Welcome to ‘Harry Potter Grew Up To Be A Cop.’
When the last Harry Potter film came out, I was taking a documentary filmmaking class at school. I thought that I should film the midnight premier that my friends and I were attending— that in ten years, or fifteen years, maybe it could go into a documentary about this series that had taken over a) the world and b) my childhood. It never crossed my mind that we wouldn’t need such a documentary, because Harry Potter would still be everywhere.
The title of this newsletter refers to two things: first, the fact that Harry Potter the character grew up to work in magical law enforcement, aka became a cop. And second, the ways in which a series that, at the time, seemed so progressive and appeared in studies to literally have made its readers that way has been consumed by the corporations that now own it and the burning need of its author to destroy her legacy after the fact for some reason.
So now I’m going to reread what was unquestionably the most important book series of my childhood and teenage years, partly to see whether the seeds of Harry Potter growing up to be a cop were always there… but also just to see what happens.
The current plan is for Monday updates, covering approximately 5 chapters each week.
If you want, tell your friends!