cakes and dibbuks and everything else

[threeplusfire]

For some reason the story of the Dibbuk Box came up today. The story has its own little site with the entire weird story. I offer no judgement as to the veracity of the tale, and offer it up for reading. Personally, I find it creepy as hell.

My new icon comes courtesy of an image from thecakeblog, where Joe posts awesome photos of cakes by Margaret's French Bakery. It makes me want to run away and bake for a living. Mmm delicious cakes. I should perhaps find myself a bakery to work in somewhere around town.

The lake has reopened but it rained again today. Seriously, the weather is so weird this summer.

My friend rm wrote very eloquently about the end of the Harry Potter series and her relationship to the stories in the book was just a bystander. While there is some wankiness happening in the comments from people who believe it is impossible to enjoy both Harry Potter and serious high brow culture at the same time and equating writing fanfiction with fear, the post itself is a beautiful testament to a touchstone in life.

I don't give a good goddamn if Rowling's work is considered "literary" or not, or if other people think the books are simply a publishing juggernaut engineered to make money. I don't care if they are considered genre fiction, or if somehow "escapist" fiction is considered less worthy. I honestly don't. I believe art can move a person even if the art itself isn't the most accomplished or best. It comes from the moment of connection, the inspiration and the light that springs between the creator and the audience. What has drawn me to Harry Potter despite an initial animosity based on my perception of the series through the media was simply the passion it inspired in other people. My best friend all but dumped the books in my lap until I would read them. I thought she was insane at first. But she dragged me to the movie and I thought it was actually sort of interesting looking. It was all downhill from there as I devoured the first four books.

Something I have always loved about the Potter books is that there is a huge, incomplete world contained within them. It allows for enormous flights of fancy, as evidenced by the huge amounts of speculation, theories and fanfiction on the subject. People have spirited debates over the nature of society, characters and events. My best friend and I have spent hours on these subjects. I went to a convention where hundreds of people gathered to listen to a panel debate the alleigance of a pivotal book character in terms extremely academic and extremely personal. I know people who have learned to knit to make Hogwarts scarves. I know people who wrote fanfiction and then moved on to writing beautiful original novels. These novels not only brought children to books, they brought others to friendships and creativity. Nothing else in my lifetime has connected me to so many different people at once. To illustrate that point, I met rm through livejournal and a Harry Potter mailing list. We would never have encountered each other in person, would never have dated, would never have developed the friendship we have without that.

I have always, always been not a regular person. I was a quiet, ferociously literary person, a geek, a dork, a weird kid with glasses and slip on Keds, the kid who was a girl but spent more time trying to be a boy. I would be a liar to deny that part of me wishes I could have received a letter by owl when I was eleven years old. I have delved into these stories to dream. In turn, they have carried me to other places where I started different stories and journeys. But there will always be at least one or two wizards in my life, somewhere.

Comments

[curmudgn]

Erm . . . it may be just me, but . . . the fourth paragraph seems to have been pied.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

While I have no idea what you mean by pied, I fixed the ridiculous grammatical error. Whee. thanks.

[curmudgn]

:) It's an old typesetter's term. "A printer's Pi could also be a jumble of type such as if it were spilled. To 'Pi' a type form was the ultimate accident, meaning the entire job would have to be reset. The pile of useless Pi would be thrown into the 'hell box' to be melted down and reused."

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I used to love playing hot potato with the type! My journalism teacher got us part time work stamping names on yearbooks, and someone had to sort all the letters out.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Words. These books are, in so many ways, the very opposite of escapist for me. One of the pivotal things about hte books, which I'm not _really_ going to write about until I've read the last one is the idea of choice. A prophecy is central to the books in that is may or may not refer to at least two different people. Prophecy and fate is the most often destroyed thing in the books. Snape, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, the Order, _Draco_ - none of them have to do what they do. They all choose to do it. that's courage. Choice.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

You have a good point. Choice is a central theme and so relevant to everything.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I view it as paralelling the wank in my own journal. The idea that I'm not brave because I've had terrible hardships to overcome, but because I've made choices -- sometimes good, sometimes bad -- that have required sacrifice. I think most people don't get to make as many choices as I have, and I think it pisses them off.

[idadebeautreux.livejournal.com]

I STILL wish I could get an owl with a letter...

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I would totally ditch my job to go to wizard school.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Equating fanfic with fear and with being anorexic (??). At least it lets me give my brand-new icon a nice workout. Oh, and as someone who adores literary fiction, I HATE people who think this is the way to get everyone to read it.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have to confess I've been skimming the comments in the post, because I've reached the "cannot cope" point (largely, because hey, major life changes this week). ANOREXIA? People need to not go there in my journal. Goddamn.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Yes, apparently writing fanfic is as self-destructive and societally destructive as joining a pro-ana community. I don't even know what to do with a statement like that, so...yeah.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I can't even think of a snarky response to something that appalling. All I have is Calamity Jane.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Remember, the best way to get people to read more is to shit on their favorite books and gratuitously insult them. Works every time.