Confessions of a Harry Potter Maniac

by Carrie Pålsson

I'm one of the original Harry Potter fans--one of the people who loved Harry Potter before he became a household name.

It started innocently enough. I was browsing through my crummy little local bookstore, hoping against hope that they would have something new and exciting. It was a "hip" place, which meant they sold a lot of tarot cards and astrology guide books. Not my style, but in a town with one bookstore I didn't have a lot of choice when I wanted old fashioned browsing that didn't involve pointing and clicking.

That's when I saw it. A boy on a broomstick. It was a hardback and I generally don't buy hardback books by unknown authors, but the jacket text was intriguing and the price was relatively low so I shrugged my shoulders and bought it. Did I mention that I'm a compulsive book buyer?

I went home and opened the cover. I was immediately transported to a place I'd never heard of before. It seems impossible, but I entered Hogwarts unsullied by the modern obsession with the place. I had only my imagination to show me Hogwart's Express, Diagon Alley and Privet #4.

I finished an hour later and ran up the stairs to share the book with my librarian roommate. She emerged an hour later with plans to indoctrinate her middle school library with Harry mania before such a thing even existed.

I posted on my fantasy book message board, extolling the virtues of the young wizard and his friends. We all agreed it was one of the most fun books we'd ever read. It might not be high literature, but who cares?

Within a matter of weeks I was hearing about Harry on the news. My high school students were excited about reading, but only if the book featured Quidditch. The conservative Christians were up in arms. The movie talk began.

Ah, the movie talk. As an avid reader I'm always hesitant to see a beloved book come to life on the big screen. Sure, they got it right with Anne of Green Gables, but that was a very isolated incident. The doubting questions raced through my mind: how could they do it? How could it not be fakey and hokey and all things bad?

That didn't stop me from plastering my body the cinema's doors an hour before the tickets went on sale, trying to scope out how many people I would be fighting against. I was living in a tiny town, but the line swelled by the minute. I managed to get excellent seats for a group of 10 adults, all of us childless people who looked around at all the kids dressed as witches and whispered our displeasure at their noise levels. Harry Potter was for us!

The movie played out and I was thrilled but disappointed. It was fun to see Hogwarts come to life, but something about the movie made me unable to suspend disbelief. The suspension of disbelief is a critical element in my enjoyment of fictional worlds. Other people worried about the slightly bad acting and the deviations from the book. I was annoyed that a bunch of 10 year olds could supposedly out-wit a master mind of evil right under the noses of several experienced, smart adult wizards. I kept poking my husband in the ribs and asking him how they expected us to believe that a school could function with 1000 students and 10 teachers. I'm too practical for my own good. I can easily suspend disbelief when I read a book. When it's larger than life on the silver screen I begin to doubt.

The second movie came along and I wasn't at the box office an hour before tickets went on sale. In fact, I forgot all about it and only remembered two hours later! Terrible, isn't it? The lines were shorter and we survived with only slightly-less-than-stellar seats. The movie was fun but that little niggling doubt was in my head again. "Yeah right, like those kids could ever do that." Was I losing the magic of youth? Had I become a crotchety old adult? The horrors!

As you can guess, this all leads up to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkahban. My husband and I didn't buy advance tickets. We had no real desire to fight with a crowd at a first showing. We showed up a day late, a half hour before show time and asked if tickets were available. They were, so we watched.

Wow. Stunning. Amazing. Grim. Dark. Fantastic.

I loved it! I adored it! It's the first Harry Potter movie that I've wanted to see again immediately. Sure, there was a lot of deviation from the book and one key plot point that really needed to be addressed, but everything else was just spectacular.

The brilliant humor of J. K. Rowling's world shone through with all the small details Alfonso Cuaron sprinkled throughout the movie. I don't know if I'm an age snob and appreciated teen witches and warlocks instead of little kids, or if the acting was simply better, but I was actually able to believe everything that was happening. The sets no longer felt like a big, shiny gingerbread house. A layer of grime settled over everything, lending it a much more real feel.

It's been a long time since I first discovered Harry Potter. I was growing apathetic, but the new movie has upped my excitement levels a few notches. Now I'm back to playing the waiting game. When will we see the elusive book six? Will movie four be divided into two parts? What's going to happen? I must find out or I shall burst!