A Christian Rewrite of Harry Potter

[Kheldarson]

I wasn't sure where to share this, but this forum seemed most relevant.

So I was visiting my favorite blogging site, Mommyish, when I stumbled upon this post.

Apparently, the author stumbled upon a gem of a fanfiction.

A mom, who calls herself proudhousewife, has taken upon herself to rewrite Harry Potter so her kids don't turn into witches by reading it! (I wish I were joking, but that's seriously in the author note of the first chapter).

I...have no words for this work. Even the first chapter is rage inducing as a fan and as a Christian, with Hagrid being a cowboy of all things and outright rejecting evolution as a fairy tale. And, of course, we have to have the shaming! How dare Harry be left with a babysitter, when his aunt should stay at home with him instead of working! How dare Luna want to work! A woman's place is at the home because they're nurturers!

Also, the various Houses are now "Sorting Hats" which represent different kinds of Christianity. So, of course, Slytherins are Mary-worshipping Catholics. Because of course they are. And Draco's a Ravenclaw. Who are mean Christians, I guess.

And that's not even getting into the writing of the story. Which...saidisms. Oh God, the saidisms.

I just can't even, so I had to share.

[KabeRinnaul]

I'm not certain about it, because a few misunderstandings about the source material are just so peculiar I can't imagine someone inventing them intentionally, but I'm still leaning towards trollfic.

Though it does make me wonder if it's even possible to write a story with a heroic protagonist within this flavor of Christianity. When the answer to every problem is "prayer" and the success rate is 100%, the hero becomes a bit pointless. After all, he's pretty much surrendered his agency entirely to his deity.

[ChynaRose]

I think the idea has merit.

And by that I mean the idea of a non-magic AU where Harry's sent to a Christian boarding school in Scotland and has to deal with figuring out issues of faith and what it means to be Christian while dealing with the usual issues associated with growing up.

Of course you'd need the right writer for it to be handled properly; which the current writer obviously isn't since the fic's apparently chock full of proselytizing, Americanizing, character assassination, and just plain bad writing (I'll admit that I haven't actually read the fic yet; I don't have the highest tolerance for stupid and the snippets I've already seen have me face palming enough as it is). To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced that the writer's just not trying to troll everyone - which if they are, they're hitting the nail on the head.

[Gravekeeper]

I think the idea has merit.

No. Just, no. There's no point in this existing whatsoever.

[ChynaRose]

No. Just, no. There's no point in this existing whatsoever.

So there's no merit in writing an AU fanfic? There's no merit in bringing religion - especially Christianity - into the world of Harry Potter? Would your answer be different if I said that the idea of a non-magic AU where Harry was sent to a yeshiva and had to deal with figuring out how he fit into the Jewish community and how the Jewish community fit with him rather than using a Christian filter had merit?

As I said before, I don't agree with why she wrote the fic or how she went about it. But I do see the potential for an interesting story hidden somewhere in there underneath all the lunatic fringe hate and proselytizing. Enough of it that I, who being Jewish doesn't have the most complete grasp on Christianity in general never mind all the different denominations, feel challenged to prove that I could write her story better than she could (or at the very least, less obnoxiously since my focus would be less getting others to convert to my way of thinking and more characters searching their soul for what meaning a particular religion had for them on a personal level).

[Jaden]

So there's no merit in writing an AU fanfic? There's no merit in bringing religion - especially Christianity - into the world of Harry Potter? Would your answer be different if I said that the idea of a non-magic AU where Harry was sent to a yeshiva and had to deal with figuring out how he fit into the Jewish community and how the Jewish community fit with him rather than using a Christian filter had merit?

This has nothing to do with what religion it is. Rewriting a harmless fictional book because it doesn't fit into your worldview/religious ideals does not have merit. Regardless of the quality of the outcome, starting with that thesis, what you create will be overall worthless. I would argue that starting with that thesis would make it impossible for the quality to be anything but abysmal by its very nature, but that really isn't the point - the point is that undertaking such a project in the first place automatically makes that project worthless by its very nature, because it's fixing something which isn't broken to satisfy an extremely petty myopic complex.

[Ginger Tea]

That's the thing with AU's, some can be down right terrible, yet others absolutely fantastic.

You just need someone who can write well enough to sell the idea of what if X was Y and research enough to make it plausible.

