(no subject)
Okay so I have had this HP meme sitting in a private post for MONTHS and I finally decided that it is time to do it.
The questions:01. How did you get into the books?
02. Your favorite book?
03. What house would you be in?
04. Your favorite movie?
05. Wizard Rock. Discuss.
06. Your favorite characters?
07. Drink that reminds you of HP?
08. Your favorite ship(s)?
09. Fanfiction: discuss.
10. Favorite book moment(s).
11. Character you're crushing on.
12. Favorite movie scene?
13. Least favorite character(s)?
14. Moments in the books/movies that made you cry?
15. Whatever tickles your fancy.
16. How have you participated in the fandom over the years?
17. Your favorite celebs from the movies or fandom?
18. If you could change one thing about canon, what would it be?
19. A favorite fanart?
20. A favorite quote?
21. How has the HP fandom connected you to other fandoms, interests, or people?
22. Your favorite villain?
23. Share some HP icons.
24. Rant about Steve Kloves something.
25. Song that reminds you of HP.
26. What aspect of the books has been best translated to film?
27. What aspect of the books has been most poorly translated to film?
28. Hogwarts subject you would most like to take?
29. Favorite location?
30. Whatever tickles your fancy.
Excellent, right?! But, uh, my answers got kind of psychotically long, so! I will be chipping away at it instead.
Questions one through five, go!!
01. How did you get into the books?
I was one of those assholes who thought HP was totally ridiculous and beneath me. I was really into A Wrinkle in Time and other Madeline L'Engle books (RING OF ENDLESS LIGHT, BITCHES) and I felt like all this fuss over Harry Potter was ruining things for fans of Real Literature lololol.
We had this massive book fair every year at my school during Grandparents Week, and my grandma bought me the first book in like November of 1999, after PoA was released. Read the first chapter in front of my grandmother to be polite and I was deeply unimpressed. It ended up at the bottom of my backpack for ages until I was stuck waiting for my mom at the dentist with nothing to read, so I pulled it out and figured I could at least make fun of it (I was also the kid who watched Barney just to laugh derisively sldfkj suuuuuch an asshole). But once I got past the SUPER WEIRD first chapter, I totally fell in love with little Harry and his slightly squashed cake and the giant with the pink umbrella. I finished the book that night and made my mom drive me to the grocery store to buy the second one.
Aaaaand then I became the biggest HP fan in the school lolol.
02. Your favorite book?
This is always a tough question because obviously I really love all the books, often for very different reasons. sdlfkj It is like picking a favorite child. I love the first book for all the details and worldbuilding, the creepy, twisting plot of CoS, the utter mindfuck of the Time Turner in PoA, the glimpse into an international Wizarding community in GoF. But I guess my favorites are probably OotP and HBP.
Half-Blood Prince is obvious, I guess. It was like reading a fic, in the best way. So many things I had been hoping for from canon. Draco finally being used as more than antagonistic background noise. Actually getting to serve as an example of a kid getting sucked into the war from the opposite side, so much like Harry, and yet so different. I don't want to get all slash ficcy up in here, but there's really something to be said for how well they parallel one another, both being crushed by the pressure of fighting a quiet war, used as pawns by their respective authority figures, leading up to that desperate, cathartic fight in the bathroom, that should have let off some much needed steam, but only ended up making things more dangerous and real, throwing light onto the reality of their horrible, horrible situation, how delicate and unprotected they both really are.
GOD and okay uh real quick can we talk about how considering that Dumbledore never intended for Harry to survive his final battle with Voldemort, and Voldemort never thought Draco would be successful in his mission, and was just using him to punish Lucius.... I just. IT IS SO INTERESTING how they are both such perfect symbols of children inheriting their parents' wars. Used for the anger and blind loyalty they were raised to have, then thrown into the deep end by people they trust to guide and eventually protect them. I just. I really think seeing Draco's struggle makes Harry's easier to see from a more objective perspective. It allows you to take a look at how Dumbledore uses Harry as a weapon, and see how creepy that really is, which I'm not sure would have come across if you couldn't see someone you weren't so emotionally tied to going through something similar.
