Good People and Death Eaters

For those of us in different fandoms across the fictional realm, we think “What could go wrong?” Nothing, right? Fandoms are supposed to be happy places right? No evil?

Libby Ennenga, fellow Potter Geek and author of Muggle’s Marauders Map to Harry Potter, has brought up a sad point. There are people out there called the Harry Potter Association, or the HPA, which is an advocacy group that butts their head in political disputes, social issues, and humanitarian activism. On the surface the HPA doesn’t seem so bad, right? I mean they are just getting involved and taking advantage of their First Amendment Right. 

But the HPA definitely has their Death Eater moments. The HPA doesn’t specify their real motives. They target the Potter Geeks to try and support their movement without really telling them what’s really going one. These Potter Geeks have, what Libby calls, an “itch” to get involved in every Harry Potter related activity possible. So, some of these fans will support the HPA because they are looking for another group that shares the same motives to belong to. 

Don’t at all think that I am blaming the Potter Geeks. I’m not. It’s not their fault for becoming a part of a group without knowing everything because the HPA chooses not to disclose all of their information. Libby even puts pictures from the HPA “movement.” The HPA uses quotes like “What would Dumbledore do?” Well, coming from a Potter Geek, I feel like I have to look into this organization if they’re talking about Dumbledore. I owe it to the fictional Dumbledore. See, how they are manipulating the fans?

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (can you tell it’s my personal favorite?), Sirius Black is talking to Harry at the Order Headquarters and he says, “The world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” (Rowling Chapter 14) 

That in itself should say that there is evil in the world, but that doesn’t mean it’s all evil. There are both light and dark in the real world and the fandom world.

Get Macy to Harry Potter World Operation

I was watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix over Thanksgiving break and I was literally quoting every line before the character actually said it. My Mom actually walked in and asked who I was talking to. Thank you for embarrassing me about the fact that I was talking to fictional characters on a screen that can’t even hear me, Mom. Because it’s not pathetic enough that I was watching these movies alone. Really, I have the thirteen years of watching this movie to thank for my exquisite knowledge of every lick of detail.

(The fact that I’m still re-watching these movies after I know almost single detail about almost every movie, shows you the state I’m in after both the book and movie series has been completed. It’s like I’m in denial that the beloved J.K. Rowling isn’t going to continue the wonderful adventures of Harry Potter.) 

Maybe what I’m trying to do (as I re-watch and quote this movie) is try to experience this movie again like I did in 2007 when it first came out. My best friend and I (also another Potter Geek) waited and waited three hours ahead of time at the midnight premier for this movie. Her mom was there with us because a) we were still and middle school and b) she was secretly obsessing over it too. Shows you how this obsession applies to generations other than the millennium generation. It was glorious. I knew what happened because of reading the books, but seeing it all put into action was like heaven.

So, I’m lying in my bed, watching my beloved Harry Potter on my computer screen as he sneaks Dumbledore’s army into the Room of Requirement and I was let down once I realized that Hogwarts is technically still a fictional place. It may still be fictional in the aspects of magic and flying broomsticks, but Universal Studios has done all the Potter Geeks a favor by making the fictional not so fictional. 

I know there are those skeptics out there that say with a furrowed brow that the phenomenon  travel that has exploded out of Harry Potter will soon come to a close just as my Twilight obsession did. Even researchers say that the tourism based on movies and books is short-lived and will soon fade into the background.* Here’s what I’ve got to say to Roger Riley and all the other Film Tourism experts: Harry Potter does not fit into your theory. Twilight targeted the adolescent girls, where Harry Potter has turned very sensible adults (my best friend’s mom from earlier) into crazed fans. The fact that Harry Potter is so widespread, a part of so many fans’ childhoods, and something that was the first of its kind (not to mention the best series ever, but that’s just my opinion); is the reason why it’s such a long-lasting fandom and the tourism that it stimulates won’t just fade into the background.

The Harry Potter theme park opened in 2010 and I have still not been. I could be strolling along in Hogsmead and fancy a Butterbeer at Three Broomsticks. Then I could take a trip to Diagon Alley to purchase all my school supplies (like a wand that specifically picks me) for my upcoming school year at Hogwarts. I could do all the things that Harry did before he fought He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and saved the wizarding world from dark magic. I could even go out on a limb here and buy an owl at the local pet store that always seems to be crowded, but I don’t think my Mom would be okay with an owl in our house (plus my dog might eat it). Never mind, I don’t think getting a pet owl is a great idea, so scratch that idea. If only I could take a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter where all of this is possible. 

