Too Obsessed with Harry Potter
By Natanel
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
(Chapter one, The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/ Sorcerer's Stone)
I'm 18, I've finished high school, I'm going into the Israeli army next March, and I'm way too obsessed with the Harry Potter world. Well, ok, I say way too obsessed - that's what I'm told the whole time. I don't think I'm way too obsessed. Sure, if you read out the first few words of any sentence from any of the first four books, I'd be able to finish it perfectly word-for-word (I'm getting there with the fifth), and ok, I spend hours drawing Harry Potter cartoons, and, yeah, I was yelling so much at the screen at the first showing of the first film ("hey! There aren't supposed to be girls on the Slytherin team!") I was amazed I wasn't chucked out and banned from every single cinema in the country for the rest of eternity... but I don't think that's too obsessed. More…erm…interested than some...than most even, but what's wrong with having an interest? And anyways, "too obsessed" sounds like there's something wrong with it...maybe even dangerous (unfortunately, it's not contagious. If it were, I'd have a much easier time).
The Harry Potter world has done me lot of good. Drawing cartoons of the characters really helps me express myself and sort out what I'm feeling, more than anything else I draw, mostly because I know the characters and can relate to them. I got really excited the first time I read the description of Harry, because I've got the ruffled black hair, the bright green eyes and the glasses, so I kind of pictured Harry's smile like mine. Harry's best friend, Ron, is me. He's just…me, there's no other way of describing it. He reminds me so much of myself, it's scary. Like when I got my first broken heart, (which lasted me two years), as well as writing it in full detail in my diary, I wrote a short Harry Potter story, where the exact same thing happens, only I'm Ron, the girl in question is Hermione and my best friend, who she had a crush on while I fell for her, was Harry, and it all took place in the Hogwarts grounds. It helped clear a lot of things up that way, more than anything else at the time.
My room is plastered in Harry Potter posters I drew and sent to struggling fan websites, who needed a minimum amount of artwork to stay online (or so they said…I was happy to lend a hand, anyway, even if they're in fact selling them for millions in the Cuban black market or something). It's the one thing I can draw and let my mind wander at the same time without having to worry about planning it. And besides, like every other teenager in the world, I just want to be loved and can sometimes get a bit depressed. My ideal girlfriend would be 60% Hermione, 30% Ginny Weasley and 10% Luna Lovegood. Just purely because of their personalities. Drawing them always puts a smile on my face.
I just don't get why people can't just let me enjoy it.
"Grow up," "Get a life" "Snap out of it" "You're 18, man!" "Why don't you draw some secret agents or blood or crime scenes?" and blah blah blah blah blah…. I got that from the guys in my class a lot. They saw it as a kind of disease they had to cure me from. And I don't like crime scenes or blood or ninja moves and huge complicated guns that can spear a man with ninety seven kinds of bullets at the same time while chopping his head off and blasting his insides with tickling gas or whatever. I like being a kid. I like being sensitive and I like being me. I like cartoons, I like quiet things, and I like liking what I like. And because a lot of Harry Potter is right up my street, I feel I can relate to it and I love it.
But I'm not even talking about that. One complete stranger saw me drawing, and sat me down once and started throwing quotes from the Zohar for two and a half hours about how Harry Potter is the root of all evil in this world and how destructive and harmful it is. He wouldn't let me get a word in. Eventually I managed to ask if he actually read the books. He said he saw two minutes of the first movie and that was enough for him. Then he asked me for my name and my mother's name. He was seriously going to pray for my mental and (undoubtedly) my spiritual health. I begged him not to. It really creeped me out.
People have been throwing all kinds of warning from famous rabbis about how the Harry Potter books should be strictly forbidden because of a million things that are dangerous about them. I've even been told to stay away from the books because apparently Professor Snape's Potions class can "seriously encourage today's youth to take drugs". Yeesh! Talk about 'don't let your kids watch Telletubbies because they'll go and surgically transplant a screen on their stomachs!...'
A lot of the people around me (except my family) just can't seem to let me enjoy the good in it. And it's not like there's bad in it, either. It's a perfectly innocent, brilliant, hilarious children's book serious, not meant to brainwash anyone into believing anything, trying anything or doing anything illegal or strange. So, yeah, I sometimes I whip out a pen from my pocket and call "Accio remote" when it's lying in the far corner of the room and I don't feel like getting up, or whispering "Alohomora" when the bathroom door's locked and I'd really really rather it wasn't… where's the harm in that? What's wrong with greeting the cats in the street with "My dear Professor McGonagall I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."?
It's not real. I'm not mentally deranged. I don't truly believe that the car I'm learning to drive in will really fly off into the clouds if I just change into the right gear - I just throw in these small things to make life more fun.
I'm happy with who I am, and what I like. I don't think there's anything wrong with not liking violence and crime and instead throwing a funny quote from Fred and George or Luna Lovegood if it brings a smile to someone's face. I don't see any contradiction between being a happy Harry Potter fan and being a good Jew or a good Israeli or a good person. I like drawing, I like writing, and whatever anyone else might think of me, as far as I'm concerned I, Netanel Epstein, of number 80 Meginei Hagush street, am perfectly normal, thank you very much.
Mischief managed.
PS - the Harry Potter drawings I sent to the internet are at www.geocities.com/athp_2002b/fanart2.html It's the stuff under the "Nats" section.
Write to Natanel at write@ttt.org.il
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