death to capslock

More People Need(ed) to Read Harry Potter

Wed, 23 Nov 2016 14:24:00 GMT

Posted by: annoni-no.livejournal.com

I know, a provocative title in this community, but we have concrete evidence that reading Harry Potter leads to a small, but significant, increase in antipathy toward Donald Trump and his policies.

https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/new-study-shows-reading-harry-potter-lowers-americans%E2%80%99-opinions-donald-trump ; (Link through to the actual study in article.)

A while back I posted about a study that found that identifying with Harry Potter led to decreased bias toward stigmatized minorities. At the time, I wondered how reading the series led people to feel about how to deal with their enemies given the vindictiveness the series shows in a close reading. As it turns out, the more Harry Potter books someone has read, even controlling for "party identification, gender, education level, age, evangelical self-identification, and social dominance orientation," the more opposed they were to violence and punitive policies (like torturing their enemies as advocated by Trump) and authoritarianism. This is in addition to confirmation of the decreased bias against outgroups.

You don't have to like Harry Potter, and I completely agree that the books have a lot of problems. But let's not loose sight of the fact that the world is entering a dangerous, if not outright fascistic period. There's too much hatred and divisiveness driving our politics; hate crimes have risen by several hundred percent since Trump's election. If reading Harry Potter does help lead people to greater tolerance and mercy, we shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Epilogue!

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 22:00:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read the epilogue of the LAST BOOK IN THE SERIES!!! )
[THE END]

Much thanks to those who have stuck with this series for all these years (and to everyone else who tuned in as well). It truly has been a pleasure.

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 33

Fri, 28 Aug 2015 00:01:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

The moment we've all been waiting for--the story of SNAPE!

( Snape, Snape, Severus Snape... )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 26

Sun, 16 Aug 2015 10:46:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[For the attempted break-in of Gringotts, they decide Hermione will be Polyjuiced to look like Bellatrix]

Hermione: I really hate that I have to go as the woman who tortured me.

Harry: Well, look on the bright side—it’s only for one chapter.

Hermione: I can already tell it’s going to be a long chapter.

( Read Chapter 26 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 24

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 12:34:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Hey, it's my birthday! Have another one of these!

( Read Chapter 24 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 4

Fri, 22 May 2015 17:19:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 4 )

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Rant about Voldemort and Rowling's failed Nazi comparison

Tue, 12 May 2015 18:35:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

By popular demand!

( Read more... )
In summary, Rowling is Doin it Rong when it comes to discussing the Nazis, racism, prejudice, and basically anything socially-relevant whatsoever and she needs to just stop and get her facts checked.

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Harry Potter Abridged! OotP Chapter 33

Sat, 28 Feb 2015 14:30:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Short this time! )

*A/N: I’m exaggerating this slightly, but only slightly. Our loving hero who respects the rights of all creatures, ladies and gentlemen!

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Harry Potter Abridged! OotP Chapter 30

Thu, 12 Feb 2015 22:39:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[Following the departure of Fred and George, all the other students start thinking up new ways to make Umbridge miserable]

( Warning: abuse )

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It Seems Sometimes a Surface Reading is Sufficient

Sat, 02 Aug 2014 02:06:00 GMT

Posted by: annoni-no.livejournal.com

A recent paper published in Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that reader identification with with the main character of Harry Potter (and disidentification with Voldemort) positively correlated with reduced bias toward stigmatized minorities in real life. Researchers found this Harry Potter effect was significant even after controlling for the general amount of books read, which by itself is strongly associated with reduced bigotry and prejudice. So, it seems unfair to say the books are nothing but toxic.

What I want to know is the correlation between reading Harry Potter and how people think their ENEMIES should be treated. And what criteria determine what makes someone "bad" and how badly they deserve to be punished.

http://www.psmag.com/navigation/books-and-culture/harry-potter-battle-bigotry-87002/

*Update

The linked article is correct in its general summation of the findings, but is sloppily written. I'm not entirely comfortable reproducing the entire paper, but if there are particular sections people would like to see I'll try to either excerpt or summarize them more accurately. The paper itself is hardly groundbreaking - it's been shown before that reading about foreign perspectives helps increase tolerance. This mostly showed that the same effect extended to fantasy fiction. The studies were also extremely narrow in focus (only looking at identification with Harry or Voldemort). Mostly I thought people would be relieved that SOME good came from such a widely selling series, despite its numerous flaws.

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