We all have ways of dealing with what is happening right now. I am devouring Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I had only read the first and second of the Harry Potter books, when they first came out … so I decided a month or so ago: let me catch up. And now? Cannot put them down. Total page-turning escape. And don’t tell me what happens in the next 2 books, because I literally have no idea! I don’t have kids in my life on a daily basis, so I am completely in the dark about what happens in the next two. I know big stuff is coming. I frankly find these books disturbingly addictive. Like – I have 20 seconds free while I stand in line, and I have to take the book out to read another sentence or two.
So Alex and I were talking on the phone the other night, of course about Katrina. How we felt, how pissed off we were, what we wanted to do to help … but also our feeling of helplessness.
Like I said, we all have ways of dealing with this. (I mean – the ones of us who are not in the thick of things, the ones of us who can only watch on television)
Alex just posted two pieces on one of the biggest escapes of all time: The Wizard of Oz.
I was talking with my Aunt and Uncle at my sister’s wedding, both of whom are in the top three or four most well read people in my life, and they were asking me what this Harry Potter thing was all about.
I’d never really thought about it until then, but my answer was something along the lines of: I can read these stories, and just buy every word of it. I’m not picking the writing apart, I’m not picking the story apart. I’m just there, and when I’m not there, I’m waiting until I am.
I compared them to both the Chronicles of Narnia and Baum’s whole series of Oz books, which I read going through grade school. The Potter books are the same way, in that I could sit down, and just be there in the story.
I don’t get that with many books. And that’s probably more _my_ problem than it is any of the books I read.
But that’s why I like the Harry Potter books. Because it’s easy to just fall in. And I credit Rowling with that. It’s a gift.
And what a blessing, in the world we live in, that there are books we can just fall into, and ESCAPE.
I keep a set of the Narnia books in my bedroom – whenever I am really depressed I will pull one off the shelf and just start reading. And after a while, things do not feel so bad. (Mary Norton’s “Borrowers” books have a similar effect; I have a set of those as well).
actually the Narnia books were probably the best and most lasting gift I ever received – when I was a kid, one of my father’s cousins gave me the set he had had as a boy. Perhaps it was Bud’s intention for me to pass them on to someone else once I had grown up, but I still need them…
And as for Wizard of Oz – I have great memories, back in the days before video tapes and cable television, of what an EVENT it was when it came on television each year. (One year it was on on my birthday). We’d eat dinner early, make some popcorn, and settle in to watch it.
ricki – my god, the Narnia books. Now they are sheer magic. More so than harry potter, in my opinion – not to dis Harry Potter or anything. But the Narnia books are cosmic.
tommy – exactly. I’m just there in the story. Amazing.
My grandmother saw the Wizard when she was 20 months old, and was captivated. Several weeks later, her father heard her singing “because, because, because, because..” in the bathroom, and was charmed.
Until he walked in to find her pouring her mother’s expensive shampoo onto the floor as she sang.
When she recently (age 2.5) saw a brick sidewalk, she skipped along singing, “follow the yellow brick road”.
Glad you’re finally getting into the Potter books – they are definitely addictive as an escape. I am a voracious reader but there are only a few books that I can fall into like those. Though I do agree that the Chronicles of Narnia are better – I’ve read and re-read those at least 10 times through my life. And I never even realized all the Christian overtones until the 8th or 9th time reading them, being raised a Hindu! That’s how universal those books were.
P.S. – If you like the Wizard of Oz story, you might enjoy the book “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire – I’m just finishing it now and it’s really interesting. I think I like it for the same reasons that I love “Mists of Avalon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley – I love the idea of taking a well known story and turning it all around from a different perspective.