author_by_night | The Beginning

~~When Edward Cullen died...~~

Wait, sorry, same actor, different fandom.

So as you might have seen, I've been reading the fourth Harry Potter book (Goblet of Fire), though my recaps have mostly been in the form of drabbles and ficlets (even though I'm way behind drabble/ficlet wise, given that I have about ten pages left of GoF).

Now, in the past I've wondered why the HP fandom took off the way it did. I've listed a number of possible factors - timing (it was the AOL/AIM/Yahoo IM/messageboard/everything else ~~techie~~ tekky), similar fandoms co-inhabiting "cyberspace" as we called it, and so on.

But... as GoF comes to a close, I've realized something else: JKR left every single one of her fans on a ledge.

We all know what happens next: She traumatizes and/or kills off all of our favorite characters one by one. ;) At the time, however? We had no bloody clue what was going to happen. I don't really remember my exact thought process back in 2000 when I read the book, but I do remember having a million thoughts. They could be summed up as follows: Who - what - where - when - WHAT JUST HAPPENED? And what's going to happen now?!

JKR isn't the inventor of the cliffhanger, obviously, but by then the books were begnning to get pretty popular. So her already crazy obsessed fans (some of whom had already written fanfic - apparently there's pre-Prisoner of Azkaban fic out there*) scrambled frantically, trying to figure out WTF (or, for the younger fans, "what the gosh darn heck golly") the future held.

We had to wait three years to find out.

I really think this made a difference. I think how GoF ended, and how long it took for the next book to come out, made a huge impact. We had a crisis to work with, time to work with it.

As for GoF itself... I really think it's an overlooked book. It's kind of the "meh" of fandom - but it's really where the stage was set. I'll get to that in my general review later, though.

*Which I'd love to read, by the way, so if anyone has links or general ideas as to where they might be found...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

amorette.livejournal.com

I wasn't in fandom during that 3 year period but sometimes I really wish I was! Also, I am glad I wasn't because I'm sure I would have let my shipping desires/headcanon/fanon desires shape my impression of the subsequent books. Now I just appreciate canon for how it was handed to me, but I think there is something about being part of transformative work culture that makes us feel more indignant when things in canon don't unfold the way we would have liked to see them as fans.

From:

author-by-night.livejournal.com

I will say the fifth book was a shock to a lot of fans, myself included, because of that. I know when I read HBP and DH I really created a sort of filter, because I didn't want to be disappointed all over again. I mean, there's things I don't like about all seven books, nothing's going to strike anyone's fancy 100%, but there's a difference between critical feelings and fannish feelings.

From:

sherylyn

GoF has always been one of my favorites -- although, really, I love them all, just in slightly different ways (sorta like loving all your kids or your nieces/nephews, but all being a bit different with it).

And yes, I think Cedric's death -- so unexpected and just such a all-'round good guy who just was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time! -- was a big thing in the HP world, definitely.

I remember, when I was 1st reading the series, after the 1st movie came out, I'd whizzed through the first three books in a couple days, and had to go hunt down a place that had GoF in stock(!!), but I couldn't devour it all at once, b/c I had to go off to school for a day or so. And I distinctly remember reading the graveyard scene, and my kids (who were ~8 & 5) came in where I was reading, bickering about something trivial, and my response was, "SHHH! Leave me alone, Harry's *BUSY*!" and they both stared at me, looked at each other, sorta shrugged, and went off without waiting for me to try to "solve" whatever was going on!! LOL!!

It was a big, big event, and it really set the tone for so much of what was going to come. And I still <3 GoF for forever for its complexity and the way it just so sucked you in to everything that happened!!

From:

author-by-night.livejournal.com

although, really, I love them all, just in slightly different ways (sorta like loving all your kids or your nieces/nephews, but all being a bit different with it).