The Rutger Hauer movie Fatherland worked of the AU of what if Hitler won, I believe there was a book first, well there have been many books on the subject and in said book there was more fleshing out of the world between what was 1940's to present day 1960's.

In the case of OP an AU based solely on religion is a bit wonkey, but ruling out AU's completely is folly.
Some head cannons are pointless to the world at large, so what if you decided that Hermione is now a black girl cos you saw pics of one cosplaying as her, that's just a simple find and replace of the character description, having never read the books I would be at a disadvantage to picturing anyone in my minds eye as I have seen the characters off the page.

Something more complex would be, what would happen if Harry failed in one of the tasks set for him (again never read the books so I don't know if he ever failed or if he was some prodigy who could do no wrong) would the outcome be small or would the affects ripple outwards towards the end, eg someone else faces X instead of Harry and because of Y dies, people grieve and the story goes on, but in the prime universe the now dead character is actually crucial to the plot, now they are no longer there, someone else could fill their shoes, or no one else shared their viewpoint and thus the much needed henchman or school bully never materialises to progress other characters.

Another Find and Replace would be "what if Hogwarts was in Winchester NY and instead of Hagrid he is called McCoy, not taking it down an Xman route, no mutants, still wizards but no longer in Hogwarts and the story continues on much the same.

Some of the best DC stories I've read have come from AU's as they don't have to worry about cannon or fall out when characters die.
Gods Among Us is a title I started reading from uploads on imgur (I will get the trade at one point) it's not cannon to earth prime or whatever (616 I think for Marvel)

I am far out of touch with Marvel outside of Ultimate (and the movies) but I started reading XForce from the same uploader, I didn't know they were still dealing with the fall out of House of M's 'No more mutants' but then again I don't know how old this run is in comparison to everything else, the end of the story arc I would have changed myself, let the bad guys win and rewrite the world, only have it so that it more rewinds history than starts anew, or then says right at the end and that was the end of Earth 164 as we know it fooling us into believing we were following 616(or whatever) all along.

[Jaden]

In the case of OP an AU based solely on religion is a bit wonkey, but ruling out AU's completely is folly.

I'm not ruling them out completely. In this case, it's about why you do something, not what you're doing. Somebody making an alternate universe Harry Potter fanfic for the fun of it or as a thought experiment will earn no ire of mine.

[Kheldarson]

I'm not ruling them out completely. In this case, it's about why you do something, not what you're doing. Somebody making an alternate universe Harry Potter fanfic for the fun of it or as a thought experiment will earn no ire of mine.

This.

I've got no problems with somebody going "what if". Like my favorite fanfic is Team 8 by S'Tarken. His AU point is a bit more complex than the premise, but it's basically "what if Naruto were on a different team?" Proceed from there.

Heck, I even have more respect for another HP fic, "Methods of Rationality", because he wasn't going for the goal of fixing the books. Though I dislike the soapbox feel he gives off in that story a lot.

But writing something because you think the original is wrong? On a moral level? That's not right. Write your own story at that point; don't presume on somebody else's morals and beliefs by preempting their work.

[Ginger Tea]

I'm not ruling them out completely. In this case, it's about why you do something, not what you're doing. Somebody making an alternate universe Harry Potter fanfic for the fun of it or as a thought experiment will earn no ire of mine.

I had written most of my post before I remembered I wasn't in pop culture and re read yours and saw that you weren't anti AU like I first read, but I decided I had typed all that up might as well finish up my thoughts and hit send.

[Gravekeeper]

Jaden already summed it up nicely.

This isn't a "What if" its a "What if this wasn't full of filthy things I don't agree I need to "fix" it so its "good".

Especially given that its Harry Potter. Removing magic, aka 99% of the plot and world building, and replacing it with Jesus has no merit. Its not Harry Potter or AU at that point. You're just using the same character names. If you don't think anyone will read your story about a Christian boarding school unless you use character names from Harry Potter, well that's a problem with your story.

AU is fine. "I think everything you wrote is wrong so I'm going to fix it to my moral standards" not so much. Especially if you're fixing it with something you think is dynamically opposed.

[ChynaRose]

Jaden already summed it up nicely.

This isn't a "What if" its a "What if this wasn't full of filthy things I don't agree I need to "fix" it so its "good".

Especially given that its Harry Potter. Removing magic, aka 99% of the plot and world building, and replacing it with Jesus has no merit. Its not Harry Potter or AU at that point. You're just using the same character names. If you don't think anyone will read your story about a Christian boarding school unless you use character names from Harry Potter, well that's a problem with your story.