And seeing that is so much a part of why I love HBP. Harry trying so hard to be a normal kid at school with a hot girlfriend and a schoolboy rival, only for it all to fall apart into something far more serious at every turn. Him finally realizing that Dumbledore needs him to fight in ways beyond just dueling Voldemort at the end of exams every year. Learning about Voldemort's past as Tom Riddle, as a kid, when he was still human, seeing the evolution of a monster and a movement.
Ah man and the Unbreakable Vow, seeing how there is love even among the Death Eaters, that the idea of family, which is always held up in HP as the great goal of life, is not purely for the side of Light and Harry's eventual reward for battling evil, but something that can drive people to murder in order to protect their own. (And I love how both Narcissa and Molly are willing to watch people die to protect their children, how Lily offered herself to save her son. How maternal love is this fierce, incredibly powerful thing that ultimately determines how the series ends.)
So yeah, HBP was really.... satisfying, is the word, I suppose. It was a relief that JKR didn't cop out of all the dark stuff she was laying the groundwork for in GoF and OotP. That all those creepy dark fics that came after OotP weren't totally thematically off.
And everyone makes fun of OotP and Capslock Harry, but I really love it. I'm a big fan of angry Harry, okay. He was locked in a cupboard and then when he was let out he had to battle evil, it was time for some emotional fallout. I love how Harry is finally forced to try to fit into the world in a social sense slfj crushing on Cho but totally unsure about how to woo her or respond to her advances. Not understanding that it is in poor form to ask after Hermione during a date. Failing to grasp the need to just shut up sometimes when faced with people like Umbridge.... Just all these social rules that he is finally being asked to follow. Ah man, and trying to establish this parental relationship with Sirius but not really knowing what that entails.
How Occlumency lessons force Harry to confront how intense and wild his emotions can get, how deeply he feels hurt and rage, and how it is Snape, of all people, who has to teach Harry to chill the fuck out, because this is not a war that will be won by his righteous anger. That it is not just Voldemort who will use his emotions and memories against him, but the press and the public will write Harry off as a lunatic unless he can remain calm and political when explaining himself. Again, laying the groundwork for how creepily wars are actually fought, how the battles are not just about spells and attacks, but spreading truth and lies and protecting images and relationships.
And just all the new characters and places and details we got from OotP. Like Luna! ROOM OF REQUIREMENT. All the stuff about the Ministry. St. Mungo's!!! The Department of Mysteries! Umbridge! THE HOG'S HEAD. GRIMMAULD PLACE!! Madame Puddifoot's, oh god.
And just the tone of it, how right off the bat, Dudley feels the Dementors and Harry just bursts with frustration about how the Dursleys will never understand what he is up against, only to go back to Hogwarts and find out that even other wizards don't understand, that he is alone even among his own kind.
OotP was really just the thematic turnaround point of the series. I suppose you could say that it was really at the end of GoF, when Voldemort returns, but that was just a glimpse, and OotP was when that shit got serious, and more complicated than just the idea that Voldemort was once more a legitimate threat. More shades of grey, I suppose, showing that the battle between Harry and Voldemort didn't exist in a bubble, but was influenced by boring, everyday stuff like government bureaucracy.
Ahh so good, guys.
03. What house would you be in?
I am really into the Houses and the House politics of Hogwarts and how those ties can reach into all areas of life in Wizarding Britain. It's hard to tell if normal adults are as psychotic about House loyalties as, say, the Malfoys and Weasleys, but it's hard to imagine it's not something people are at least vaguely aware of, in the way people might be aware of fraternity ties and make judgments based on them.
There's just something fascinating about the idea of dividing kids based on these big, vague qualities, and the idea that all the kids will be able to fit into one of the four categories. And like yes okay, Good Hufflepuff she took the rest, but still. There are real qualities expected of Hufflepuffs, that loyalty and hard work. And Harry is all into the idea that you can choose your House (and therefore your destiny~), which is also really interesting, asking an eleven year old to choose which qualities he holds in highest regard, what kind of person he wants to become. At eleven!! My god. Hogwarts is not fucking around.