Aw, I like this analogy!

so unexpected and just such a all-'round good guy who just was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time

Oh, absolutely! And how Voldemort just orders for "the spare" to be killed. I realized too how present Cedric is in the book - so even though we only knew him from a brief mention in PoA initially, he had become a fairly important character. A lot of fans knew an important character would be killed off, but I don't think anyone thought it would be Cedric. (My money was on Dumbledore, though I was technically spoiled for Cedric's death soon before GoF... I don't think I put a lot of stock in it, though, because I figured it could just be some kid making stuff up.)

and my kids (who were ~8 & 5) came in where I was reading, bickering about something trivial, and my response was, "SHHH! Leave me alone, Harry's *BUSY*!" and they both stared at me, looked at each other, sorta shrugged, and went off without waiting for me to try to "solve" whatever was going on!! LOL!!

LOL indeed! Did they ever get into the books, or was it always more your thing? I know someone whose kids would've been about that age at the time, (ETA: actually, maybe younger) and she said it was always her thing, not theirs.

Edited Date: 2015-05-05 11:18 pm (UTC)

From:

sherylyn

I totally agree -- Cedric is much more of a "presence" in the books than he ever was in the film(s). I wasn't "in" to fandom stuff until after I'd finished reading GoF (I was using the Yahoo!IMer w/a friend, and Googled "Harry Potter" -- who knew where it'd lead!? LOL!!), so I was pretty unaware of rumors, etc. I had friends who'd enjoyed the books, but I was in grad school (yes, then, too! :-P) and working and I kept saying I didn't have time! Which leads to your next question, really. My MIL, who was still teaching 2nd grade, had given the three oldest grandgirls (my two, and my oldest niece) the first couple of books, and I'd bought PoA for my oldest when it came out in paperback. She'd read the 1st book multiple times, and reallly wanted to go see the movie. I took her right after it opened, but refused to deal w/the crowds of opening day (HA!!), and then took her again a week or so later. It was after we saw it the 2nd time that I told her, "Okay, bring me the 1st book..." and you know how that turned out! LOL!! They both read all the books/saw all the movies, etc., though I think I was always more "connected" w/it than they were, largely b/c of making friends in fandom, etc.

When DH was released, it was kinda a weird situation, but rather fitting, too, b/c of it being my MIL who got everyone interested, initially. It was being released at midnight on that Fri/Sat AM **of the day our whole family went to the beach for vacation**. And our family left home around 6 AM -- and I really didn't sleep during the day, much, so I was *mostly* up for over 24 hours before I finished.

I had called around the small town near the beach, and found a place that was doing a whole party, etc., thing for the release, and pre-ordered something like 7 or 8 copies (3 for me and my girls, two nieces, my MIL and my SIL; okay, maybe 7? My BIL had his delivered to the house the next morning via UPS.). My girls, my two oldest nieces and I went to most of the party thing, and my SIL and Hubby came for a bit to see what was going on, etc. We got all the books and trekked back to the beach house -- about 30 min's away, total. And, of course, all the kids read in the van on the way back, so they were all ahead of me before I even got started! We made coffee and stayed up to read. The nieces pooped out eventually, and my younger daughter fell asleep with it open on her lap sometime the next morning. My oldest and I were the only ones who made it all the way through before sleeping.

And all week at the beach, those of us who'd finished would meet up, standing out in the water, where the sound of the waves would cover up our conversation, and we'd discuss it after people finished reading. Of the 14 in the family, by the end of the week, all but 4 had read the book. One SIL who just doesn't like to read that much; the two youngest nieces, who were too young then (but the youngest, at least, has read all of them now, and she just turned 12; she finished SS the week before she started first grade!!); and my FIL, who just doesn't "do" fantasy "stuff" in reading ;-) Even my hubby, who doesn't really read fiction, period, ended up reading it that week. He'd read all the others before, by making various "deals" w/the kids as they were in school ("I'll read xx if you do xyz with school/cleaning rooms/whatever"), and he kept saying, "I can't figure it out... people get so sad, and then they're happy again." I wouldn't *tell* him, of course, so he did read it. It was just awesome to get to be with everyone while doing that!!

(So, yeah... sorry, I get going on this, apparently!!)

From:

ragnarok-08.livejournal.com

I remember hearing that the fifth book was a huge shock to the fans, and the cliffhangers had indeed become popula during that time.

From:

littlemissnovel.livejournal.com

I loved the third book and fifth book in the series. I remember back in the days, I spent way too much time reading fanfiction to void the gap of waiting for the fifth book to come out :D