Harry Potter | Tribute
This clip is one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful tribute to the Harry Potter books, the films and JKR I have seen so far.
The first Harry Potter book I've ever read was not the first one .. it was the third or fourth book, on a beach in Thailand. A backpacker had left it behind, but to my dismay it ended on page 150 or so. The other end of the book was missing. The very same day I travelled more than 100km to Bangkok to get to the Kinokuniya in The Emporium and bought the entire book, Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban.
I booked myself into the Sukhothai and didn't answer my phone. When one of my friends was at the lobby and called from the reception to drive me to a party, I feigned illness: "Aircon Flu." I coughed. Then I ordered Tom Yum Koong, frenc fries, a burger and papaya salad and buried myself into the crisp white sheets to read that book!
Some weeks later I bought the pirated DVD of Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban on some night market in Patpong. I put them in a suitcase and forgot about them. Upon return to Japan, I could not watch them, due to my complicated love life, and only in the end of 2004 my suitcase and belongings were returned to me, more (or less) intact.
In hindsight I liked the Prisoner Of Azkaban best, but then I was mesmerised by all of them. It felt wonderful, like these days, when I was still a child, and opened that first book, that would get me hooked on stories, on words. In 2008 I had just moved with The Beau into our first apartment (lying sneakily to the landlord that we were already married :P) and we talked about the characters. I googled Severus Snape and Alan Rickman, and suddenly the word fanfiction came up.
I clicked on it, curious, and an image of Hermione and Severus Snape in a romantic embrace appeared. I clicked on another link, and then another, and suddenly I was reading Arsenic Jade's stories, then Schemingreader's then Tryfanstones'. Then oh, my god, Fabula Rasa, my first great love of in fandom; I devoured each of her Sirius Black/Severus Snape fics more than ten times. If only some of the paid and published authors I have read, would have half of the talent of the fanfiction writers I have read, book stores wouldn't have to close. (I am looking at you Stephenie Meyer.)
I began reading Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone sometime during 2007, after the publishing date for the last book had been announced. The Beau only shook his head about me (he had read all existing Harry Potter books long before) but I insisted on at least knowing the date for the final book, before I would embark on reading them all. Once I began I did not stop. I might not have showered for a four days in a row and lived off cup noodles and only left the house to get umeboshi riceballs from the conbini downstairs. Parallell to my reading I was reading fanfiction, and to this day I have great difficulties remembering what is canon, and what is fanon! (Some of my fellow Harry Potter fans must tear their hairs out, over the things I have no clue about.)
Fandom has taught me so much, I can't even begin. I have made so many great friends, people I would have never met in my real life, simply because our paths would not have crossed.
I have learned of course, about the books and the characters, and then about pairings, first het and then slash. I remember reading my first Snarry, thinking to myself: "Okay, this won't definitely become my so-called O-T-P!" I remember reading another one, then another one, just to try to get the dynamics of this, and then suddenly, I was hooked. Which one was it? I think it was one by Tira Nog or Meri Oddities. Or maybe Ann Wymer's Clipped Wings? Or the one, where Harry and Snape are the only ones left alive? In Media Res?
The pairing that somehow interests me most is Eileen and Tobias Snape. I have never written a fic with them, because I never found the right first sentence, but they are the ones I really want to write about.
The pairing, that never interested me as a writer, was Harry/Draco, although I adore reading it: there are so many wonderful fics out there, it just seemed a waste to write them myself.
I never thought I would, but in 2012 I finally got interested in other fandoms, and that was inevitable in a way I guess, but Harry Potter, Ron, Hermione, Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin et al will always hold a special place in my heart. (Really, not even Tom Hiddleston can change that :D).
To me, these characters and JKR's wonderful world have long ago ceased being fictional to me.
We'll always have Paris Hogwarts.
The first Harry Potter book I've ever read was not the first one .. it was the third or fourth book, on a beach in Thailand. A backpacker had left it behind, but to my dismay it ended on page 150 or so. The other end of the book was missing. The very same day I travelled more than 100km to Bangkok to get to the Kinokuniya in The Emporium and bought the entire book, Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban.
I booked myself into the Sukhothai and didn't answer my phone. When one of my friends was at the lobby and called from the reception to drive me to a party, I feigned illness: "Aircon Flu." I coughed. Then I ordered Tom Yum Koong, frenc fries, a burger and papaya salad and buried myself into the crisp white sheets to read that book!
Some weeks later I bought the pirated DVD of Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban on some night market in Patpong. I put them in a suitcase and forgot about them. Upon return to Japan, I could not watch them, due to my complicated love life, and only in the end of 2004 my suitcase and belongings were returned to me, more (or less) intact.
In hindsight I liked the Prisoner Of Azkaban best, but then I was mesmerised by all of them. It felt wonderful, like these days, when I was still a child, and opened that first book, that would get me hooked on stories, on words. In 2008 I had just moved with The Beau into our first apartment (lying sneakily to the landlord that we were already married :P) and we talked about the characters. I googled Severus Snape and Alan Rickman, and suddenly the word fanfiction came up.
I clicked on it, curious, and an image of Hermione and Severus Snape in a romantic embrace appeared. I clicked on another link, and then another, and suddenly I was reading Arsenic Jade's stories, then Schemingreader's then Tryfanstones'. Then oh, my god, Fabula Rasa, my first great love of in fandom; I devoured each of her Sirius Black/Severus Snape fics more than ten times. If only some of the paid and published authors I have read, would have half of the talent of the fanfiction writers I have read, book stores wouldn't have to close. (I am looking at you Stephenie Meyer.)
I began reading Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone sometime during 2007, after the publishing date for the last book had been announced. The Beau only shook his head about me (he had read all existing Harry Potter books long before) but I insisted on at least knowing the date for the final book, before I would embark on reading them all. Once I began I did not stop. I might not have showered for a four days in a row and lived off cup noodles and only left the house to get umeboshi riceballs from the conbini downstairs. Parallell to my reading I was reading fanfiction, and to this day I have great difficulties remembering what is canon, and what is fanon! (Some of my fellow Harry Potter fans must tear their hairs out, over the things I have no clue about.)
Fandom has taught me so much, I can't even begin. I have made so many great friends, people I would have never met in my real life, simply because our paths would not have crossed.
I have learned of course, about the books and the characters, and then about pairings, first het and then slash. I remember reading my first Snarry, thinking to myself: "Okay, this won't definitely become my so-called O-T-P!" I remember reading another one, then another one, just to try to get the dynamics of this, and then suddenly, I was hooked. Which one was it? I think it was one by Tira Nog or Meri Oddities. Or maybe Ann Wymer's Clipped Wings? Or the one, where Harry and Snape are the only ones left alive? In Media Res?
The pairing that somehow interests me most is Eileen and Tobias Snape. I have never written a fic with them, because I never found the right first sentence, but they are the ones I really want to write about.
The pairing, that never interested me as a writer, was Harry/Draco, although I adore reading it: there are so many wonderful fics out there, it just seemed a waste to write them myself.
I never thought I would, but in 2012 I finally got interested in other fandoms, and that was inevitable in a way I guess, but Harry Potter, Ron, Hermione, Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin et al will always hold a special place in my heart. (Really, not even Tom Hiddleston can change that :D).
To me, these characters and JKR's wonderful world have long ago ceased being fictional to me.
We'll always have Paris Hogwarts.