Part IV

by Mina

(Who feels that this will probably lead to a lynching, but doesn’t really care since she finally reached the end of the bloody thing.)

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So, what did all of that ranting in the three previous instalments lead up to? I’m not quite certain myself, but I know that I feel a lot better after writing that. Too often what destroys a fandom aren’t the true, die-hard fans—it’s the people who dive into a fandom without looking, without learning. I’m all for adding new blood to a fandom, but not at the risk of ruining why I liked it in the first place. I liked the original story line to begin with, not the fan fiction. To me, fan fiction is an added bonus. It brings me close to people who think the same way I do, who feel the same way I do—people that I may not otherwise meet.

Does this mean that I don’t encourage people to write? Far from it. What I’m trying to say (probably not very articulately, but all I can do is try) is to—as I stated before—think things through. If you don’t know the answer, look it up. There are a lot of Harry Potter resources both published and on the ‘net. Use them, since that’s what they’re there for: knowledge.

If this essay makes me seem pretentious, then so be it. I prefer to think of it as an attempt to bring about another point of view concerning a fandom, to give insight as to why there are some people who consider “famous, amazing stories” nothing more than a humorous replay of telly and literature applied to another universe, one that is more like the fan fic author’s imagination than the copyrighted work author’s actual universe. These may still be well written, still engaging, but to me, they’re not as good as they could be because they’re not truly Harry Potter.