JKR's dismay at favourite fansite Slytherins

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 100012

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "textualsphinx2003" 
<textualsphinx2003 at y...> wrote: 

>>JKR's website has a 'fansite of the month' slot where she 
praises  various HP fansites she likes.  The funny thing is, both 
the ones  she'd admired so far are moderated and/or created by 
people how  identify as Slytherins.  She confesses herself 
disturbed -  indeed 'shocked' by this.  She likes these 
site-moderators - even  calls  them 'my kind of people' for their 
thoroughness - but claims  not to understand why they are 
interested in Slytherin House. 

 This contradiction is presumably the result of there being two  
Slytherin Houses - the canon one as seen by Harry (and 
JKR?)and the  fanon one as seen by fanfiction writers.  <snip>  
At any rate, the fanon Slytherin House tends to be a less 
black-and- white entity than the books' - so far.  I wonder of JKR 
will come to the conclusion I do - that if the people  she admires 
and likes are Slytherin, maybe there's something good  about 
Slytherin.  Or will she dismiss it as mere 'misreading'of her  
intentions on the fans' part?<<

Pippin:
I'm not sure it's a question of JKR not understanding fans,  or 
seeing only black-and-white versus seeing something good 
about Slytherin. Fan fiction and fanon often treat Slytherin House 
as not only redeemable but already redeemed or simply 
misunderstood.   Racism gets downgraded (upgraded?)  to 
pardonable ethnic pride, and Dark Arts fanatics are merely 
people who look good in black. 

It  must be a little shocking to discover that  the fans treat  
Slytherin redemption/misrepresentation as a fait accompli when, 
in canon, it has barely been broached as a possibility. And to 
have it done so easily! Characters who appear to be hard core in 
canon prove to be  willing to change provided some 
understanding person (usually female <g>) takes an interest. 
Old misunderstandings are washed away in a tide of good 
feeling and never surface again. Enjoyable as all that is in fan 
fiction,  I don't think JKR is going to be able to get away with it. 

Another point: in the books Harry sorts himself *out* of Slytherin 
because he doesn't want to be associated with ethnic snobbery 
and Dark Arts fanatics. I think JKR would like to be assured that  
fans who identify with Slytherin are not doing so because they 
secretly want to be racists or practice Dark Arts. But she probably 
hears from all kinds, and I'm sure she's heard from some 
people who do admire Slytherin for exactly the wrong reasons.

Pippin