hey! (I'm fragilehuge on tumblr but we haven't really talked anyway so I'm equally a stranger either way hahah)
but -- yeah, I agree with a lot of this, especially wrt the probability (and honestly? The obviousness) that JKR imagined Hermione as white while she was writing. If she'd thought of Hermione as black then she would have made it explicit, ya know? All of the examples you bring up show opportunities that JKR had (and didn't take) to explore how being would have black affected Hermione's character and choices and whatnot. And the hair scene. Yeesh. That doesn't read well if Hermione is black.
Mostly, though, I guess I don't read JKR's tweet as "Hermione has been black the whole time!" (not à la the Dumbledore revelation) but more like... "There's no reason Hermione COULDN'T have been black" (or "there's no reason I couldn't have written Hermione as black"). I don't think JKR gets brownie points for retroactive representation, because... that's not a thing lol... and the Harry Potter books AREN'T examples of good representation. Representation has to be explicit to be meaningful. But assuming that the Cursed Child isn't a total disaster, this casting of Hermione will be good representation. IDK. I'm kind of thinking of it like comics? Like, there are obviously multiple continuities in comics, and they're all canon and real and important facets of the same character. And things that happened in one universe get reimagined and changed over and over again... and that's how I see this? Dumezweni's Hermione is going to open up new ways to see the character, and I am sooo pumped about it. Like, fanfic often reimagines the source material to make it more nuanced or complex in certain ways. And hopefully the play is gonna do that for the books? I'm sure Dumezweni is going to be thinking about a lot of the same points you've brought up here while she's thinking about her characterization of Hermione (and her motivations etc). And that's awesome. Because, I mean, the books kind of need it? Obviously, I love Harry Potter, but some of the reasons I am so interested in HP fandom is because the books are NOT satisfying in a lot of ways. There are a lot of things JKR didn't think through all the way, and trying to think them through on my own or watching someone else do it with fic is.... more than half the fun (the rest of the fun is porn probably).
Anyway in conclusion I agree with your points and I'm also very very excited (though it seems unlikely I'll actually get to see the damn play because money and I live in the US but rlighreihgskdgh maybe they'll film it or something).
Though also something I think is frustrating is that with all this talk of ~~~representation~~~ and diversity in HP, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them still has.... an.... almost entirely white cast??? In New York.... in the twenties........ (I just checked IMDB and there's a british chinese actress playing some unnamed character and if you scroll down enough there's a biracial half-black half-white actress but lol I bet they have six lines between the two of them if that tbh. maybe i'm just cynical and bitter. but probably not)
no subject
but -- yeah, I agree with a lot of this, especially wrt the probability (and honestly? The obviousness) that JKR imagined Hermione as white while she was writing. If she'd thought of Hermione as black then she would have made it explicit, ya know? All of the examples you bring up show opportunities that JKR had (and didn't take) to explore how being would have black affected Hermione's character and choices and whatnot. And the hair scene. Yeesh. That doesn't read well if Hermione is black.
Mostly, though, I guess I don't read JKR's tweet as "Hermione has been black the whole time!" (not à la the Dumbledore revelation) but more like... "There's no reason Hermione COULDN'T have been black" (or "there's no reason I couldn't have written Hermione as black"). I don't think JKR gets brownie points for retroactive representation, because... that's not a thing lol... and the Harry Potter books AREN'T examples of good representation. Representation has to be explicit to be meaningful. But assuming that the Cursed Child isn't a total disaster, this casting of Hermione will be good representation. IDK. I'm kind of thinking of it like comics? Like, there are obviously multiple continuities in comics, and they're all canon and real and important facets of the same character. And things that happened in one universe get reimagined and changed over and over again... and that's how I see this? Dumezweni's Hermione is going to open up new ways to see the character, and I am sooo pumped about it. Like, fanfic often reimagines the source material to make it more nuanced or complex in certain ways. And hopefully the play is gonna do that for the books? I'm sure Dumezweni is going to be thinking about a lot of the same points you've brought up here while she's thinking about her characterization of Hermione (and her motivations etc). And that's awesome. Because, I mean, the books kind of need it? Obviously, I love Harry Potter, but some of the reasons I am so interested in HP fandom is because the books are NOT satisfying in a lot of ways. There are a lot of things JKR didn't think through all the way, and trying to think them through on my own or watching someone else do it with fic is.... more than half the fun (the rest of the fun is porn probably).
Anyway in conclusion I agree with your points and I'm also very very excited (though it seems unlikely I'll actually get to see the damn play because money and I live in the US but rlighreihgskdgh maybe they'll film it or something).
Though also something I think is frustrating is that with all this talk of ~~~representation~~~ and diversity in HP, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them still has.... an.... almost entirely white cast??? In New York.... in the twenties........ (I just checked IMDB and there's a british chinese actress playing some unnamed character and if you scroll down enough there's a biracial half-black half-white actress but lol I bet they have six lines between the two of them if that tbh. maybe i'm just cynical and bitter. but probably not)