I also really love how passionately people feel connected to one House or another in fandom. How getting sorted into a different House in Pottermore was seriously traumatizing for people, which I know some people made fun of, BUT YO I GET IT. It's not just some random thing you decide so you can pick a scarf color at the WB store. Each House carries a certain... assumption you make about yourself or about others. It says something you think is important about yourself. To be told, no no, you do not belong there, that is not who you are, is just. Devastating.
And just. That is just fandom. Can you imagine being a kid at Hogwarts, getting sorted into a House you don't feel a connection to? And even if you do feel comfortable in your own House, trying to interact with the other three quarters of the school has to be bizarre, going into every conversation with an idea of how that person sees themselves, the kind of environment created by their peers and generations before them. It is just the most fascinating thing.
Anyway, yes, I feel like a Slytherin, and have been confirmed by Pottermore. The strategy of going through life looking out for yourself and your people rather than ideals. Being malleable enough to adapt to bad situations and still make it out on top. That's how I've tried to live my life and it's served me well.
I used to read Aesop fables a lot as a kid (and get really annoyed by them, sigh), but there was this one I really loved about a bat who gets caught by a weasel who hates birds, so the bat tells him he's a mouse and the weasel lets him go. Then he gets caught by another weasel, one who hates mice, so the bat tells him he's a bird, and goes free again. Now, apart from getting caught by TWO weasels in a row (what are you doing, bat, can't you fly?) this always seemed particularly clever to me, and I try to take that sort of approach in life when necessary, becoming the sort of person I need to be at that moment.
So. Slytherin feels right, though it would be nice to have a tower view.
04. Your favorite movie?
For ages, it was PoA, if only because I was relieved to have something less cheesy and ridiculous than the first two movies (sorry, bb trio, but it was just too much), but now that I've seen them all, I am torn between HBP and DHII.
HBP had pretty much everything I need: Draco, birds, Dan being hilarious, long sweeping shots, a lot of super great fic after it came out. But DHII was just beautiful, and everyone was so good. I WAS SO PROUD OF THE TRIO, my god, how excellent were they all? Dan became Harry more than Dan, Emma did not fill me with irrational rage, Rupert was just great as per usual. Ahhhh so wonderful. I was on the edge of my seat and the issues I had with the movie were issues I had with the book, so it's hard to feel annoyed with it.
But truth be told, I do not feel particularly attached to any of the movies. Like, I don't sit around and watch them again. I watch scenes, sometimes, or listen to soundtrack songs, find screencaps that are particularly beautiful, but I typically just watch the movies as a whole once or twice. I think a big part of that is the secondhand embarrassment I start to feel when Steve Kloves has the trio doing something dumb, or when Dan has to do a really emotional scene before he is, uh, ready (HE WAS THEIR FRIEND!!!!!!!!), and it is just slfdkj too stressful to be enjoyable. I guess this is why I stopped getting really excited for the movies after a while. Not to say I am not fond of them and the people involved!! But you know. They are not really what I think of when I think of Harry Potter.
05. Wizard Rock. Discuss.
For some reason I associate wizard rock with the other side of fandom, the side that read MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron and listened to those podcasts and never read fic. I feel very disconnected from those fans, and I just. I don't really understand. Like. What were they doing all those years.... Anyway, I like wizard rock in a theoretical sense, but I'm not really a ~fan~. The idea of it is great, but I guess I am just not into following bands unless someone is being exploited while dressed in sequins.
There are a few wizard rock songs that I really associate with my experience in fandom, though. I still know every word to Draco and Harry. Nothing is emotionally manipulative like End of an Era (oh my god one of the youtube comments, "magic leaves traces". DON'T MIND ME, I'LL JUST BE SOBBING OVER HERE). I sat in my friend's room listening to 99 Death Eaters over and over again like a maniac. I remember finding out about Harry and the Potters one night, frantically listening to all the songs, amazed that a band about a book was actually a thing, that they had recorded songs and weren't just lyrics (guys, guys, remember those musical scripts written by Barbara the Wallpaperer?? I WAS SO INTO THOSE, I made my father read them).
And I will never forget that Voldemort can't stop the rock.
