ABSTRACT
Arising out of decades of fanfiction tradition, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky is a piece that blurs the line between a non-authorized revision and a coquel of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Unlike other fanfiction that tackles social justice “gaps” in a canonical text (changing characters’ races, sexuality, gender, etc. in order to make a political statement), Methods of Rationality instead focuses on inconsistencies in Harry Potter’s narrative and world building, claiming that the story should follow real-world logic and actively teach readers how to think through situations in a rational manner. In doing so, Methods of Rationality undermines a number of assumptions about what fanfiction is meant to accomplish and makes bold claims about what kinds of texts readers should respond to positively; namely those that do away with the gaps that inspire much of fanfiction in the first place. Through a close reading of the text, this paper will examine how Yudkowsky’s work provides a unique example of how fans “fix” canonical works beyond simply incorporating minority issues, how fanfiction functions as an educational tool for readers, and how it complicates our definitions of revisions, coquels, and authorial intent.
