Harry Potter
The eighth Harry Potter movie will hit theaters on July 15th, which is 46 days from today. I have that much time to fulfill this silly promise to myself that, as a nerd and as a nerd giving homage to Harry Potter, I will re-read the entire series and watch all seven movies. The eighth movie is the Last Great Hurrah, the last great opening, the last great thing Harry Potter nerds can look forward to (assuming, of course, that there will be no sequel or prequel, and even if there were...)
Within the last year sometime I attended a gallery talk on the sensational children's book Little Lord Fauntleroy. You may have heard if it, but I'm sure most haven't. It was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett (author of The Secret Garden) and published in 1886. The talk compared that book and Harry Potter not as parallels in terms of character, but instead to draw parallels in popular reaction. Little Lord Fauntleroy was sensationally popular in its time. An entire clothing trend popped up around it, actually, with mothers dressing their children as the main character (horrid, really), and there wasn't an English-speaking person in the world who hadn't at least heard of it. Sound familiar?
What I came away with from this interesting discussion was that you don't realize, especially when you've witnessed something that really can accurately bear the description "world-wide phenomenon," is that one day the vast majority of people may have almost no knowledge of what held you and so many others in thrall for so long.
Also over the course of this past year, since that gallery talk, I have become aware of the shared vocabulary that comes with the fact that an entire generation (or three) has read Harry Potter. Chances are if you're standing on a grocery line at your local store and you have someone in front of you who ranges from 18-35, you can make a Harry Potter joke and they will get it. It's a phenomenon that was not only broad (world-wide) but deep (so many fucking people have read it) to the point where it's become a shared cultural reality.
But, one that was tied to a time. Like Little Lord Fauntleroy. You can read that novel now, and enjoy it, but you will never experience was it was like to share that same collective cultural experience with the mothers and children of the late 19th century. Just like if someone got into Harry Potter tomorrow they would not have the shared experience of midnight openings. book parties, the entire internet speculating and holding its breath for years at a time, news reporters warning that they were about to mention a spoiler, and the fact that the stock market was influenced on the day Book 6 came out.
So, this is the last hurrah, that last moment of a series of moments. Even though I am no longer the rabid fan I once was (still a fan though, no doubt), I will to pay tribute to this phenomenon by experiencing it all over again.
So, despite really not having the money to spare, I used this occasion as an excuse to do something I have always wanted and buy the complete Bloomsbury series, which is beautiful and sitting with virgin pages just waiting for me to crack open and enjoy.
So here's to Harry Potter, one last time while I still have something to look forward to.
Within the last year sometime I attended a gallery talk on the sensational children's book Little Lord Fauntleroy. You may have heard if it, but I'm sure most haven't. It was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett (author of The Secret Garden) and published in 1886. The talk compared that book and Harry Potter not as parallels in terms of character, but instead to draw parallels in popular reaction. Little Lord Fauntleroy was sensationally popular in its time. An entire clothing trend popped up around it, actually, with mothers dressing their children as the main character (horrid, really), and there wasn't an English-speaking person in the world who hadn't at least heard of it. Sound familiar?
What I came away with from this interesting discussion was that you don't realize, especially when you've witnessed something that really can accurately bear the description "world-wide phenomenon," is that one day the vast majority of people may have almost no knowledge of what held you and so many others in thrall for so long.
Also over the course of this past year, since that gallery talk, I have become aware of the shared vocabulary that comes with the fact that an entire generation (or three) has read Harry Potter. Chances are if you're standing on a grocery line at your local store and you have someone in front of you who ranges from 18-35, you can make a Harry Potter joke and they will get it. It's a phenomenon that was not only broad (world-wide) but deep (so many fucking people have read it) to the point where it's become a shared cultural reality.
But, one that was tied to a time. Like Little Lord Fauntleroy. You can read that novel now, and enjoy it, but you will never experience was it was like to share that same collective cultural experience with the mothers and children of the late 19th century. Just like if someone got into Harry Potter tomorrow they would not have the shared experience of midnight openings. book parties, the entire internet speculating and holding its breath for years at a time, news reporters warning that they were about to mention a spoiler, and the fact that the stock market was influenced on the day Book 6 came out.
So, this is the last hurrah, that last moment of a series of moments. Even though I am no longer the rabid fan I once was (still a fan though, no doubt), I will to pay tribute to this phenomenon by experiencing it all over again.
So, despite really not having the money to spare, I used this occasion as an excuse to do something I have always wanted and buy the complete Bloomsbury series, which is beautiful and sitting with virgin pages just waiting for me to crack open and enjoy.
So here's to Harry Potter, one last time while I still have something to look forward to.