July 22, 2009

| Wednesday Comics Report >>

Lev Grossman’s notes from Azkatraz, the giant Harry Potter convention held right here in San Francisco this weekend past. Here’s an interesting hypothesis on the conjoined history of Harry Potter and the internet:

There was a great panel on the history of Harry Potter fandom online, starring Melissa Anelli, founder of The Leaky Cauldron and author of Harry: A History. She made an interesting point, which is that because Harry and the Internet both became massive mainstream phenomena at around the same time, and because Harry fans are kind of amazingly determined and resourceful, they wound up establishing a lot of the rules and social forms of online fandom in general. Harry Potter fandom is now the template for all future fandoms.

Also:

There are only so many delicious, refreshing Harry Potter-themed novelty cocktails I can drink and still feel like a man. There is no hangover like a Felix Felicis hangover.