MORE TO COME, once my fingers get a chance to rest.
The questions:01. How did you get into the books?
02. Your favorite book?
03. What house would you be in?
04. Your favorite movie?
05. Wizard Rock. Discuss.
06. Your favorite characters?
07. Drink that reminds you of HP?
08. Your favorite ship(s)?
09. Fanfiction: discuss.
10. Favorite book moment(s).
11. Character you're crushing on.
12. Favorite movie scene?
13. Least favorite character(s)?
14. Moments in the books/movies that made you cry?
15. Whatever tickles your fancy.
16. How have you participated in the fandom over the years?
17. Your favorite celebs from the movies or fandom?
18. If you could change one thing about canon, what would it be?
19. A favorite fanart?
20. A favorite quote?
21. How has the HP fandom connected you to other fandoms, interests, or people?
22. Your favorite villain?
23. Share some HP icons.
24. Rant about Steve Kloves something.
25. Song that reminds you of HP.
26. What aspect of the books has been best translated to film?
27. What aspect of the books has been most poorly translated to film?
28. Hogwarts subject you would most like to take?
29. Favorite location?
30. Whatever tickles your fancy.
Excellent, right?! But, uh, my answers got kind of psychotically long, so! I will be chipping away at it instead.
Questions one through five, go!!
01. How did you get into the books?
I was one of those assholes who thought HP was totally ridiculous and beneath me. I was really into A Wrinkle in Time and other Madeline L'Engle books (RING OF ENDLESS LIGHT, BITCHES) and I felt like all this fuss over Harry Potter was ruining things for fans of Real Literature lololol.
We had this massive book fair every year at my school during Grandparents Week, and my grandma bought me the first book in like November of 1999, after PoA was released. Read the first chapter in front of my grandmother to be polite and I was deeply unimpressed. It ended up at the bottom of my backpack for ages until I was stuck waiting for my mom at the dentist with nothing to read, so I pulled it out and figured I could at least make fun of it (I was also the kid who watched Barney just to laugh derisively sldfkj suuuuuch an asshole). But once I got past the SUPER WEIRD first chapter, I totally fell in love with little Harry and his slightly squashed cake and the giant with the pink umbrella. I finished the book that night and made my mom drive me to the grocery store to buy the second one.
Aaaaand then I became the biggest HP fan in the school lolol.
02. Your favorite book?
This is always a tough question because obviously I really love all the books, often for very different reasons. sdlfkj It is like picking a favorite child. I love the first book for all the details and worldbuilding, the creepy, twisting plot of CoS, the utter mindfuck of the Time Turner in PoA, the glimpse into an international Wizarding community in GoF. But I guess my favorites are probably OotP and HBP.
Half-Blood Prince is obvious, I guess. It was like reading a fic, in the best way. So many things I had been hoping for from canon. Draco finally being used as more than antagonistic background noise. Actually getting to serve as an example of a kid getting sucked into the war from the opposite side, so much like Harry, and yet so different. I don't want to get all slash ficcy up in here, but there's really something to be said for how well they parallel one another, both being crushed by the pressure of fighting a quiet war, used as pawns by their respective authority figures, leading up to that desperate, cathartic fight in the bathroom, that should have let off some much needed steam, but only ended up making things more dangerous and real, throwing light onto the reality of their horrible, horrible situation, how delicate and unprotected they both really are.
GOD and okay uh real quick can we talk about how considering that Dumbledore never intended for Harry to survive his final battle with Voldemort, and Voldemort never thought Draco would be successful in his mission, and was just using him to punish Lucius.... I just. IT IS SO INTERESTING how they are both such perfect symbols of children inheriting their parents' wars. Used for the anger and blind loyalty they were raised to have, then thrown into the deep end by people they trust to guide and eventually protect them. I just. I really think seeing Draco's struggle makes Harry's easier to see from a more objective perspective. It allows you to take a look at how Dumbledore uses Harry as a weapon, and see how creepy that really is, which I'm not sure would have come across if you couldn't see someone you weren't so emotionally tied to going through something similar.
