Wondering

[Katie]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <cinders at ...> wrote:
>
> Hi all. I know I don't post here, but I read a lot. I've been a
> member for a couple of months now.
> 
> I'm a big Harry Potter fan though now after reading all the posts, I
> don't think I'm quite as much of a fan as most of the people here,
> because it's not all I think of all day like it appears a lot of you
> do.
> 
> Here's the one thing I don't understand. Why are these books,
> specially more than any other, taken SO seriously?? <<<SNIPPAGE>>>

> Carol


***Katie:

I can only speak for myself, but I am someone with a tendency toward 
becoming passionate over things, and I am very into sci-fi and 
fantasy. HP just sort of fit right in with all the other stuff I was 
already into...but then it sort of took over!


I grew up with a Trekkie for a mother. By 10, I was already into Star 
Trek, The Next Generation. I had always loved Star Wars, and played 
with the toys incessantly when I was a kid. Then I fell in love with 
Tolkien's and CS Lewis's worlds, reading LotR and Narnia over and 
over again. In high school, Buffy the Vampire Slayer came along on 
TV, and I was completely hooked.


Then, my sophomore year in college, I was working at a day care 
center part-time, and one of the kids kept telling me to read this 
book called Harry Potter. I resisted for a while, about a year, by 
which time CoS had come out. Finally, on vacation at the beach, I 
picked up SS/PS in a discount bookstore. I read it in one night. I 
made my boyfriend take me back to the bookstore the next day to get 
CoS...and the rest, as they say, is history. 


The books were so captivating, so original, the characters so real 
and so human, the plot so classic and yet so new...and beyond all 
that, there was a lot of fun stuff - moving portraits, jumping frog 
candies, vanishing walls, moving staircases...it was just so magical 
to me, and made me feel like a little kid again. They are very 
special books. They are classic in the plotlines (good vs. evil, life 
vs. death, the power of love...etc.), but she was able to make 
everything seem original and new at the same time. Furthermore, there 
has never been a children's series that grew and shifted into a YA 
series and then finally adult fiction, as I would argue the last two 
books certainly are. She really did something entirely unique in 
these books. 


As for why some people seem to dislike the books - they certainly 
didn't in the beginning. I think many were disappointed by JKR's 
inability to finish all her storylines properly, or were upset by DH 
in general. I, myself, am not satisfied with the final book, but, 
unlike others, it has not ruined the series for me (though I 
understand why it has for some people). 


Anyway, I hope that sheds some light on why people are so passionate 
about the books. Hope you enjoy the group! KATIE