Worth it???

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 153545

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "imasuperhero7"
<imasuperhero7 at ...> wrote:
>
> Hello peoples,
> 
> Really now, I am very curious. Some of you seem to have
> based your lives around Harry Potter. ..., just curious, 
> what is it about these books that have enthralled you?
> Granted, they're well written, and fun, but are they really
> that worth while??? I mean, contemplating the personalities
> of each character and their motives and all that, worth it?
> ...edited,,,
> Am I the only one out there?
> Thanks and all the best!
> Janie
>

bboyminn:

Well, I could be out selling Crack, I could be out stealing cars, I
could be out getting stinking drunk every night, I could waste my life
away starring in mind numbing silence at the TV, but instead, I choose
to concetrate my time on a series of books that I enjoy very much. 

Further, discussions in this group and others helps keep my mind
sharp; use it or lose it, as the saying goes. Instead of being in a
drunken stupor, or a TV induced near coma, I chose to use my brain to
think and analyse, discuss and debate, and occassionally write an
essay or two, and perhaps some fan fiction. Given all the miserable
and destructive vices available in the world, I hardly think there is
a problem with being a Harry Potter fan.

In terms of you losing interest; well, if you did then you did, and
that is that, and that is you. However, this one single Discussion
Group (HP for Grownups) has nearly 22,000 members. Further, at one
single all-genre fan fiction website, Harry Potter has 250,000 fan
fictions written. That is SIX times more than the genre that occupies
the number TWO spot. That should tell you something about how alive,
inspiring, and how vividly drawn these HP characters are. They DO
stimulate and inspire the mind in a way no other fiction every has or
probably ever will. 

JKR has created a publishing phenomenon that is unprecidented in
history, and I don't think it was just a fluke. She writes with a very
compact style that stimulates the imagination. So, while JKR may not
be the technically best writer, her work does have technical aspects
that lend themselves very well to creating vivid captivating stories.
Further, while she may not be a master writer, she is certainly a
master storyteller. Being a good storyteller is not necessarily about
 technique and precise form, it is far more about holding your
audience competely enthralled.

Next, this is a seven part series that develops, in a sense, in
realtime. The characters and the story grow and change. Perhaps some
people want the ageless characters of Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys who
remained age 16 for many decades, but that is not how JKR wrote this
story. The characters change and grow over time. You can't expect the
same type of story when the characters age from 11 to 17. 

So, I do what I do because it is far more productive and rewarding
that all the other more miserable vices life has to offer me. You do
and have made your own choices; more power to you.

Steve/bboyminn