive, but
casual readers will never understand what the big deal is."
So what is the big deal? 'Shippers would say that expressing
concern over fictional characters' love lives is no stranger than
fixating on celebrity relationships or betting on who will hook up
on a reality show. Romance is a universal obsession. For many
Harry/Hermione fans, too, there's a personal investment: As the
Potter series' brilliant bookworm, Hermione is a role model for
smart girls (and boys) who find themselves overshadowed by their
flashier peers. There's a certain appeal to thinking that a young
academic could couple with the hero of the wizarding world -- who
also happens to be her best friend.
Anelli figures that, once the dust settles, most ruffled
Harry/Hermione 'shippers will return to the fold. And while their
'ship has been sunk by Rowling, it will probably continue to
flourish in fan fiction. In fact, regardless of what happens in the
final book -- Harry might surprise everyone by swimming off to
share a love nest with Hogwarts' giant squid -- it is equally
probable that the series' many 'ships will keep on sailing.
"The fandom versions of the characters have become larger than
life," says King, known online by her nom de plume Ali Granger.
"There's almost more freedom for people whose 'ships don't turn out
in the end of the book, because they can write their own endings.
In a way, it's almost more fun to be the delusional ones." - San
Francisco Chronicle
WTF is wrong with these people? Harry/Hermione was never meant
to be. Right from HP1, the signs pointing to Harry/Ginny were
there. And Ron's jealousy of Victor Krum in HP4 meant he had
something for Hermione.
One Big Happy Weasley Family rules!