And seeing that is so much a part of why I love HBP. Harry trying so hard to be a normal kid at school with a hot girlfriend and a schoolboy rival, only for it all to fall apart into something far more serious at every turn. Him finally realizing that Dumbledore needs him to fight in ways beyond just dueling Voldemort at the end of exams every year. Learning about Voldemort's past as Tom Riddle, as a kid, when he was still human, seeing the evolution of a monster and a movement.
Ah man and the Unbreakable Vow, seeing how there is love even among the Death Eaters, that the idea of family, which is always held up in HP as the great goal of life, is not purely for the side of Light and Harry's eventual reward for battling evil, but something that can drive people to murder in order to protect their own. (And I love how both Narcissa and Molly are willing to watch people die to protect their children, how Lily offered herself to save her son. How maternal love is this fierce, incredibly powerful thing that ultimately determines how the series ends.)
So yeah, HBP was really.... satisfying, is the word, I suppose. It was a relief that JKR didn't cop out of all the dark stuff she was laying the groundwork for in GoF and OotP. That all those creepy dark fics that came after OotP weren't totally thematically off.
And everyone makes fun of OotP and Capslock Harry, but I really love it. I'm a big fan of angry Harry, okay. He was locked in a cupboard and then when he was let out he had to battle evil, it was time for some emotional fallout. I love how Harry is finally forced to try to fit into the world in a social sense slfj crushing on Cho but totally unsure about how to woo her or respond to her advances. Not understanding that it is in poor form to ask after Hermione during a date. Failing to grasp the need to just shut up sometimes when faced with people like Umbridge.... Just all these social rules that he is finally being asked to follow. Ah man, and trying to establish this parental relationship with Sirius but not really knowing what that entails.
How Occlumency lessons force Harry to confront how intense and wild his emotions can get, how deeply he feels hurt and rage, and how it is Snape, of all people, who has to teach Harry to chill the fuck out, because this is not a war that will be won by his righteous anger. That it is not just Voldemort who will use his emotions and memories against him, but the press and the public will write Harry off as a lunatic unless he can remain calm and political when explaining himself. Again, laying the groundwork for how creepily wars are actually fought, how the battles are not just about spells and attacks, but spreading truth and lies and protecting images and relationships.
And just all the new characters and places and details we got from OotP. Like Luna! ROOM OF REQUIREMENT. All the stuff about the Ministry. St. Mungo's!!! The Department of Mysteries! Umbridge! THE HOG'S HEAD. GRIMMAULD PLACE!! Madame Puddifoot's, oh god.
And just the tone of it, how right off the bat, Dudley feels the Dementors and Harry just bursts with frustration about how the Dursleys will never understand what he is up against, only to go back to Hogwarts and find out that even other wizards don't understand, that he is alone even among his own kind.
OotP was really just the thematic turnaround point of the series. I suppose you could say that it was really at the end of GoF, when Voldemort returns, but that was just a glimpse, and OotP was when that shit got serious, and more complicated than just the idea that Voldemort was once more a legitimate threat. More shades of grey, I suppose, showing that the battle between Harry and Voldemort didn't exist in a bubble, but was influenced by boring, everyday stuff like government bureaucracy.
Ahh so good, guys.
03. What house would you be in?
I am really into the Houses and the House politics of Hogwarts and how those ties can reach into all areas of life in Wizarding Britain. It's hard to tell if normal adults are as psychotic about House loyalties as, say, the Malfoys and Weasleys, but it's hard to imagine it's not something people are at least vaguely aware of, in the way people might be aware of fraternity ties and make judgments based on them.
There's just something fascinating about the idea of dividing kids based on these big, vague qualities, and the idea that all the kids will be able to fit into one of the four categories. And like yes okay, Good Hufflepuff she took the rest, but still. There are real qualities expected of Hufflepuffs, that loyalty and hard work. And Harry is all into the idea that you can choose your House (and therefore your destiny~), which is also really interesting, asking an eleven year old to choose which qualities he holds in highest regard, what kind of person he wants to become. At eleven!! My god. Hogwarts is not fucking around.
