loftily.livejournal.com/98609.html
Everyone I'm still friends with in fandom seems to hate Book 5, but it's still resolutely my favorite and it always will be. Part of it may be circumstance: it was the first new book to come out when I was into HP .................. Part of it is my own love of canon details, since I'm convinced OotP gave us the best ones—thestrals, the Room of Requirement, the House of Black, Occlumency, what-have-you. Also, despite all the proclamations about OotP being the death of H/D, I think I love the difficult, struggling fics that emerged after OotP the most, sometimes. I still love angry adolescent Harry. I still love Sirius and all the hints about Pureblood history and the extent of the Wizarding World that are revealed through him. Perhaps I just love that things get so much more complicated in OotP, where, to quote Sirius, the world isn't divided into good people and Death Eaters, and Harry has to deal with all kinds of shades of gray. Half the book, his enemies aren't even Death Eaters or Voldemort, they're his school administration and his government. To me, it's the moment where JKR takes the step from making this a simplistic good vs. evil fight, which would be a cop-out, and complicates things a bit. This isn't a struggle that just happens in an imaginary magical realm, it's a struggle all her readers could potentially identify with or experience.
Maybe OotP isn't the most action-focused book, or the one with the most character growth, but I think it expands the world the most—the depth of the war we realize they're going to have to fight, the extent of the Wizarding World's history, the complications of declaring people simply good or evil, all of it. There are criticisms that this expansion is too much, but I don't care, it's exactly what I wanted. And it's the book that has the most explicitly stated views on house unity within Hogwarts and magical unity within the world, and while I don't agree with how JKR resolved those things, it still means a lot to me that she gestured to them. In short, I could be wrong, but I feel like OotP is the direct cause or root of Lightning on the Wave's The Sacrifices Arc, aka Connor Potter, ...................................................
03. What house would you be in?
The obvious answer is Ravenclaw. Sometimes I feel like I could be a Slytherin, which no one would agree with because I never let anyone see those parts of me. I am definitely not a Gryffindor, and while I wouldn't mind being a Hufflepuff, I don't actually think I'm all that loyal, when it comes down to inherent qualities. I don't talk about this question very much, because I don't really like my answers, but I think it's true.
For all the fics that have touched me that I've remembered, laughed over, posted their titles in Aja's revival post last year, there are probably ten that I've read that have touched me in ways I won't remember but will always be grateful for. I still get breathless with joy over the really good ones, the ones I want to hold close and re-read forever, the ones whose writing and canon characterization win me over completely. But I also still get tears in my eyes when I think the phrase "You made my life a little less pointless", and I still smile fondly and sad-nostalgically over things like Protective Bonds, and I still think happily of the days I spent on
"Wangoballwithme?" Potter Stinks.
11. Character you're crushing on.
I don't know how to take this question! I don't want to steal Aja's answer, but I really do just adore Cho, in this way I can't explain. I can't understand why I love her so much. Is it because the first HP fic I ever read was about her, though I didn't plan it that way or even know who she was at the time? Is it because she's Asian? Is it because I loathe Ginny as a partner for Harry and think even Cho would be better? Is it because of Nocturne Alley? Is it because of Katie Leung's adorable accent? I don't know, but girl, whatever it is, it's working.
20. A favorite quote?
I don't know what this means. "Scared, Potter?" is a good one. If............................................... But really, I just want to say this:
"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."
That's J.K. Rowling, at Harvard's graduation in 2008. The
In my Pop Culture class, we talk a lot about how people make meaning (and community) through pop culture, rather than simply being affected by pop culture. How media mediate human relationships.
Back in 2007, that summer that felt like the end of an era, I wrote this: "To me, Harry Potter is about magic, and the magic of love, and the magic of imagination. It's about the powers we all have, and what we can do with them . . . .
"I'm not saying that the books and what fandom has created are the same thing to me, or have the same meaning, or the same importance, or that I confuse the two—but they've both impacted me, in these past five years, and both of them will stick with me. And I want them to. I want to put a Permanent Sticking Charm on all of these things, and fix them in my mind forever, because it's important, the way literature, and people, and loving both of these, can transform us—can make us stronger and more of ourselves.
So when I say I love Harry Potter, that's what I mean, more or less."
