HP meme: how & why did you become a fan?

[elanor_x]

A discussion on deathtocapslock made me think about the topic -how people become fans, in particular fans of HP. In PS it takes so much time just to reach the school & until that I found the book incredibly boring. As sistermagpie noted: "We know Harry's special from page 2, so there's no suspense waiting for him to catch up. I remember thinking that if he didn't just open one of those letters soon I was going to scream." But why did she, me & countless other people continued to read the book? I read the CoS first (after the first 4 books were already published) & it has been my favorite ever since, so I already liked very much the second book & wanted to like the first too. What about other people? Did they watch the movies first? Were the books recommended by friends? How much were they influenced by the advertising campaign? I am really curious.

Please, tell how & when you became fans. What exactly to you like in HP books? What is your favorite book & why?

My answers: one boy in my class read HP, so I decided to look at the books in the library. Luckily, the first book wasn't at that moment & I took the CoS instead (the beginning of the PS probably would make me not to read the books at all). Btw, the first movie I watched was the CoS too!

Fun fact (if somebody is interested): I usually don't go to the cinema [sometimes watch TV at home] & so far went there in Israel 3 times- each time for a HP movie.

My favorite book: the CoS.

Why? HP books attract me solely as adventure, coming of age story (that's why I can't feel the attractiveness of shipping, let alone of shipping wars!). In this book the pace is quick; Tom Riddle doesn't look like an idiot & is blessedly free from D's interpretation and JKR's 'development'; Harry is small, likable CAPSLOCK-FREE boy (who is yet so small that his mistakes are forgivable & don't make him look like an idiot unlike in the more advanced books) & there is no shipping (I even found the jealous Ron subplot tiring in GoF). Also, our heroes fortunately haven't grown up enough yet to inherit slaves, blackmail this hilariously falling apart Rita, hex people for fun or talk about SPEW. Do I really need more reasons?

Comments

[teratologist.livejournal.com]

I was avoiding the series altogether until sometime after GoF came out. I was staying with a friend in New Jersey and she had the first four books, and out of vague curiousity I picked up the first book and started flipping through it. Now, it's not that the first few chapters weren't predictable - but I've read a lot of YA fantasy, and the first few chapters were so predictable that they were almost comforting. So I was interested, and when everybody else went to bed I sat up and read it.

When the sun came up in the morning I had finished GoF. I wasn't good for much else that day.

I think what made me a 'fan' in the sense of 'wanting to get involved in fandom' were the imperfections - I nearly always end up rooting for a villain when I read, and since Rowling had (I assume inadvertantly) made Snape and to a lesser degree Team Malfoy and the Slytherin students so very understandable and sympathetic (in the 'I can understand their motivations' sense, not the 'I agree with everything they do' sense), I was very fond of them right off the bat. Also, no matter what I'm reading I like meta better than I like canon so getting into fandom was a must in that regard. At first I was reading the Salon message boards and well - that was kind of scary. You know those middle-aged women who think that Snape is Mr. Darcy who the average F_Wer sneers at and who none of us have ever met? They all used to hang out over at Salon. I had nothing in common with them. When I stumbled on JF I liked the spirit of taking on that sort of fanon with a skeptical air - I didn't know at the time what it would become - but it was through F_W that I met ataniell and jollity, and later sistermagpie, and that's what a nice girl like me is doing here.

[t0ra-chan.livejournal.com]

Well, I wasn't interested in the books at first. Even after my friend dragged me into the first movie I wasn't motivated enough to pick up the books. It was only when I had a 13 hour train ride in front of me that I borrowed the first two books and read them in a matter of hours. I immediately asked for the next one when I got home.

I retrospect have to say that CoS is my favorite too. The characters are still likable and not so dumb as they are in later books, no stupid romance and long parts with no Hermione in them, which is always a plus.