[HPforGrownups] Do Grown-Up HP Fans Favor PoA & GoF over PS/SS and CoS?

[srsiriusblack at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 49606

In a message dated 10/01/2003 23:57:52 Eastern Standard Time, 
bebche2 at yahoo.com writes:


> I've always been curious about the differences between the younger HP fans 
> and the adults. Aside from the adult-themed fictions, I've been hard 
> pressed to find ideas & HP subjects that exclusively belong to one group or 
> the other.
> 
> While rereading PoA and GoF, it occurred to me that interest in the latter 
> two may be more intense among adults, for the following reasons:
> 
>    The last have more adult characters who play central roles, as opposed 
> to the peripheral positions they occupy in the first two books. Characters 
> like Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Barty Crouch (senior & junior) have a 
> psychological complexity and history which make them more compelling than 
> younger characters.
>    Harry & chums move out of the preteen and into their teenage years in 
> the last two books--a transition which introduces conflicts that adults can 
> empathize with (romantic relationships, increased preoccupation with the 
> future and the role money--or the lack thereof-- plays in shaping ones 
> life).
> 
> I imagine this may seem terribly obvious to some list member--or terribly 
> wrong-headed. But I'd be interested in other views.

I might be an oddity, so I am going to comment on this one. 
I spent a great deal of time avoiding the HP books, as I didn't want to buy 
into the hype. They sat round my house for a few months even after I bought 
them because I just didn't think that they could possibly be as fantastic as 
people had been saying they were.During a bout with the flu, I picked up PS 
and was hooked. Within the week I read all of the books, and then all I 
wanted to do was reread them. not having children, it was the writing and the 
story that captivated me. Granted, I am partial to PoA and GoF more so than 
the others because of some of your points. The introduction of the pivotal 
adult characters gave me people I could relate to better where I am now, but 
even in PS and CoS, I was finding myself relating to Hermione (first and 
foremost) out of my own school age memories. I actually think that is part of 
the beauty of JKR's writing. She created a cast of characters who are people 
everyone knows. We all have someone in our lives who is clever and slightly 
bossy, someone who has had a tragedy in his/her life that he must overcome, 
someone who had to rise out behind the shadows of siblings, that one teacher 
who took the time to guide us, a rival- who to us was close-minded and 
hateful, a strict but fair mentor, friends who were pranksters, someone(s) 
who maybe we thought was bad who turned out to be a golden friend... and if 
you're lucky, maybe you even have/had a Hagrid. ::blush and smile::: ('cos 
Hargids are darling people)

We spend a lot of time analysing each character here,  putting forth our own 
ideas and experiences on them. JKR does a spectacular job in leaving the 
doors open for us to be able to analyse the characters in this way. We all 
see ourselves in at least one of them and we all know the others. She gives 
us enough information to know the characters, but leaves them open to our 
individual interpretations. 

Aside from that, JKR created a world I, for one, deeply want to exist. So 
rare it is that any author creates a fantasy world that you can truly become 
lost in and want to stay. 

She also used a style of writing which I find rather brilliant... Her writing 
ages with the characters. Plot twists and turns, character development and 
the style of her words grow with each book- which is just ingenious for 
children's literature; although I do not deem HP strictly children's 
literature in the least as there is so much that adults see in the books that 
children will discover as they grow and reread. 

there is also one other idea I have....

Adulthood is a drag on many levels. Somewhere along the way our inner child 
is told to shut up and stay hidden. I know quite a few of my friends who are 
HPfanatics found in the books a part of themselves which they lost somewhere 
on the journey from childhood into adulthood. The books remind us of the 
important things in life- family, friends, trust,  IMAGINATION, etc. They 
take us away from bills, traffic, housecleaning and all of the other mundane 
inconveniences that keep us all from being the creative and cool people we 
could be if we lived in the WW. 

just some of my thoughts
-Snuffles


"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty 
recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the 
dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with 
open eyes, to make it possible. This I did."  T.E. Lawrence- Seven Pillars of 
Wisdom


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