Potter and More

I am unapologetically pretentious when it comes Harry Potter. I am aware of this fact. That is my only disclaimer to the rest of this post.

I went on one of my occasional requesting sprees through the library catalog a few days ago, and as a result today picked up six books and three films. Three of the books have come to resume my study of books about Harry Potter. I haven't read more than the back cover/inside flap/first page of the introduction to any of these books, but I still find them all a little insufferable. As I've said before, most of these books were published in the 2000-2002 era, in the unprecedentedly long lull between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, when JKR was busy getting married and having a baby, in addition to writing her longest installment yet. This obviously means that a lot of Potter analysis is missing (the more significant) half of the story. This is not the biggest issue I have, however; I don't fault people for not knowing information that didn't exist publicly yet. When you're writing about pop culture, your work becomes dated pretty fast.

The problem I face is that before I've read a word of what these people have to say, I feel like I know more than them. They weren't eight years old when Harry got his first letter from Hogwarts, or eleven when we first watched eleven-year-old Harry enter the Hogwarts we had only dreamed about, or seventeen when seventeen-year-old Harry left school and almost everyone he loved to destroy the most evil wizard who ever lived. While anyone born before probably 1993 will be able to remember the development of the series, its explosion into film, midnight releases, and Potter parties, there is only a very small window of my generation that truly grew up with our beloved Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

I feel extremely lucky to be a part of the probably five (maybe seven or eight) year window of kids (now young adults) who got to be young enough to experience magic and wonder but also old enough to realize that this was a big deal, that this was changing our culture and our world and especially (at least in my case) our individual lives. I of course have memories from before I turned eight, but I have a hard time recalling what life in general was like before I started obsessively reading and rereading every word J.K. Rowling put in front of me, desperately waiting for the newest moment in the story. And these experiences, I know, are a rare privilege. But, like I've said, they've also given me a serious superiority complex about anything and everything Potter related. I'm pretty sure I've reached a level of fanaticism that (despite my *I think* articulateness about the whole thing) means I mostly have to hold my tongue in Harry-related conversations. Once I start, talking about Harry Potter becomes an involuntary bodily function.

I was out tonight and someone said J.K. Rowling would probably basically fall off the face of the earth about five minutes after the final film is released in July (less than a month, God help me), and then would resurface again eventually once she started missing being famous. I thought pretty much everything about this statement was wrong, but didn't think it important to start an argument about JKR's dislike of fame or the staying power of Potter and the inevitable notoriety that will probably always glow around JKR, even if she's not always recognized in the street.

Today I found out about Pottermore. As usual, J.K Rowling has something up her sleeve and, because she knows people like me will hang on to anything she gives us, she's dangling an empty website at us. I can practically feel her cheshire cat grin upon creating the site and announcing that something new is coming. We'll find out on Thursday, around 2 am Eastern time, according to the taunting countdown on youtube. Right now we don't even know what we're counting down to, but Potter fans are excited. Very. Excited. Maybe it's the encyclopedia of lore. Perhaps a new RPG. Whatever it is, Pottermore is sure to not disappoint, and I'm counting down the days, hours, and minutes. (Incidentally, I'll be in St. Louis visiting a friend when this news breaks, and we'll just be getting back from a Motley Crue/Poison/New York Dolls concert. It's going to be an extremely intense night all around.)

5 days. 5 hours. 17 minutes. 17 seconds.