Harry Potter burn out

I haven't been writing on my blog as much because I've been too busy reading everyone else's blog. But now, I am tired of reading about people's opinion of Harry Potter. As a fan, it's easy to jump into the obsession, and to get excited about things that she has done. As a scholar, I'm amazed at some of the "obvious" things I noticed that other scholars are asking about-- but maybe that's the people who speed read through the text. I can't believe how many people I've seen ask who the baby is in King's Cross Station and why it's beyond help. It's the exact same imagery she used in GF to describe Voldermort-- she could have copied and pasted for how similar it seemed.

The one thing I feel like people are really missing is that she is a brilliant business woman. She has not gone from living on welfare to being the richest woman in England by happenstance-- nor by the simple fact that she's written a few good books. She listens to critics, she markets ideas, and she incorporates enough popular culture to make sure her books are selling. Sure, she hopes that they become classics-- she would love to ride the royalty train until she dies, but she has made sure to invest in them while they are hot-- she is making sure they contain components that will sell millions of copies now. Fans are excited she's going to write an encyclopedia about the characters, non-fans think she is beating a dead horse, others think she's just looking to make a buck-- She's created immediacy-- people have to know what is happening to these characters. People have to know more than Harry married Ginny and they had 3 kids. Maybe it will be overkill, but it will add to her fortune, and enough people will love it. Is it the best literary move, who knows-- does it encroach on the idea of a writerly work instead of a readerly work-- yes. The point is, she's attached to Harry, and she's having difficulty, like many of her fans, letting go-- and so she's going to make a few more millions off of the letting go process. Like I said, she's a brilliant business woman.

Not Ready

I am not ready for fall. I do not like all of the back to school commercials. The chick who does the Art Van commercials who says Back to School are parent's 3 favorite words does not know me.

Don't misunderstand me. I like my job. I love teaching. I'm just not ready. I still have so many things on my summer project to-do list, and now I'm being reminded that I have to create my fall to-do list, and I'm not ready to do that. It is still July-- can't I cling to summer at least for one more week?

Yesterday I had meetings on campus-- That made me realize how much I have to do. I'm thinking about mixing up my syllabus this fall, which means I need to review textbooks, and if I'm going to do that, I should have ordered them weeks ago, which of course I didn't do. But, my students seem to like the books I use, so that makes me want to keep things sort of the same-- why mess up something that works-- although I would like to make sure I'm keeping things fresh. But, I don't want to reinvent the wheel-- I need to be finishing my disseration. I think I need to come up with a couple of new, good assignments-- then it would seem fresh... hmmm...

Deathly Hallows

Spoilers Ahead.

I liked book 7-- It has its cheesy moments, but one cannot forget that her largest following is children, and there are certain "must haves" for them. I do most of my analysis thinking for young adults-- and I think that many young adult readers are going to find some of her must haves a little cheesy as well, but she is trying to appeal to an audience age range that is incredibly broad. I could also argue that theorists, like CS Lewis, say that authors should write without thinking about audience-- they should write what they want to say-- and I agree with that. Also, when you consider the idea of the death of the audience, that implies the story needs to go where the story needs to go, without consideration of the author's feelings-- and to that I also agree-- which is why I think the moments when Rowling forces the story to meet the must haves, it gets a little cheesy, but I don't fault the woman for doing it-- I don't know that I would want letters from parents telling me that I'd scared their child for life by killing off their hero.

So-- I'm glad she took the story where it needed to go-- I'm glad she followed all of the gothic tendencies that she's put in the book and she made Harry a horcrux-- I thought it was an important must have, that for Voldermort to die, the piece that lived inside Harry had to die. As a fan, I'm glad that she used the Elder wand to kill the piece of Voldermort without killing Harry. It made the story more complex and interesting to know that these complicated levels of magic that most people didn't know did exist.

I liked the talking/message bearing Patronus-- I think she borrowed that from Pullman's witches-- their deamons could go away from them and carry messages-- this is a way a piece of Rowling's witches and wizards can send themselves places.

For me, the book had a apocalyptic type of feel-- it almost felt like the Left Behind books-- there's a small remnant of chosen people who will fight and be victorious, even though the odds are against them.

