What's most important is that this series, these characters, this amazing story has become an integral part of my life. I can define years by which book I was reading at the time. It may sound silly and naive but for me they are more than books, they are friends. They are friends that are always there when I need them. As if they say, well there you are. It's been a while. We've been waiting for you. Each reading reveals hidden passages. Things I may have missed on my previous trips to Hogwarts. Something that makes me pause in my reading and think, surprisingly deeply on the world in which I have encased my childhood.
When the books became movies I was hesitant to be excited. However, now I will always stop on any channel that is playing them. I am only a year older than Daniel Radcliff (Harry) and the same age as Rupert Grint (Ron). Which in essence means I grew up with the cast.
This summer was the final installment of the Harry Potter series on the big screen. My husband, being the supportive wonderful man that he is, took me to see it. I warned him I was going to cry. I did. I utterly and unashamedly sobbed my way through the entire film. The last movie encapsulates the all too real side of the HP series. Death, sadness, and the eternal fight of good versus evil. Pictured with words the deaths of characters in a book are sad. Captured on screen they are horrifyingly real.
As I left the theater with my husband I was still crying. I was crying just as much for the death of my beloved characters and the end of a beautiful series as much as I was crying for the girl who's grandmother gave her the first book. The girl who's mom took her to a midnight release for the second. The girl who devoured the third book in one night. The girl who cherished the fourth. The girl who wept over the fifth. The girl who took the sixth to field hockey camp. The girl who graduated high school with the seventh.
I walked out of the theater weeping for the end of my childhood. There was nothing more to tether the illusion to reality. The final movie was made. The ticket bought and spent. A hour or more later and I left an adult.
Love,
Grace
Ack you nearly made me cry! I was late jumping on the HP bandwagon but I love it so much. My favorite is definitely Sorceror's Stone because it introduces you to that magical, amazing world.
ReplyDeleteI understand how you feel about that part of your childhood being over. When I was in elementary school I loved the American Girl series of books. When we went to the library the girls always ran to those books. My favorites were Kirsten and Samantha and I can still remember my friends' favorites (Amber = Addy, Rachelle = Felicity, Molly = Molly, etc). I remember going to Rachelle's house and playing with her Felicity doll and dressing her up in those beautiful colonial gowns. I got the American Girl cataloge in the mail and every Christmas begged for one of those uber expensive dolls, constantly changing which doll I wanted. I still get the cataloge for some reason, in fact I got it today in the mail. But last year I discovered they are retiring the original girls to make way for new ones. One of the first to retire? My Samantha. It was a bit heartbreaking to go through that cataloge over and over again trying to find her and not being able to. Felicity and Kirsten have been retired as well and Molly and Addy are next. Those books are the reason I love history, the reason I discovered the Dear America series and the American Dreams series, both of which introduced me to so many other novels which led me to Louisa May Alcott in middle school, Phillippa Gregory in high school (which wasn't really appropriate reading material haha) and Jane Austen now. I never really thought about how much those books impacted me but I guess they really did :)
You have turned me on to Harry Potter. I love finding it on TV when ABC Family or whomever is running a marathon. Now if only I read more. Maybe I should read all the books.
ReplyDeleteMatt I didn't read the books until 2 years ago. The Half-Blood Prince movie made me want to read them.
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