Wondering about something

[nico1908]

On my way home for lunch the question popped into my head why so many adults (myself included) were/are so enchanted by Harry Potter.

I don't know why you care about Harry, but to me, he speaks to the child in me that in fifth grade, when I was eleven, just like Harry at the beginning of the series, looked at her mother and her brother one day and concluded that she must have been adopted because she couldn't understand how the people she called family could make her feel so insignificant and unwanted. To me, Harry represents the idea of rescue, the hope that our real family is somewhere out there. And he reminds me that the family doesn't necessarily choose the child. At some point the child also needs to choose the family.

Comments

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

I initially was hooked on the writing itself - JKR really knows how to get readers to keep turning the page. But once I discovered fanfic (H/D in particular), I became obsessed with finding subtext alluding to the attraction between Harry and Draco. And now I can't read the books without that added fanon dimension.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

While I'm not a die-hard fan, I did enjoy them quite enough to both read and watch the whole series. I think I relate somewhat to your own reasons. I always liked to think that my -real- family was out there somewhere and that they would acknowledge my being in the way I wanted acknowledgement. My own family was not much like Harry's (they were more smothering), but nonetheless the thought of a new, different, and magical 'family of choice' appealed to me greatly as a kid and the appeal remains for grownup!me. I almost shudder to think what might have happened if I'd been a kid when the books were published...I think my longing for such a place might have been intolerable. ^_^