cakes and dibbuks and everything else

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.

I are serious lolcat

( I can be lolcat plz? )