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

[annemehr <annemehr@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49607

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Peter Shea <bebche2 at y...> wrote:
> 
> 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 re-reading 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.
> 

While Snuffles' response was better than mine will be, and I agreed 
with all of it, I do want to add a few of my own feelings.

It is certainly true that there is a lot more to get interested in in 
PoA and GoF, simply because they have more pages, plot elements, 
characters, etc.  However, I don't find that I really *like* them 
better than PS and CoS.  I know this to be true because I regularly 
read the books aloud to my daughters (ages 10 and 12) in the evenings, 
and whenever we finish one book and they are choosing another, I find 
that I am *not* rooting for or against any of the books to be their 
choice; I love them all.  I have my favorite passages of course, and 
they are sprinkled throughout all four books.

Comparing my thoughts to what my girls say out loud about the books, 
though, it does seem that I have another layer of identification with 
the books than they do.  While the characters of the children take me 
right back to when I was their age and I identify quite readily with 
them, I often at the very same time identify with the adult characters 
and what they might be thinking about events occurring at any point in 
the story, *even if that adult character is not present in that 
scene*.  For example, when Harry is getting into danger, and while I 
am walking right along with him, figuratively speaking, I also find 
myself stepping right into Molly Weasley's shoes with motherly 
feelings of concern (I need a stronger word here, though).  Of course, 
in the earlier books, we have fewer adult characters to identify with, 
but this does not hurt my enjoyment of them at all -- it just seems to 
be so consistent with the Trio's age and circumstances.  As Snuffles 
pointed out, the story grows with them, and that is very effective.

One last thing to add, if I can manage to describe it, is how I take 
the _goodness_ of the books with me into the real world.  They seem to 
stay with me somehow as I face RL troubles and conflicts.  They have 
been for me a great antidote against discouragement and bitterness I 
could have succumbed to.  It is not in Dumbledore's words that I find 
this; they just point it out.  It is in Harry's actions that I find 
this encouragement -- in his empathy, his readiness to forgive, and 
his active concern for the people around him.  Of course he's not 
perfect, but if he was, then his virtues would not shine out for me as 
well as they do.  When I am in a rough spot in life, I would like to 
be that good.  And this comes to me, one way or another, in *any* of 
the books.

So this adult reader, at least, has no strong preferences between the 
books.  I just think my age and experience tend to give me extra 
levels of understanding.  Mind you, I realise that a young person who 
has had a difficult or complicated life may get still more out of 
them!

Hope this makes sense --
Annemehr