[HPforGrownups] Obsessed with Harry (was - Re: They are children's books)

[Iggy McSnurd]

No: HPFGUIDX 81782

Jeff:
>
>     *Exactly*! I've been having this discussion on another list with
> a silly fan-girl who's in college. She harps on about how perfect
> Harry is and that he alone will save the world on his own. She also
> talks about Harry's eyes, hair and his voice in most posts. I wonder
> what books she's been reading. It's not the series most of us have
> read. I don't recall any books that a character speaks to you, or
> that you can have him actually appear before you.

Iggy:

*chuckle* There's a clinical term for this, it's "Obsessive fixation on a
fictional construct."

If it's a phase she's going through, then it'll pass and shouldn't do too
much harm.  After all, a LOT of people have had "crushes" on fictional
characters.  (My personal favorites are Cattie-Brie fromthe "Dark Elf"
series, Danica fromt he "Celric Quintet"... both by R. A. Salvatore... and,
believe it or not, Polgara from the world of the Belgariad.)  It's like
finding someone you think would be an ideal relationship partner, but it's a
description rather than a real person.  It sparks you into a fantasy world,
which is the preferred place for some people who are lonely.

If it's not just a phase and gets more intense over time.. especially as the
books come to their conclusion, then it can do some damage if she doesn't
keep in mind that it's just a story.  But, this is a damage she would
essentially be doing to herself, and would most likely resuly in a deep
depression... almost like the loss of a loved one.  Even if Harry is still
alive at the end of the series, he will have left her life and the books
will be like revisiting memories.


As for where she gets the voice from and such... Logic would dictate that
she probably takes the images and such from the movies, and combines them
with the books themselves.  (I know that, whenever I read the books now, I
picture the characters as looking and sounding like their movie
counterparts.)  Some people, like myself, don't just see and comprehend the
words... We absorb what's written and our imagination constructs a complete
image of what's going on... complete with mannerisms, facial expressions,
and voices.  If she reads like this as well, and it sounds like she does,
it's easy to understand how she's gotten to the point she has... especially
if (as I said before) she's rather lonely in RL.


(Sorry if that seemed a little like a lecture... I spent 3-4 years in school
taking classes to be a "skull jockey.")

>     i've also pointed out numerous times that Harry isn't Christ.
> He's had a miserable life, has few social skills, and can't really
> relate to others that well. He's also showing a dark side. She can't
> comprehend this for some reason.  She also can't seem to understand
> that Harry can't be like his parents since he never really knew them,
> and wasn't raised by them. He didn't even really know what they
> looked like until recently.

Simply put, she's formed him into an ideal and is apparently putting him up
on a pedestal to admire.  When we meet, or even construct for ourselves,
something that we see as perfect, we can't see that the stone in the status
has a crack here or a chip there... all we see is the perfect whole.  To a
certain degree, she may be yearnign for the "Pygmalion Effect."  This is
where she constructs something in her mind that is so perfect, that she
falls in love with it.  Because of that deep love and yearning, the object
of her desire gains a life of its own.  (Based from the Greek myth about the
sculptor, Pygmalion, who carved a statue of a woman so perfect that he fell
in love with it.  His love was so strong that Aphrodite decided to turn the
statue into a real woman to fulfill that love.)

In her case, she may either be foriming that opinion to full a void in her
life, or hoping that her desire and belief in Harry will be so intense that
she will meet him... in the form of a real person... whether she's aware of
it or not.  Woe to the man she meets that is the most similar to Harry,
because he will be in for a lot of trouble, especially in living up to her
ideal.

>     Harry is lots of things, but perfect or Christ-like, no. Not by a
> long shot. I'm very curious about what he'll be like during the final
> battle. Will his link to Voldie take hold so strong that he has the
> same desire to rule and destroy?
>

I don't think that he's Christ-like, by a long shot.  A hero, yes... a
champion, of course... the one who will ultimately decide the outcome of the
war in the WW, indeed... A pure and completely noble savior?  Nope

(Hey, cool... it's a Wizard's War... if this is the second one, would that
make it WWII?  *grin*)

I don't think he will become like LV, but I do feel that he will be forced
to examine himself and be forced to confront the darker side of who he is.
I see it mostly as dealing with the anger, frustration, loneliness, and
growing resentment he's feeling and come to grips with it one way or
another.


'Nuff said

Iggy McSnurd
the Prankster