AU is fine. "I think everything you wrote is wrong so I'm going to fix it to my moral standards" not so much. Especially if you're fixing it with something you think is dynamically opposed.

I agree with you on the writer's motivations to write the fic being repugnant but I do have to politely disagree with you on the subject of how AU can an AU be before you might as well write an original story.

I read a *lot* of fanfic including a large number of AUs and crossovers over a number of fandoms including Harry Potter. I've seen fics where the characters were pulled out of their normal world and dropped into worlds where the rules were quite different; Naruto without ninjas, Ouran Host Club with magic, Bleach with space travel and with steam punk, Gundam Wing minus the gundams, Ruroni Kenshin with demons and set in the modern era... and these are not bad fics (or at least I don't find them to be bad).

[Gravekeeper]

I agree with you on the writer's motivations to write the fic being repugnant but I do have to politely disagree with you on the subject of how AU can an AU be before you might as well write an original story.

The point where it has only superficial semblance to the original work. If you can change the names in an AU and no one notices, then its not really an AU. You're just borrowing some character names. Especially in a case when you are flat out subtracting the primary component of the entire original story and just leaving that gap there to collapse in on itself.

"You're a Christian, Harry!" isn't enough to fill in the crater. -.-

and these are not bad fics (or at least I don't find them to be bad).

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. But from a standpoint of personal taste rather than literary criticism ( though I'm sure they were terrible examples of that too. -.- )

Naruto fanfiction, ugh. The show is bad enough on its own. ;p

[Hyena Dandy]

I think there's merit in any potential fic idea, but as far as I can tell, this isn't about just a Christian themed AU fic, it's about 'fixing' things and putting forward a 'Christianized' version. The idea of Hogwarts Theological Academy, for example, could well be done in an interesting way. I hesitate to say any potential idea is impossible to do right, though it can be tricky. What I do think, however, is that creating a story as, well, propaganda IS bad. You're co-opting someone else's story, and rather than exploring it in your own way.

The way I see it, good fanfic is always about exploration. What you're exploring varies.

You might be exploring what would happen if something changed in a timeline.

You might be exploring the world, by placing yourself in it.

You might be exploring character relationships, by seeing what would happen if they got together.

You might just be exploring another potential adventure for the characters.

The author inherently involves themselves in a story, so I would imagine most stories I write would involve my viewpoints, to some extent. But I would try to keep 'Tell the viewpoint' from being the point.

Now, could you make a story, and have Christian themes in it? Fine. Could you even make a Christian Boarding School Hogwarts? Certainly. But there's a difference between 'Creating a story' and 'Fixing a story.' There's reverence.

And there's also polemics, which I'd also say is a 'bad' way to explore things. You shouldn't treat a fanfic as a way to just tell people your view. That's propaganda, at best an "This is what I think, this is what my opponents think," but the opponents will ALWAYS be wrong, because you are trying to tell people what YOU Think. By phrasing the argument your way, they'll almost certainly agree with you.

If I were to write a story that explored my view on economics, for instance, no matter how strong I made the argument of corporate capitalist types, the story would still be written from my worldview, and so even if I had them seem super reasonable, it would still be framing the debate as "Help those in need Vs Fuck you I've got mine." Just as, no doubt, they would write one which frames the debate to "Work for what you have Vs Let people mooch off you." Just write an essay, if it's that important to you.

If you can change the names in an AU and no one notices, then its not really an AU.

I'd disagree with that. I think you can have an AU where the question is "What if these same people are in an utterly unrelated situation?" You could change the names, and no-one would notice, but that can be an interesting crucible to find the 'core' of the character. "If the crew of the Enterprise were Highschool students, what would it be like?" could be a way of finding out what it IS that makes Kirk Kirk.

Though I dislike the soapbox feel he gives off in that story a lot.

Not sure if I call an explicitly stated purpose a 'feel...'

[Kheldarson]

Not sure if I call an explicitly stated purpose a 'feel...'

It has been a very long time since I've read it, so I wasn't going to try to explicitly state what 'Methods' was trying to do. I just remember the sheer blinding rage at the author's audacity. Mostly with his disdain for magic or any kind of belief, which is pretty core to the themes of the original story.

The fic in the OP just made me giggle.