It started differently for everyone; for me I guess it started in Mrs. Storrey’s grade 3 class. This is where I got my first taste of the wizarding world that J.K. Rowling had created and I haven’t looked back since. To make it clear, this is not a review of the latest Harry Potter movie (I thought the movie was fantastic and a great finale to the series), if you want to read a well-written one, go here. It is simply one fan’s way of giving thanks to a franchise that has been a part of my life for about as long as I can remember. When Mrs. Storrey told us that she’d be reading the first three books in the series out loud to the whole class, I met the news with indifference, after all it was grade 3 and reading wasn’t one of my favourite things to do at time. But as soon as she started telling us the story of Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione and their adventures at Hogwarts, I was hooked. It further helped that she split the class into four groups and made us draw a Hogwarts house out of a hat. I picked for my group and drew Hufflepuff, I’m still not fully over it (no one wants to be in Hufflepuff, doesn’t it seem like Chris Bosh would get sorted there?).
So right away I was fully immersed and captivated by the happenings at Hogwarts. I remember getting the box set for Christmas one year and starting to read the third book (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) right away (Also, for people who have the books, can someone tell me who the person on the back of the first book is? I’ve heard Dumbledore which doesn’t make sense because it doesn't look like him, Hagrid, same goes for him and Gilderoy Lockhart which really makes no sense as he made his first appearance in the second book). When I finished grade 3 I didn’t stop reading the series but rather couldn’t wait for the fourth book (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) which finally arrived in the summer of 2000 (just to continue the NBA players sorting, Lebron James and Kobe Bryant would go to Slytherin, Shane Battier would be in Ravenclaw, Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant would be Gryffindors and Linas Kleiza would most definitely be a squib). I finished reading it in 3 days, devouring the pages as if the winner of the Triwizard Tournament had a personal effect on my life.
I even got to hear JK Rowling read the book at what was then called the Skydome (now Rogers Centre), I remember the large crowd anxiously and restlessly awaiting Rowling, not paying any attention to what Kenneth Oppel (author of the underrated Silverwing, Sunwing, and Firewing books) was saying and I was one of them. Even though I was seated in the nose bleeds (why are they called this? Shouldn’t it be “the eye sores” or something like that?), I was excited to see the woman who had provided me with such joy to that point in my life. In the end she read an excerpt of the first chapter saying that the parts of the books with the Dursleys were her favourites. It was that same winter that the first Harry Potter movie was released on November 16 which just happens to be two days before my birthday. Naturally I decided to have my birthday party at the movies to see my favourite book series come to life (All of the movies have been entertaining with varying levels of faithfulness to the books. Why does Voldemort have a nose in the first movie though? My favourites of the movies are The Prisoner of Azkaban, The Half-Blood Prince, and The Deathly Hallows part 1 and 2). The first thing I noticed about the movie was the way Hermione was pronounced, up until the movie I had always pronounced her name Her-Moyn for reasons that are now unclear to me. The second thing was the near perfect casting for all of the characters; could anyone else portray Severus Snape as well as Alan Rickman or Professor McGonagall as well as Maggie Smith has? The three main roles were cast how I imagined them to be so leaving the theatre that night I had no problem with how the book was translated.
Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix was the next book to be released but only after a very long 3 year wait. The book became my favourite of the 5 released to that point because it was Dumbledore’s true coming out party (it also had Dumbledore’s army and the song “Weasley is our King”)... no joke intended there. Ok, maybe a little one (I think that each book is better than the next meaning the 7th is my favourite with the 1st being last). I remember seeing the length of the book (766 pages, the most out of all the Harry Potter books) and not being discouraged but rather feeling excited that I would be able to read for a longer period of time. It was also the first book that felt grown up and more serious. A book that always felt like it was demanding the reader, me, to grow up with it. Sirius’ death (the second worst death in the books in my opinion), Lord Voldemort’s first book where he was fully back, and Dolores Umbridge being a huge bitch all changed the tone of the series, something that was mirrored by how its readers were changing at the time. When Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released in the summer of 2005 I had just finished grade 8 and was getting ready to go into high school. The book was another step forward in maturity for the series and featured the death of my favourite character in the book, Albus Dumbledore (my top 3 are Dumbledore, Snape and Sirius are in some order after him. Ron, Harry, and Hermione are the story so I don’t classify them as characters. I realize that doesn’t make much sense but whatever, moving on). I remember that reading this part in the book resulted in me becoming genuinely shocked and confused, the first time a book had ever made me feel like that (at this point in my life I hadn’t picked up a physics textbook yet, although with physics, the feeling is more anger rather than confusion).
