[HPforGrownups] Re: I have a problem

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 5083

Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer wrote:

> Hi:
>
> > Hi, my name is Voicelady, and I'm a Harryaholic.
>
> Hi, my name is Penny, and I'm also a Harryaholic.
>
> > I am obsessed.  It started with the books.  <snip> Harry Potter became
> > a daily topic of conversation for me.  I thought about him.  I
> > theorized about him.  I joined *clubs* about him!
>
> And, I began to read 50-100+ messages a day about him and his world.  I
> became obsessed with all the little details of his world.

I'm a Harryaholic, too, I'm afraid.

This turned out to be rather a more serious post than I intended when I
started it because, all kidding aside, this obsession might be edging close
to being a real problem for me.  Yeah, I'm obsessed; I read, I analyze, I
discuss.  Harry and his friends have given me a tremendous lot of pleasure
(as has the better fanfiction I've read). I will say that at least Harry
hasn't really sucked away much of my money.  True, I've bought the books
(just the U.S. editions) and the Jim Dale CDs, but I have avoided buying any
of the other editions.  And I have scrupulously avoided all other
merchandise of any kind, terrified of sliding down that slippery slope.

But what Harry has really sucked away for me is time, as well as a certain
creative energy that I need to devote to my own writing, and that's rather a
more serious issue for me, since I have so little of both to spare.  I have
a full time job and a young family to raise, and the time I've given over to
Harry I've robbed from my own sleep and my fiction writing time.  In fact,
I've entirely stopped writing my fiction for the time being, a fact which
bothers me a great deal, but not enough to figure out a way to break the
block.  I'm obsessed with JK Rowling's world rather than one of my own
creation.  (Well, it's not entirely her fault.  LAST year I was obsessed
with Jane Austen and spent all my free time at www.pemberley.com).

I was recently reading a newsletter for parents of gifted children (my
7-year old daughter has vastly outstripped her grade reading level) and one
thing jumped out at me: gifted children tend to get obsessed with certain
subjects.  Pick your topic: dinosaurs, ancient Egypt, fairytales, etc.
Parents of gifted children worry about this, but the newsletter advised, go
ahead, let them gorge on the obsession.  And I thought, that's what I'M
doing!  Suddenly it all made sense: I was a gifted child, too (didn't I say
I identified most with Hermione?) and that's what I'm doing right now in my
interest with Harry: gorging on my obsession.  (Harry isn't the first
obsession I've ever had, either, and I imagine he won't be the last)

I have to think I'm doing SOMETHING by immersing myself in Harry's world,
something that feeds that mysterious part of my back brain that creates
fiction.  I'm chewing over big themes: morality, heroism, betrayal, trust,
the nature of friendship, etc, esp. by working on my 7 deadly sins/heavenly
virtues essays.  I can only trust that all the analysis I'm putting into
that hopper (or as Tolkien called it, that story stewpot) in my unconscious
mind will brew and bubble and stew and ferment . . . and something good will
emerge out of it someday when I get back to creating my own fictional worlds
again.

Until then, I guess I'll just have to sit back and enjoy the ride

Cheers,
Peg