Most of the podcaster people that I've watched seem like lovely people (I say most because I'm a judgey kinda person and I have no shame in that). The few that don't seem lovely, I don't watch, and that's that. And the ones that are lovely, I watch every episode and (try to) patiently wait until their next episode.
However.
One thing that I absolutely do not understand is the connection between knitting and Harry Potter.
Why do so many knitters like Harry Potter?
Maybe a ton of people in every hobby or activity like Harry Potter. Maybe I've never noticed it before it other "communities" that I've been a part of. Maybe I blocked it out.
Why would I block it out, you ask?
Because, uh, I don't like Harry Potter.
Oh, I did, don't get me wrong. But I no longer do.
You see, I got the first book as a Christmas present when I was either 7 or 8 and I can't remember when, but about that time. I tried to read it, and couldn't - I didn't like it for one reason or another. I came back to it about a year later, tried reading it, and fell in love with it. I don't remember when this was exactly, so I don't know how many of the following books had come out yet, but I do know that I swallowed them up as soon as I was able to do so.
And then the movies started to come out, and oh wasn't that exciting! A movie for a book you love! It's a great thing to be a kid, though I'm sure I was in middle school by that time.
I remember I read the 5th book in 7th grade, and read about how Sirius died right before I went to school that morning. It was tragic and I remember getting to school and talking to my friend who had already finished that book about it. The joy of shared things!
And then that left books 6 and 7.
Book six came out I have no idea when, but when I was in high school. Book 7 was the same.
I read them the day they came out (thanks, Amazon, for cool shipping that lets you do that, even almost 10 years ago!) as fast as I could manage (and by that I mean less than two days, and I'm pretty sure less than 24 hours for the 7th).
Because, by the 7th book, I was ready to be done.
The affair had went on for too long. I was tired of it all. I wanted it to end. Because, well, I had lost interest.
You see, at the same time the Harry Potter movies were coming out, the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out. I remember in 5th grade, right before Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters, my teacher read to us the first few chapters of The Hobbit...and I was hooked.
I read The Hobbit, and all three LotR books. They took me quite a while, and it was the crowning achievement of middle school for me, but I was in love. I watched those movies as soon as I was able (i.e. when they finally got to DVD) and watched them again and again.
Even now, though it has been a while since I've watched the films or read the books...I'm still in love.
I have the soundtracks for the movies, and sometimes you can hear the songs online through various outlets (Twitch.tv streamers, mostly) and the song that plays at the battle of the black gate ("...For Frodo", you know the part I mean)...just hearing that damn song, and I get all misty-eyed. Watching it in movie form? Oh, the tears.
I liked Harry Potter, and then I moved onto what I've discovered that I prefer - my wizards to be of the Gandalf type, and my "let's play a game"'s to be of the three riddles type not life-size chess. My heroes to be killing machines, but also sad and able to be swayed to the evil of the world at times. Adventure going, and not always full of excitement (no, no they could not have just had the Eagles fly them, #SorryNotSorry). People who had good in them the whole time, and it took death for them to realize it, and people who have so much good in them you're about to weep when you see that another character thinks they could possibly not be the shining light we know them to be (dick move, Frodo, dick move).
The Lord of the Rings is certainly a save-the-world kind of story, in the same way that Harry Potter is. But, with the Lord of the Rings, they battle themselves, and they have to try and convince a lot of people that they are doing the right thing with such a great power. Harry Potter has none of that - there is a clear good and bad, there is no room for "well, maybe, if we were smart about it, we could use this power for good." And if there is such a place in the HP world, excuse me, it's been more than 10 years since I was entertained by it.
I'm not sure why the knitting world is so in love with Harry Potter. It's not a bad thing, you can love whatever the heck you want to love. But it's certainly not something you and I will bond over - other than the appreciation of being a part of a fandom that we hold very, very dear.
So while your Harry Potter knit-a-longs sound fun, and while the sorting into houses has brought many different people together, I don't feel that same love and affection and connection with you because a website that asks you silly questions says you would board together in the same part of a castle if magic were real.
I'll keep knitting, and maybe someday more people will come out of the closet as liking Lord of the Rings and we can have our own knit-a-long. That sounds cool, right?
~Havok
P.S. The Myers Briggs test is the same way as the sorting hat, there's just more options in it. Again, #SorryNotSorry
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I think there's a lot of HP fans out there! Interesting connection you've made! My SIL is a big knitter and huge HP fan so that's the one I know ;)
ReplyDeleteI know it's not just knitters that enjoy it, but it seems to be an overwhelming amount! Even a bunch of people who have said they were never really in love with the series but were willing to give it a second shot because so many people stated they love it - and there are a few people who have said (quietly, of course ;) ) that they don't really enjoy it, but nobody has come outright to say they've hated it or anything.
DeleteI dunno, it is a rather popular series, I get that, I guess I just never realized *how* popular before!
Thank you so much for stopping by! :D
I think it has to do with the fact that so many knitters are also voracious readers, and the HP series has a lot of of knits in the films, so it gives people an opportunity to knit a lot of HP related things. To each their own! I like the series, but I don't think I've ever knit anything related to a book, tv show, or movie.
ReplyDeleteI like reading as much as the next person, though I've not been able to convince myself to put the needles down for a book this week, though I've been tempted! I do, however, concede that the movies do have quite a few handknits in them. Or, at least more so than most movies or series' in the world!
DeleteI've not knit or crocheted anything from any sort of commercial thing, I have plastic canvas cross stitched Charizard Skyrim dragon. Because, uh, Charizard Skyrim dragon xD I've managed to forget where I put him though - was looking for him the other day and just like what happens most times I lose things, it's because I recently put it somewhere else thinking it was a better place for it xD He's around here somewhere, though!
Thank you so much for stopping by! :D