Finally, in the summer of 2007 the seventh and final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released. It was around this time that I was getting ready to go on my summer vacation. I remember going to the airport and being amazed at how many Deathly Hallows novels I was looking at, nearly everyone waiting for their airplane that day was reading the same thing I was, the conclusion of the Harry Potter series. Me, I remember taking the most time reading the last book out of any in the series. I think it’s because I wanted to savour the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen or maybe it’s because I wanted to prolong the time I had with the characters that had been a part of my life for so long. Either way, when I finished the book the feeling that was most predominantly felt as I am sure it was to most of you was bittersweet. Although the book and the series ended on a great note, I felt sadness in knowing that there wasn’t going to be a new one that I could look forward to.
So why did I just spend over 1000 words describing my history with the Harry Potter franchise? With the eighth and final movie being released 9 days ago, this is really the end and for that reason I felt I needed to put in words how much the series meant to me as a kid growing up and how much it still means to me now. They will always be my favourite books, there are certainly better written books out there and books with more importance but no other books grew up with me as I grew up with them. No other series of books will ever change their tone and content in a seemingly linear fashion with the changes I experienced as a kid and then a teenager and finally as a young adult (or do you have to be 20 to be considered an adult?). Maybe the only reason I feel this way is because the ages at which I read the books fit well with the timeline of the novels, but in the end it doesn’t really matter because I’m not arguing the merits of the books but rather simply saying thanks. And to all of the Harry Potter fans I encourage you to go back and reread the series from book 1 to 7. Not just because you’ll get to relive the experience while knowing how it’s all going to end allowing you to catch foreshadowing that seems obvious now (Ron asks Lavender “can I see Uranus” in the 4th book, this actually happens) but because in a way you will be reliving your childhood by remembering where you were, and who you were as you first read those pages. I know that in 20 years I will still be reading Harry Potter and when someone asks me “still after all this time?” I’ll reply with: “always.”
Luka Milanovic
@Luka_M91 on twitter
Back of the first book: my guess is Nicolas Flamel
ReplyDeleteWhat house would Jordan have gone to?
Mrs. Storey's grade 3 class was the shit
Kenneth Opel was heavily underrated, I would fire his agent for having him read before J.K. his books are great, and having to read through a chorus of "we want JK" is truly awful.
Ill consider the 5th book to be good only if we ignore nearly 400 pages of nothing
Jordan... Slytherin. You all heard his hall of fame speech. Snaking people left and right.
ReplyDeleteHe's the Voldemort of the league... terrorized defenders and offensive players alike. Haunts them to this day. Most powerful by far in regards to talent or influence (popularity and his businesses). Seemingly immortal, coming back from the dead (out of retirement) to still dominate. People should be afraid to speak his name.... Pippen (Severus Snape) betrayed him and said LeBron is better (But I guess this sort of makes LeBron Harry Potter which definitely doesn't work).
Isnt Lebron Snape?? Makes us all think that he is on the side of evil (Pat Riley=Voldemort) then betrays him just when we all thought it was over (his choke in the finals) This makes Dirk Harry Potter, Terry Ron Weasely and Peja Hermoine
ReplyDeleteThat grade 3 class was the best class I have ever been in. I was drawn into slytherin :D.
ReplyDeleteAlso, A logical explination for him having a nose is: that is (SPOILER) before he kills Bertha Jonkins to make another horcrux, so in theory, in movie one he is more 'whole'
ReplyDeleteP.S. Gryffindor baby ;)
Nosebleeds=high altitude so causes nose to bleed haha.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, after seeing the movie last night, i definitely will be re-reading the books when i return to canada.