The ongoing fandom for Harry Potter.

[oriondruid@btinternet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 192467





--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mx_crowry" <isoeternalrival at ...> wrote:
>

> Hey John! :) (I am replying particularly to the bit I've left
> unsnipped.)
> I have been lurking in this group for months now, reading through the
> messages posted here as they arrive in my email, but this will be my
> first post. 

Snipped.

>
Hi there 'C'.

Thanks for 'uncloaking' or to go into  Star trek mode de-cloaking to make your first post and reply to my thread, welcome, it's nice to hear from you.

I'm glad you agree with some of my premise but no, I do not by any means discount the influence and enthusiasm of the 'Harry Potter Generation' who grew up with the stories as they themselves matured in scope and depth, thanks to Jo's genius writing. :o)

I am highly aware and you will see if you look on my FF.net profile page, that the majority of the writers there are very much my juniors and as I always say, this is no bad thing at all. These young people's writing is often superb and surpasses my own limited efforts. Also, thanks to the PM system on the website I am in direct communication and even collaboration with other writers, several of whom are many years younger than myself, and in two of whom I see great promise and talent. :o)

The good thing about the sort of PM system on the Fan Fic website, as opposed to direct email contact is that it is safe and anonymous for the young people concerned and no possible 'downside' risks associated with email contact can occur, no sexual hazards arise and no online bullying or 'grooming' is easily possible. so given that even an 'old geezer' like me can happily and safely chat with writers, some of whom are still only in their teens.

I agree, it must have been wonderful to be a part of that young generation of children who read and grew up with the Harry Potter saga, it was something we older fans could never experience and it was our loss. The experience of gaining a changing, evolving and maturing perspective as the books themselves grew up with their young readership, (thanks to JKR's genius), must have been an incredible experience for young people also.

To learn to read 'beyond the text' and to realise the limitations and boundaries that Jo had necessarily to work within, to come to a full understanding of the deeper meaning of the story themes and to also see what was not and could not be included, such discoveries must have been marvelous. :o)

To go from a child's understanding and pleasure at the early simpler tales to that of a young adult able to see that what one had once thought simple was in fact complex and held many omissions and deliberately obscured possibilities would have been a common experience among many younger Harry Potter fans as they grew up.

For instance the simple admission by JKR that Dumbledore was gay and had a relationship with another male whilst he was a young man was not something she could tacitly admit to or write in a 'children's book' and must have come as a shock to some. But to other young fans as a valediction of their own growing gay sexuality and feelings of self worth. After all if the world's greatest wizard and such a powerful and kind man could achieve what he'd done as a gay person then they must also have felt set free of any limitations they might have previously felt their sexual orientation might impose upon them. :o)

As to fan writing being transformative and liberating, hell yes!

I myself am nominally heterosexual, (that is to say not very actively so but I am oriented that way), but it is not only in such matters of sexuality that fan writing can transform and liberate. I suffer from bouts of severe and apparently incurable clinical depression and sometimes (particularly over the last two years) I can become so withdrawn into misery that I can barely function all day and curl up in a ball of despair, wishing I were dead. 

However luckily I am a normally a night person anyway and so when my depression and accompanying photophobia abaits with the setting sun I find myself able, thanks to the internet and fan fiction, to do something positive and creative, gain some plaudits every now and then (if a story of mine gets well reviewed) and stay in touch with people I know and like in the online writing community. At times this contact and heightened sense of self worth due to the friendship and praise of others has literally been a lifesaver! :o)

Luckily at present the regular onslaught of negativity has abated a lot and I am currently much more stable and happy, and long may this continue to be the case. :o)

I'm not sure I agree about what you said when you wrote....

"We keep creating fanworks because we feel like there is no place for us in this fictional world we love so much, the one that we matured with, and matured past."

I certainly don't feel that way, I may not perhaps have matured as much as some, as I still feel at home in the Wizarding World, still feel it's wonder and even if I now see it's necessary flaws and omissions, due to the context within which it was written about by Jo I know I for one would still love to get that long awaited letter that would lead me into that 'other world' and out of this one, with all it's far greater flaws and man-made vileness.

Many Blessings.
John, (Oriondruid).