I would have to wait in lines for hours on end for the many attractions that’s offered, you say? I don’t mind. Did I hear that it costs a lot of money? I can save up for it. I will call all the families with small kids that I know and beg them to need a babysitter and hire me for the task. I could add that money to the money I make tutoring and just keep doing it for a while. 

If I beg my sister to join me in this adventure, maybe she’ll pitch in and help the cause. We could even make a road trip out of it and spend the time on the road bonding. Maybe sing a couple lines of Kumbaya. Actually, scratch the road trip because my sister would get so annoyed with me during that long drive to Florida, she might kill me before I have a chance to get inside the park gates. 

New plan: convince parents to plan a vacation to Florida and include the access to the beach and the Harry Potter park. The whole family would like the beach. I only need two days max at the Harry Potter World. They wouldn’t even need to come with me if they didn’t want to join me. Yeah, that proposition will be made ASAP. I’ll keep you posted about the Get Macy to Harry Potter World Operation as soon as there are updates. 

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* Riley, Roger, Dwayne Baker, and Carlton S. Van Doren. “Movie Induced Tourism.” Annals of Tourism Research 25.4 (1998): 919-935. 7 Nov 2013.

Forks Used To Be More Than A Utensil

Remember when everyone and their dog was obsessed with the Twilight series? I read the books so quickly and I was completely enraptured by the plot. Before the most recent movies came out, I tried to go back and re-read the books and I just could not get myself as hooked on Edward and Bella as I once was. And don’t be sitting there at your computer while sipping a hot beverage thinking in denial: “Not me. I was never obsessed with Twilight.” Because there is no shame in enjoying a book series that stimulates arguments between preteen girls over the pros and cons of Jacob and Edward. No shame. Just embrace it. 

I remember during my short-lived obsession with Stephenie Meyer’s vampires, I asked my mother to take me to Forks, Washington (well, I begged her, but that’s more embarrassing on my part). I pleaded the we could take a trip to Seattle and just take a day trip to Forks. I just wanted to see where her sparkling vampires fictionally lived. Because who doesn’t want to believe that there is more to life than the ordinary? My friends in middle school and I would collaborate on travel plans, road trip ideas, other sights to see in the great state of Washington, anything to get us in short driving distance of Forks. Weeks went by and my friends and I still hadn’t persuaded our parents to take a trip to the North Western coast of the United States. 

Eventually, we were stuck. We couldn’t think of even one more sales pitch to the parental units. Nothing. One of us would bring up our travel plans to Forks and then the conversation would stop because none of us had anything new to contribute. After a while, my parents didn’t even listen to me when I brought it up at home. They would (not so subtly) change the subject and that would be all we talked about it for the rest of the night. Then my friends and I (and my parents) just forgot about Forks, Washington altogether. I didn’t hear anymore stories of friends of friends going up to Washington to visit. Forks went back to being a utensil and not this idealized place that I died to go to in my awkward middle school life. 

Which brings me back to my current (and much much longer lived) obsession with Harry Potter. The last masterpiece in Rowling’s magical books came out six (almost seven considering it’s almost 2014) years ago and I still obsess over them. I still have these beautiful dreams of frolicking through Hogwarts like I’m a witch. It has almost been seven years since that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released and people from all around the world are still flocking to Florida to buy a wand and a nice cup of butterbeer. Fellow Potter Geeks journey to England to visit the sights where the movies were filmed. 

For the past three years, I have been hinting to my parents (subtly and not very frequently because that method didn’t work very well with my Forks trip) about the wonders that the Harry Potter World has to offer. For three years, the Harry Potter World has reared its magical head into my conversations in comparison to the Forks trip that last a good month. (No hating on Twilight though. Twilight was a monumental part of my childhood and was the catalyst to my acts of fangirling that takes place today.) 

Now before you Nay-Sayers go and say that this is just a phase and I will soon get bored of trying to convince my parents to splurge on this trip of a lifetime, let me just (respectfully) say that you are very wrong. Twilight was just a series that I have devoted small amount of  time to when I was developing those neurons. Harry Potter has been that series that I read on a rainy day or when I’m bored. I waited (not so patiently) for each of the books to come out and then re-read them as I waited for the next one. When I need a little pick me up, I watch the movies. Harry Potter is a part of my childhood and so many other Potter Geeks because it’s been with us since 1997.

I have been talking to friends who have been lucky enough to experience all of it. The theme park, the European tours, the wand shop, the butterbeer, they’ve experienced everything. I even talk to people about their upcoming trips to the Harry Potter World. Would it be weird if I asked them to take me along? No? Okay. Perfect. Maybe if I’m lucky, you can come too!