I hope that's always true.
Everyone I'm still friends with in fandom seems to hate Book 5, but it's still resolutely my favorite and it always will be. Part of it may be circumstance: it was the first new book to come out when I was into HP .................. Part of it is my own love of canon details, since I'm convinced OotP gave us the best ones—thestrals, the Room of Requirement, the House of Black, Occlumency, what-have-you. Also, despite all the proclamations about OotP being the death of H/D, I think I love the difficult, struggling fics that emerged after OotP the most, sometimes. I still love angry adolescent Harry. I still love Sirius and all the hints about Pureblood history and the extent of the Wizarding World that are revealed through him. Perhaps I just love that things get so much more complicated in OotP, where, to quote Sirius, the world isn't divided into good people and Death Eaters, and Harry has to deal with all kinds of shades of gray. Half the book, his enemies aren't even Death Eaters or Voldemort, they're his school administration and his government. To me, it's the moment where JKR takes the step from making this a simplistic good vs. evil fight, which would be a cop-out, and complicates things a bit. This isn't a struggle that just happens in an imaginary magical realm, it's a struggle all her readers could potentially identify with or experience.
Maybe OotP isn't the most action-focused book, or the one with the most character growth, but I think it expands the world the most—the depth of the war we realize they're going to have to fight, the extent of the Wizarding World's history, the complications of declaring people simply good or evil, all of it. There are criticisms that this expansion is too much, but I don't care, it's exactly what I wanted. And it's the book that has the most explicitly stated views on house unity within Hogwarts and magical unity within the world, and while I don't agree with how JKR resolved those things, it still means a lot to me that she gestured to them. In short, I could be wrong, but I feel like OotP is the direct cause or root of Lightning on the Wave's The Sacrifices Arc, aka Connor Potter, ...................................................
03. What house would you be in?
The obvious answer is Ravenclaw. Sometimes I feel like I could be a Slytherin, which no one would agree with because I never let anyone see those parts of me. I am definitely not a Gryffindor, and while I wouldn't mind being a Hufflepuff, I don't actually think I'm all that loyal, when it comes down to inherent qualities. I don't talk about this question very much, because I don't really like my answers, but I think it's true.
For all the fics that have touched me that I've remembered, laughed over, posted their titles in Aja's revival post last year, there are probably ten that I've read that have touched me in ways I won't remember but will always be grateful for. I still get breathless with joy over the really good ones, the ones I want to hold close and re-read forever, the ones whose writing and canon characterization win me over completely. But I also still get tears in my eyes when I think the phrase "You made my life a little less pointless", and I still smile fondly and sad-nostalgically over things like Protective Bonds, and I still think happily of the days I spent on
"Wangoballwithme?" Potter Stinks.
11. Character you're crushing on.
I don't know how to take this question! I don't want to steal Aja's answer, but I really do just adore Cho, in this way I can't explain. I can't understand why I love her so much. Is it because the first HP fic I ever read was about her, though I didn't plan it that way or even know who she was at the time? Is it because she's Asian? Is it because I loathe Ginny as a partner for Harry and think even Cho would be better? Is it because of Nocturne Alley? Is it because of Katie Leung's adorable accent? I don't know, but girl, whatever it is, it's working.
20. A favorite quote?
I don't know what this means. "Scared, Potter?" is a good one. If............................................... But really, I just want to say this:
"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."
That's J.K. Rowling, at Harvard's graduation in 2008. The
In my Pop Culture class, we talk a lot about how people make meaning (and community) through pop culture, rather than simply being affected by pop culture. How media mediate human relationships.
Back in 2007, that summer that felt like the end of an era, I wrote this: "To me, Harry Potter is about magic, and the magic of love, and the magic of imagination. It's about the powers we all have, and what we can do with them . . . .
"I'm not saying that the books and what fandom has created are the same thing to me, or have the same meaning, or the same importance, or that I confuse the two—but they've both impacted me, in these past five years, and both of them will stick with me. And I want them to. I want to put a Permanent Sticking Charm on all of these things, and fix them in my mind forever, because it's important, the way literature, and people, and loving both of these, can transform us—can make us stronger and more of ourselves.
So when I say I love Harry Potter, that's what I mean, more or less."
I hope that's always true.