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pennswoodsThe following was my response to an Ask I received on my Tumblr regarding Rowling's revelation regarding pairing Hermione and Ron...
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I saw reference to it on Twitter yesterday and links like this one here which led to a discussion with fellow HP fans, some of whom were upset or stunned or ecstatic about this announcement. This is my own personal response to the announcement based upon my past experience in the HP fandom and my friendships with other HP fans who were very invested in or affected by this specific shipping discussion. It’s also very much related to where I find myself right now shipping Johnlock in the Sherlock fandom:
1. Why today? I wasn’t personally invested in Hermione and Ron or Hermione and Harry as I joined the fandom rather late (2005) and was never really a canon shipper (Neville/Luna was my first ship but it was Snape/Harry and Snape/Hermione that eventually became my competing OTPs). When I asked ‘why today’, this elicited a few responses:
It makes sense, as drinkingcocoa-tpp suggests, that Rowling revealed this to someone she knows and trusts. But this wasn’t a private conversation with Emma Watson. The audience was much bigger, and Rowling is not naive when it comes to media attention when she gives interviews about Harry Potter. She may have trusted Emma to handle this question with care when writing this article, but why reveal this information now?
@biblioaesthetica’s comment suggests this could be related to new Harry Potter works Rowling may be involved in and specific choices she is grappling with. We do know she’s co-producing a play taking place in the pre-Harry Potter years, so this could be possible. It’s also possible that involvement in this project is making her revisit authorial decisions on past books. In other words, she really wanted to talk about the writing process and how she has grown or how time has given her different perspectives on her writing. This is very interesting.
I personally was wondering if there was something she had been confronted with in her own life or in the lives of those around her that made her reconsider her decision to marry Hermione and Ron. Have conversations with young women (like Emma Watson) about Hermione and what she means to women that age led her to revisit this choice? I can’t really know, but I am still wondering, why this conversation needed to happen now and in this format.
2. What does this mean for Harry Potter fans? This is related to thegoldendoe's response and the response of several friends who were deeply involved in the Harry Potter fandom, particularly the shipping of Hermione with either Ron or Harry and were affected by the fallout of the shipping wars that occurred as a result.
From my perspective, shipping is another way of engaging with and interpreting a text. The analysis that goes into shipping a particular pairing is no different than the analysis that goes into speculating on the outcome of a mystery (Is Snape good or evil? How did Sherlock survive the fall?) or into identifying major themes and morals that can be extrapolated from the text (Is Harry Potter an example of a hero’s journey or a coming of age story? Is Sherlock a story of friendship or of alienation?) Just as fans bring all sorts of expectations and readings to a particular theme in a particular text, they bring just as much to the reading of shipping of particular characters in that text. For some fans this is light-hearted and fun, but for others this is deeply personal and deeply meaningful work that helps them address (or cope with or avoid or understand) themes and issues in their own relationships, lives, and selves. And I think this explains why people can be so invested in shipping and what friends and fans and the creator of a particular work have to say about the feasibility or healthiness or goodness/badness of certain ships. Unfortunately, shipping is also the type of textual interpretation that is easily mocked. For some reason, it seems to be accepted as more intellectually worthwhile to analyze a text for moral themes, the meaning of the color green, the use of Latin, and the significance of numbers than it is to do the same for themes pertaining to human relationships and commitment and sexuality.
So again, what does this mean for Harry Potter fans? For one, it’s opening up old wounds which may have soured the fandom experience for many or which may have been taken as commonly accepted criticism of the personal beliefs and issues these fans brought to the text.
In 2005, two prominent Harry Potter fans who headed major fansites (Emerson Spartz of Mugglenet and Melissa Anelli of The Leaky Cauldron) were given the opportunity to interview JK Rowling shortly after the release of book 6 (full transcript of part II of the interview here). In the discussion of the Harry/Ginny kiss that occurred and which confirmed one particular reading of the series (that Harry was not going to wind up with Hermione) Emerson used the word delusional to describe Harry/Hermione shippers. Although Rowling disagreed with Emerson’s use of this word and Emerson later apologized, ‘delusional’ stuck and became a common derisive term used to talk about those who shipped Harmony (Harry/Hermione) as this 2007 piece illustrates (the exchange where delusional is used is excerpted here).
For others, it’s reminding them of a period of deception and manipulation and deeply entrenched infighting that resulted in lost friendships and trust.
In 2006, an extremely long and detailed account revealed a history of manipulation and deceit on the part of one fan who entered the Harry Potter fandom in 2002 and used sock-puppets and flattery and deep fandom divisions around shipping (including Harry/Hermione and Ron/Hermione) to increase her own influence and further damage already bad relationships among these ship-divided groups. Her manipulations appear to have been responsible in part for the dissolution of one fandom archive as well as the increased bad blood between different fandom groups and different ships. The 2006 account also revealed the depth to which this fan had deceived her friends and duped them into further fostering mistrust among these different fan groups. While the investigation and reveal may have been cathartic for some fans, it was extremely painful for others, and Rowling’s interview is a reminder of this loss of faith and friendship.
3. What does this mean for the Sherlock fandom? And now I bring this back to the Sherlock fandom and to Johnlock shippers in particular because this is my current fandom reality. Rowling’s acknowledgement of her changed perspective on the Hermione/Ron relationship may be taken by some HP fans as either confirmation or criticism of a particular reading of her text or reinforcement or criticism of a particular understanding of successful or unsuccessful relationships. For those fans who take the intent or word of the creator as the sole correct reading of a text, this can be either demoralizing or inspiring, depending on where they stand.
However, Rowling’s change of mind illustrates the fact that authorial intent and interpretation can be flexible and changing, and possibly driven by factors so beyond the text we are reading. Over time and for whatever reason (changed perspective due to growth as a writer, growth as a human being, room to reconsider due to lack of pressure to publish in a very limited time frame), Rowling has come to openly acknowledge a new interpretation of her own text. This is actually a very powerful statement.
When John and Mary’s wedding was revealed by followers of #setlock last spring, there was an outcry over what this meant for the potential of a John/Sherlock ship or the representation of an visible and prominent queer relationship between such iconic characters in a highly watched television show. That Mary is still with us and that John and Mary are expecting a daughter at the end of series 3 has added to the conundrum facing Johnlock shippers whose reading of the series so far suggests John and Sherlock as endgame, but who are struggling with the integration of Mary. For some, Mary’s denouement in HLV killed their enthusiasm and their shipping. For others, Mary is an obstacle to be ignored or gotten rid of. For still others, Mary is there in canon (cool, thank you very much) but irrelevant to their shipping.
Right now it feels as if parts of the Johnlock ship are in an uneasy space, awaiting the right piece of meta or fanfic to bring things together so our reading of the text (and our hopes and beliefs about relationships) can be realized in the source material and by the creators. There is also tension regarding what TPTB think of Johnlock shippers, tension fueled by interviews and stunts in the media regarding fanworks (especially the explicit kind) featuring Sherlock and John.
But I am hoping that Rowling’s revelation can help change the conversation a little. That more of us will not be so dependent upon the approval or confirmation of the writers and actors of Sherlock when we analyze or find inspiration to create or otherwise engage with the show. That we will not become so entrenched in our shipping hopes and preferences that we stop listening to each other.That our understanding of relationships, of love, of ourselves not be overly influenced by the authorial choices and personal opinions of writers and actors who are just as flawed and as likely to make mistakes or change their minds as we are.