Anyway, I enjoyed it-- I'm both sad and glad that it's over. I'm interested to see what happens to the fan culture now-- if they will continue to write fan fiction that fills in the 19 years between the end of the story and the epilogue, or if that will have finished it off-- I'm curious to know if Rowling will be badgered into writing another book--which I don't think will meet up the the regular series standards-- who's Harry's opponent going to be-- Draco? And a story about a kid who has been a hero trying to make a normal life for himself isn't going to ring true-- it will be cheesy. So, I'm interested to see.

FYI-- my favorite line from the book "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH" (736).

Censorship

When is censorship ok? Should people be responsible to self-censor? If we're always concerned with self-censoring does that limit our freedom of speech?

I think my response to both the second 2 questions is yes. People self-censor all of the time. They do it at work, with people they don't know, at job interviews-- so why shouldn't they do it when they are writing-- at least for publication.

More later.

Order of the Phoenix

I finally got to see Order of the Phoenix last night. It was interesting-- this is the first time I've reread the book right before going to see the film, and I finished 5 again Sat night and then saw the movie last night. usually i see the film and then go back and check out the book-- I liked doing it in reverse, although I wonder if it took out some of the enjoyment of the movie-- even as I was telling my husband some of the things they left out, i realized why most of them were gone-- special effects, budget, non-essential elements of the story-- and then there were some things that seem like it would have taken no effort to have left them in... Plus, I can't help but wonder how the film, especially some of the changed ending statements, will fit in with book 7-- Does Rowling make them change things that wouldn't be true to the books? Overall though, I think the new director did a good job.

Fan vs Academic

I'm a fan of Harry Potter. I like reading the books. I like watching the movies. I like to make assumptions on my own. I do not like to engage in debates about what is going to happen-- I enjoy hearing theory, but I like to see how the stories unfold and see if my ideas were at all correctly induced.

As an academic who looks at media-- I feel like I should at least lurk on all of these debates. I should see how people are behaving. I should distance myself from what I think and listen to what everyone else thinks. It's much harder to do this summer than I thought it would be.

I am curious to see where Rowling is going to take us next week. I think she has a lot of possibilities, and I think it will be interesting to see which things she takes into consideration. If she's being loyal to her child audience, Harry will not die-- she will want good to triumph without punishment. If she is loyal to her gothic tendencies, then Harry will be the final horcrux, which would be the ultimate in doubling of the abject, and he's toast. There's a reason that people are making predictions and wondering what will happen. There's also a reason there's proof for all of this-- Rowling is more clever than people often give her credit for-- she has left herself multiple pathways for getting out of this maze-- which one will she take?

the writing process

I think the writing process is an interesting concept. We teach students to remember that writing is a process-- that it's not supposed to happen in one afternoon-- that you want to brainstorm and then write and then think about it and revise and rewrite. And when you're doing professional writing, you can revise something forever. The thing no one says about the process is how inprecise it is. I seem to have days where I can really write-- I can produce text on a page. Then I have other days where I can't focus the swirling thoughts in my head for anything. I really appreciate the days I can write. And I am thankful for deadlines, because they keep me motivated to keep writing even if I might have met my personal goal for the day.

Motherhood

I love being a mom. I don't say that with the everyone should be a mom attitude-- because I know that it's not for everyone. There was a time when I wasn't sure that it was for me. And there are times now, when I'm writing and my daughter wakes up and it doesn't matter that I'm in the middle of a good thought and then it takes me forever to find that thought again, that I wish she would do things a little bit more my way. But, I really appreciate the perspective she brings to life. She laughs so easily. She finds adventure in such simple things. Today she has been walking around the house with a green plastic bowl on her head. And she is so proud of herself that she can put it on her head and take it off her head all by herself. Being a mom is great. It reminds me to reward small accomplishments-- like maybe picking back up where I left off when she woke up for lunch.

Holistic Doctor

I've started taking my daughter to a holistic doctor. I think I'm liking the results, but the suppliments he's prescribed seem to be interfering with her sleep. This isn't working so well for me. I need my sleep at night, and I need her to nap during the day so that I can work on my dissertation. She had started wheezing, and I didn't want to take her to the regular doctor, because I didn't want her to get put on steroids. The holistic doctor says she has an oat sensitivity, so no more cheerios. We're surviving through that-- although I miss making us pancakes in the morning-- and I can't make them for myself and not for her. That would just be cruel. Right now I'm listening to her move around in her bed, not sleeping, and I wonder, is it the lack of oat, or is it the idiots who keep shooting off noisy firecrackers that don't do anything but boom.