I also really love how passionately people feel connected to one House or another in fandom. How getting sorted into a different House in Pottermore was seriously traumatizing for people, which I know some people made fun of, BUT YO I GET IT. It's not just some random thing you decide so you can pick a scarf color at the WB store. Each House carries a certain... assumption you make about yourself or about others. It says something you think is important about yourself. To be told, no no, you do not belong there, that is not who you are, is just. Devastating.
And just. That is just fandom. Can you imagine being a kid at Hogwarts, getting sorted into a House you don't feel a connection to? And even if you do feel comfortable in your own House, trying to interact with the other three quarters of the school has to be bizarre, going into every conversation with an idea of how that person sees themselves, the kind of environment created by their peers and generations before them. It is just the most fascinating thing.
Anyway, yes, I feel like a Slytherin, and have been confirmed by Pottermore. The strategy of going through life looking out for yourself and your people rather than ideals. Being malleable enough to adapt to bad situations and still make it out on top. That's how I've tried to live my life and it's served me well.
I used to read Aesop fables a lot as a kid (and get really annoyed by them, sigh), but there was this one I really loved about a bat who gets caught by a weasel who hates birds, so the bat tells him he's a mouse and the weasel lets him go. Then he gets caught by another weasel, one who hates mice, so the bat tells him he's a bird, and goes free again. Now, apart from getting caught by TWO weasels in a row (what are you doing, bat, can't you fly?) this always seemed particularly clever to me, and I try to take that sort of approach in life when necessary, becoming the sort of person I need to be at that moment.
So. Slytherin feels right, though it would be nice to have a tower view.
04. Your favorite movie?
For ages, it was PoA, if only because I was relieved to have something less cheesy and ridiculous than the first two movies (sorry, bb trio, but it was just too much), but now that I've seen them all, I am torn between HBP and DHII.
HBP had pretty much everything I need: Draco, birds, Dan being hilarious, long sweeping shots, a lot of super great fic after it came out. But DHII was just beautiful, and everyone was so good. I WAS SO PROUD OF THE TRIO, my god, how excellent were they all? Dan became Harry more than Dan, Emma did not fill me with irrational rage, Rupert was just great as per usual. Ahhhh so wonderful. I was on the edge of my seat and the issues I had with the movie were issues I had with the book, so it's hard to feel annoyed with it.
But truth be told, I do not feel particularly attached to any of the movies. Like, I don't sit around and watch them again. I watch scenes, sometimes, or listen to soundtrack songs, find screencaps that are particularly beautiful, but I typically just watch the movies as a whole once or twice. I think a big part of that is the secondhand embarrassment I start to feel when Steve Kloves has the trio doing something dumb, or when Dan has to do a really emotional scene before he is, uh, ready (HE WAS THEIR FRIEND!!!!!!!!), and it is just slfdkj too stressful to be enjoyable. I guess this is why I stopped getting really excited for the movies after a while. Not to say I am not fond of them and the people involved!! But you know. They are not really what I think of when I think of Harry Potter.
05. Wizard Rock. Discuss.
For some reason I associate wizard rock with the other side of fandom, the side that read MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron and listened to those podcasts and never read fic. I feel very disconnected from those fans, and I just. I don't really understand. Like. What were they doing all those years.... Anyway, I like wizard rock in a theoretical sense, but I'm not really a ~fan~. The idea of it is great, but I guess I am just not into following bands unless someone is being exploited while dressed in sequins.
There are a few wizard rock songs that I really associate with my experience in fandom, though. I still know every word to Draco and Harry. Nothing is emotionally manipulative like End of an Era (oh my god one of the youtube comments, "magic leaves traces". DON'T MIND ME, I'LL JUST BE SOBBING OVER HERE). I sat in my friend's room listening to 99 Death Eaters over and over again like a maniac. I remember finding out about Harry and the Potters one night, frantically listening to all the songs, amazed that a band about a book was actually a thing, that they had recorded songs and weren't just lyrics (guys, guys, remember those musical scripts written by Barbara the Wallpaperer?? I WAS SO INTO THOSE, I made my father read them).
And I will never forget that Voldemort can't stop the rock.
MORE TO COME, once my fingers get a chance to rest.