At Ryan's Request

I have a post for real this time? Or for fake. Something like that.

This weekend was the weekend of Harry Potter Reckoning, so I dropped off the face of the muggle world and into one that is immensely more exciting.

A few general remarks, nothing specific to plot so don't be afraid to read it.

I think that Harry Potter is much more fun to read if you read it and analyse it with people. (i.e. the fandom community). There are a couple reasons for this: foremost, I think, is the fact that the books are good because of a thrilling plot full of clever twists and turns. This is made much more fun if you are experiencing it with people, hypothesizing and guessing as you go, rather than reading it in a bubble. However, almost as important are the characters. The characters are flat. They are all archetypes and almost nothing more. Few if any of them have complex motivations or conflicting emotions (except for teenaged angst, which gets old really fast) - the only complexity that is given is the fact that we might not know their motivations. Basically, people are either all good or all bad, all selfish or all selfless, nothing in between - and what we see as grey area is actually our misunderstandings of the characters. I'll use the very first book as an example -- Snape is all good, and we think for most of the book that he's all bad. That doesn't make his character ambivalent - it makes it all good and misunderstood.

However, with a group of friends, you can create the depth and the ambiguity that the characters lack in the books. You can create probable backstories, etc. And so when a character like Draco appears in the text, you don't just think of Draco as he is portrayed by Rowling (which is typical spoiled brat, nothing more and nothing less) but rather of the complex combination of typical spoiled brat, complicated rules and regulations of his family (a Malfoy code of conduct being a very common fandom notion), possibly questioning the morals he's been brought up with (for whatever reason - usually because Hermione beats him on all his exams) and so on and so forth.

Of course, in the past four years I have removed myself from the fandom community for a few reasons (foremost: I have been writing my own, original stuff) and as such didn't have these images in the forefront of my mind. Which left me with flat characters, a thrilling plot, and everything that everyone expects from Harry Potter books, no more and no less. And since I was half-expecting Fandom!Ginny and Fandom!Draco and Fandom!Snape, and even Fandom!Harry and Fandom!Ron and Fandom!Hermione, who are all deeper and more complicated than Canon!InsertNameHere, I must admit that I was a little bit dissatisfied with Rowling's characters, who do what they do because that is what they do, because that is their archetype and their stereotype or whatever other type you may have.

Er. Which isn't to say that I didn't love it, because I did. It is simply to say that I realized what makes Rowling such a good writer isn't her prose (which is straightforward and clear but not poetical) or her characters but her plot - which is thrilling and clever and keeps you laughing and crying and holding your breath until the last page. Everything is tied up into a neat little bow and you are left with the distinct impression that well, that's that. The story is over.

And that is exactly as it should be, and as it must be, and as it is.

I wanted to write a fanfic immediately after reading book 7. But that urge has subsided, fortunately. I say fortunately because it would not have been a very good fanfic, or a very good story, and because I have other better stories that I am working on. And the one good idea that I was going to use in the fanfic can be used in any number of other places, all of which probably suit it much better.

Harry, you're pink!

I just discovered that the screenwriter for the most recent Harry Potter movie was responsible for the mauling of my childhood dreams in the latest Peter Pan movie.

And here I was looking forward to seeing it.

Harry Potter and the End of Harry Potter

We have internet in the apartment now, but I am waiting for a digest to go to completion at work so I don't have much better to do than read online newspapers. (only 15 more minutes!)

Such as this article. Which I love, especially the last sentence; that this has probably been the most fun an intelligent person can have with clothes on in the 21st century. Partly because it's goofily true and partly because all the caveats are absolutely wonderful and make it better. As in, well, there might have been more fun things to do in the past, and there might be in the future, but in the 21st, it's Harry Potter. So far at least. And people who aren't clever and don't like discussions and analysing texts might find this fun, but we do. Of course, I think there are more exiciting things going on than Harry Potter, but more fun (in the sense of good, clean, fun)? Probably not.

Also, I am tempted to write down all of my theories so that I can consult back and see which ones are fulfilled and which ones I got wrong. But then again, maybe that's beside the point. People who have talked to me about it know what I think is going to happen, at least in general terms (and the more generally I couch my statements, the more likely they are to be true!).

Besides, I'm not as big a fan as I used to be - or I'm a calmer fan than I used to be, it's hard to tell - I haven't frequented fictionalley or mugglenet or the leaky cauldron for so very long. Part of me is proud of it. Growing up. Or something like that.

The one thing I'm certain of is that I won't want it to be the ending, however she ends it, and I will go through a process of denial -- it isn't really over, there are still so many stories to tell! -- until I just come to terms with the fact that she's moved on to bigger and better things. Which is all as it should be, I think.

And as much as I want to order online from Amazon and get sleep the morning of the 21st, well, it's the last book, and so there are certain things (like standing in a line to get my copy at 12:01 am) that simply must be done. To honor the fandom and my former place in it. Or just the fun that it is no doubt going to be. Because it will be fun. And once I have finished reading book 7, I'll probably check all the others out from a library and re-read those. Or rather, once I have finished reading book 7, and Day Watch, and the collection of short stories by Marquez on my desk, and probably a couple other books as well.

Because that's just how it goes.

And my samples are almost ready! So, I go!