“It’s only a book”

The words of a friend, on her blog, in reference to the imminent release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I’m afraid I must disagree with her. It’s much more than a book. A whole generation has grown up with Harry Potter. He was there with them at school, he was there when they got their first jobs, he was there during important times in their lives, and perhaps he even helped them to get through those times. He’s been around for ten years now; can you remember what you were doing ten years ago, where you were in your life and how you felt?

I haven’t been caught up in Harry Potter fever, but I can understand the excitement of those who have. I can also understand their annoyance at the idiots who deliberately try to ’spoil’ them for the book. We all have things that we love, and possibly we love them beyond the understanding of those around us. Be it a book series, a movie series, a sport, a hobby; we all have things that have cost us quantities of money that would have others labelling us as obsessive.

But we love those things. They are our passions, and if someone comes along and spoils our passion, then we will rightfully get upset. The Ferrett has a thought-provoking post related to this matter here, in which he writes of a time when he was a child lost in the joy that a small toy gave him, and a group of other children spoiled that moment of joy for him, apparently for no reason:

To this day, I’m not sure whether those kids did me a favor or not. They taught me that there are fuckheads in life who will do their best to make you miserable. If you have a bouncy thing that makes you happy, some people will go out of their way to stomp you down because….

…well, I don’t know why. They just do. But the important thing is that for whatever messed-up reasons they have for doing it, some people will try to push you down. So you’d better shave a slice off of that exhilaration to devote it to protecting the rest of that feeling, because dodging a rock to the head is worth it.

Returning to Harry Potter, the BBC carried an article yesterday about the frenzy leading up to the release of book seven: Growing up with Harry Potter. In it, six fans explain how the books became a part of their lives.

I envy those fans their Midnight Potter Parties (what some in the blogosphere have dubbed ‘Potterdammerung’) with the dressing up and queuing outside bookstores all day and night to get their hands on the final book. I envy them the thrill of finally reading the conclusion to a journey they began ten years ago.

And I envy the feeling of cameraderie that goes along with it, the discussions that will be had afterwards, and the frantic rush to consume as fast as you can, to be the first to blog, “I’ve read it and OMG it’s…”