If it is not related to fanfiction and fan creation, I want nothing to do with Harry Potter. I actively avoid supporting J.K. Rowling in every way I possibly can. Her power and influence is insidious, and permeates almost every aspect of my life, but I cannot abide what she has said and done.
Welcome back to The Percy Jackson Project! Let’s talk about The Battle of the Labyrinth. A reminder that this is a SPOILER HEAVY series of posts about my read through of the Percy Jackson series, so if you are not familiar with Percy Jackson and the Olympians through book four and you read this post any spoilers you read are your own fault.
We are onto book three of the Percy Jackson Project and in case you weren’t aware from my previous posts THESE ARE SPOILER HEAVY so don’t keep reading this if you have not read The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, and The Titan’s Curse.
At this point, it is a cliche to say that I am unsurprised by the actions and ideology of J.K. Rowling when it comes to trans individuals and their identities. I have lost much of my hope regarding whether or not she will come to see us as we see ourselves, and not as the grotesque caricatures that she writes about in her novels.
Welcome to The Percy Jackson Project! Today is the long-awaited part two of my discussion of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters.
Welcome to the Percy Jackson Project! Today I am discussing book two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians — The Sea of Monsters.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix used to be my least favorite book in the Harry Potter series, but as I have grown older, it has wiggled its way up to the top of the list. This book is long; at over 800 pages, it is the longest of any of the Harry Potter books, and the text is rich with details that make up a story that I have poured over many times in my life, and I continue to read and reread with care and rigor.
In many ways, Harry Potter taught me how to be. And yet, it wasn’t really the books that taught me that, was it? Because the thing is, so much of what I learned from Harry Potter, I also learned from outside Harry Potter. So many of the lessons I learned from the series were not quite things I learned from the books directly, but because I took my love of the books, and sought out others like myself.
The start of The Percy Jackson Project: the stumble of a 20-something through the world of the demigods. Book one: The Lightning Thief.
The thing I love most about Doctor Who novels is the chance they give to explore in depth the characters which aren’t always given enough of a chance to shine in the series itself.
Last Friday night I was invited to participate in what ended up being a great Twitter Chat organized by Black Girls Create to discuss critical fandom as part of their month-long #BlackWizardHistory campaign. I really enjoyed the discussion, but I realized afterward that because it was such a great back and forth, the cohesiveness of the responses I had created got a little lost, and after reading what other people had to say, there is even more that I want to say. So I’ve strung together below an archive of my responses to the questions, with a short paragraph afterwards digging a bit deeper into the experience.
There is no functional difference between UPG/ SPG and headcanon/ fanon; it is only because people perceive fandom and religion as distinct entities that they are not allowed to fully coexist. My perception is that this is because people may think that comparing religion to fandom delegitimizes religious practice, but that strikes me as nonsense and I don’t at all agree.
Fanfiction was my solace, and my rescue, and it showed me that everything was OK. It gave me happy endings, as well as one’s that weren’t so happy, and a way to explore the darkest parts of myself with no consequence. In fanfiction I found a friend and a partner in myself and in my writing, as there were no stakes, no pressure, and yet plenty of reward. Escapism, but also family, and creation.
One thing that I’ve always loved about Doctor Who is the way that people unfamiliar with the Doctor and how they operate react to them, and so I loved that The Good Doctor starts off from the perspective of someone utterly bewildered about what is going on.
Given that there’s no new episodes of Doctor Who until 2020, I decided to read some books that cover the adventures of The Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, and Graham. I started with Combat Magicks because the book is about witchcraft and battles between Attila the Hun and the Roman Empire. How could I possibly resist?