Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I have just finished
Okay, what follows under the cut is not a review of Harry Potter. It is, however, massively spoilery, and I think anyone who has both a) read the book and b) known me for any length of time, will know what it's about.
Remus Lupin is dead. REMUS LUPIN IS DEAD. hathy_col carefully checked on my mental state more than once this afternoon, because, well, it's Remus. WAAAAAAAH.
Okay. I have decent commentary coming up, probably, at some point, where I will put my grown-up hat on and talk about, I dunno, themes and morals and narrative arcs and the soppy epilogue. Maybe. But before that, this. I am twenty years old. I picked up my first Harry Potter book when I was ten. I've been in fandom for most of the intervening period, too. So that's half of my life that these characters have lived and breathed in whatever the place is where fictional characters live, and they've been part of a glorious story that I've been listening to for half my life, and I don't feel any embarrassment whatsoever for sniffling through the last few chapters.
And more that - it's a damn good story. It's a story about good and evil, naturally, and about the importance of tolerance and co-existence, and about friendship. And the thing that stuck with me when I was ten was that Harry, at the beginning, is nervous about going on to secondary school even when he doesn't know he's going to Hogwarts. It was summer when I read it, and in September I was nervous about secondary school too, and I remember thinking clearly that it was funny, and kind of nice, that the same worry persisted through the shift into worlds of magic. And I worried about making friends, and library books, new subjects, house points and tuck shops, and GCSEs and A-levels, too. (Although I note with weird amusement that I got my A-levels and Harry never got his NEWTs!) There was a current of simple reality going through the stories which I appreciated for the ten years that followed.
And everyone knows that I loved Remus Lupin a whole, stupid, idiotic lot. It's quite a long time to have loved a fictional character, and I really have done. Yep, he's not real. Not even close. He's still dead, and hathy_col are going to have a long lunch on Monday, and weep and wail and get thrown out for excessive displays of emotion.
So this is me raising a late-night toast - to Harry Potter, and the stories, characters and friends I've met through him, and to ten years of my life. Cheers.
Remus Lupin is dead. REMUS LUPIN IS DEAD. hathy_col carefully checked on my mental state more than once this afternoon, because, well, it's Remus. WAAAAAAAH.
Okay. I have decent commentary coming up, probably, at some point, where I will put my grown-up hat on and talk about, I dunno, themes and morals and narrative arcs and the soppy epilogue. Maybe. But before that, this. I am twenty years old. I picked up my first Harry Potter book when I was ten. I've been in fandom for most of the intervening period, too. So that's half of my life that these characters have lived and breathed in whatever the place is where fictional characters live, and they've been part of a glorious story that I've been listening to for half my life, and I don't feel any embarrassment whatsoever for sniffling through the last few chapters.
And more that - it's a damn good story. It's a story about good and evil, naturally, and about the importance of tolerance and co-existence, and about friendship. And the thing that stuck with me when I was ten was that Harry, at the beginning, is nervous about going on to secondary school even when he doesn't know he's going to Hogwarts. It was summer when I read it, and in September I was nervous about secondary school too, and I remember thinking clearly that it was funny, and kind of nice, that the same worry persisted through the shift into worlds of magic. And I worried about making friends, and library books, new subjects, house points and tuck shops, and GCSEs and A-levels, too. (Although I note with weird amusement that I got my A-levels and Harry never got his NEWTs!) There was a current of simple reality going through the stories which I appreciated for the ten years that followed.
And everyone knows that I loved Remus Lupin a whole, stupid, idiotic lot. It's quite a long time to have loved a fictional character, and I really have done. Yep, he's not real. Not even close. He's still dead, and hathy_col are going to have a long lunch on Monday, and weep and wail and get thrown out for excessive displays of emotion.
So this is me raising a late-night toast - to Harry Potter, and the stories, characters and friends I've met through him, and to ten years of my life. Cheers.