Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
There was a lot of #HarryPotter #cosplay at #WonderCon this past weekend! Here are some of my photos. There are a lot more that I missed – people dressed as the Malfoys, students of course, other professors and so on.
My full gallery for the convention is on Flickr at
#Voldemort #BellatrixLestrange #Hagrid #ProfessorTrelawney #Dumbledore #ArthurWeasley #RitaSkeeter #ProfessorUmbridge #GilderoyLockhart
Voldemort’s basically about power: people follow him because they see they’ll gain in the power structure he’s setting up, or figure that if they get on his good side, he’ll protect them.
Grindelwald is a demagogue, telling people what they want to hear in order to get them to support him. He still wants to oppress people, but his power base is built on persuasion rather than intimidation.
#HarryPotter #FantasticBeasts
But since both villains draw on WW2 parallels, both wizarding wars have a strong element of metaphoric racism. Grindelvald’s followers & Voldemort’s both believe their genetic group is superior and should be in charge.
And having said that, now I’m reminded of the line in Catherynne Valente’s “Space Opera” about how *all* wars are about deciding who counts as a person, and who’s just meat.
It tracks.
#HarryPotter #FantasticBeasts #SpaceOpera
Almost finished reading #HarryPotter & the Chamber of Secrets as storytime for the kid. I’d forgotten how early the wizard racism analog was established for Slytherin & Voldemort. And how nasty it gets, and how quickly.