Post Potter Depression
Alright, I am breaking my comment break, because I just finished the last of the Harry Potter books and I am so surprised by my sense of loss that who can you turn to--but the world outside?
I am not going to even mention a single thing about the inside of the book--so if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I will NOT RUIN A DANG THING for you. I was so paranoid about being told anything about it. When I was walking into a crowded bookstore a month ago, a couple in front of me started talking. The woman asked her friend, "Did you read the last Harry Potter book?" And he replied yes he had. I heard her say, "There's something that confused me..." and I IMMEDIATELY PLUGGED MY EARS and started HUMMING. I probably looked like a lunatic, but this is New York City, so luckily lunatics are a dime a dozen.
I will say, that while I have enjoyed the Harry Potter series tremendously, I haven't been OBSESSED with it. My friend Rico who runs a bookstore had SOBBING and SHAKING people show up at his store at 11:58 the night the book was coming out. I am not of that ilk--I could wait. I actually, I could wait because I hadn't read the book before it yet. Once I got through the Half-Blood Prince, I could see why people were clamoring for this book. It had quite a cliff hanger. Yet, still I didn't see my life having been shaped in anyway by HP.
This weekend, I literally stayed up until midnight and read the last 250 pages. Graham had long since gone to bed. When I was done I called my folks in Canada and was able to at least bond with them over the book. Graham, who's pleasure reading is a history of the Pentagon, has had no interest whatsoever in HP, and often looks at me like I have LOST IT when I try to share some exciting little tidbit of the storyline. So, it was good to spill my guts to two fellow readers, who had sent me the book in the first place. I just kept saying. "I feel so sad. It's weird. I didn't expect to feel this way." And Pam, who long ago had her upper lip permanently stiffened (God Bless her British Colombian self), said quietly, "I know exactly what you mean. I felt at a loss too. I didn't know what to do with it."
And when I hung up, I sat in the living room and ate a bowl of cereal, just thinking about it all. It was strangely quiet in the neighborhood. I kept thinking, "Now what?" As if my whole life had been heading towards this goal. I thought about the reality of JK Rowling--how she sat down and created this world we all came to be submerge in and I realized that I never once thought of her, as I read these books--which is its own kind of magic. When I went to bed, I just kept thinking thank you. Thank you, for your great effort.
I am not going to even mention a single thing about the inside of the book--so if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I will NOT RUIN A DANG THING for you. I was so paranoid about being told anything about it. When I was walking into a crowded bookstore a month ago, a couple in front of me started talking. The woman asked her friend, "Did you read the last Harry Potter book?" And he replied yes he had. I heard her say, "There's something that confused me..." and I IMMEDIATELY PLUGGED MY EARS and started HUMMING. I probably looked like a lunatic, but this is New York City, so luckily lunatics are a dime a dozen.
I will say, that while I have enjoyed the Harry Potter series tremendously, I haven't been OBSESSED with it. My friend Rico who runs a bookstore had SOBBING and SHAKING people show up at his store at 11:58 the night the book was coming out. I am not of that ilk--I could wait. I actually, I could wait because I hadn't read the book before it yet. Once I got through the Half-Blood Prince, I could see why people were clamoring for this book. It had quite a cliff hanger. Yet, still I didn't see my life having been shaped in anyway by HP.
This weekend, I literally stayed up until midnight and read the last 250 pages. Graham had long since gone to bed. When I was done I called my folks in Canada and was able to at least bond with them over the book. Graham, who's pleasure reading is a history of the Pentagon, has had no interest whatsoever in HP, and often looks at me like I have LOST IT when I try to share some exciting little tidbit of the storyline. So, it was good to spill my guts to two fellow readers, who had sent me the book in the first place. I just kept saying. "I feel so sad. It's weird. I didn't expect to feel this way." And Pam, who long ago had her upper lip permanently stiffened (God Bless her British Colombian self), said quietly, "I know exactly what you mean. I felt at a loss too. I didn't know what to do with it."
And when I hung up, I sat in the living room and ate a bowl of cereal, just thinking about it all. It was strangely quiet in the neighborhood. I kept thinking, "Now what?" As if my whole life had been heading towards this goal. I thought about the reality of JK Rowling--how she sat down and created this world we all came to be submerge in and I realized that I never once thought of her, as I read these books--which is its own kind of magic. When I went to bed, I just kept thinking thank you. Thank you, for your great effort.
posted by Summer Pierre at
11:04 AM
5 Comments:
I'm a closet HP fan too. I was mortified when the book arrived at my door with a big Harry Potter label on the packaging, thinking it would be wrapped in plain, brown, nondescript paper. I mean, what's the point of having an 'adult' version, with a subtle, non-childlike cover, when the postman still hands you the package with a silly grin on his face?
If you find yourself suffering, you could always head on over to www.schnoogle.com, and check out the millions of Potter fanfiction novels and stories. Or is that obsessing just a little too much?
I am so with you, Summer. When I finished the last book I felt elated and deflated all at once. I loved how she pulled it all together in the Deathly Hallows, and although I am not quite so die-hard about HP, either, I enjoyed the anticipation all over the globe that surrounded the launch of each of her books. I guess now there are still the movies to look forward to; although they never quite capture all the delicious details of the books I have enjoyed those, too.
By the way, I have considered turning off comments in the past but in the end decided against it because I like receiving them, and without them I would feel too isolated, if that makes sense. Perhaps if I got 100s and 1000s I would reconsider, but that is not likely to ever happen. And although I don't leave too many comments here these days I am still a faithful reader :)
I felt/feel that way when i got done with marathon watching via Netflix of Six Feet Under...One's life does normalize however.
I was the same way after HP. However, I am a non-closeted fan, I even made Dumbledore's Army t-shirts because I loved book 6 so much and I have read them all many times (I like to start at the beginning when a new one comes out, it has gotten rather time consuming with the last couple). I'm not such a crazed fan that I write fanfic or anything but I just enjoyed the magic of the books so much and was so happy that J.K. had created such a wonderful literary world. Life has normalized for me too though.
*melanie from www.meli-mello.com
I'm probably just a crazy HP nut (like Melanie, above, I reread the first six in the weeks leading up to its release), but when I finished book 7 — which, yes, I purchase at midnight the night it was released and read the entire thing the following day, finishing up around 1:00 in the morning — I, too felt such a sudden sense of sadness and loss that I... well, I'm almost ashamed to admit it, really, but I turned right around and started them ALL over again, from book 1. As I said to two of my fellow HP-fan friends, "I'm just not ready to let go yet."
I'm now on Book 5 (this go-round hasn't been nearly as frantically paced), and I'm enjoying the re-read if only because now that I know the full arc of the story, it's kind of like a treasure hunt to find little clues in the earlier books that hint a bit toward things to come.
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