Pot Heads

This title I have given this post comes from a label that my brother gave to himself, in perhaps a moment or long reflective self realization. My brother and his wife own two copies of each of the Harry Potter books, both had a set before they were married. Now before I go on to say what I feel needs to be said, let the world know that I do like Harry Potter, have read the first book, seen almost all the movies, and even dressed up as Snape for the final film. However, I did breathe a sigh of relief when the last movie came out because for me it was an official closing in the Harry Potter chapter, which meant that we can now move on to other beautiful works of art.

Working in the media center can be rough. Truly, it is exhausting to have thousands of patrons come in, browse our audio book list, and then come to me nearly begging for any, just any of the Harry Potters that are not yet checked out. I feel like shouting, “Isn’t it time to discover a new book, perhaps a classic or newer novel! There is more to life then Pig-Pimple university.” In actuality, I do not want to turn this post into a critique of Harry Potter, but a lesson on obsession. Missing out on other wonderful works of art is only one of the down sides.

Another down side is obsession can be wasteful and frankly embarrassing. Often when we fall in love with a piece of art we do not know what to do with our passion that is associated with it. We want to buy all the collectables; we want to dress up for Halloween as part of it. We want to start a club or have a movie marathon or something to sanction our love for it. If you are wondering, yes, I do speak from experience. Perhaps what we need to do is simply take the good it offers, recognize its flaws, write about it in our journal, encourage others to see or read it, and occasionally revisit it. Unless this thing has the power to bring us salvation we should not surround ourselves with its every last detail.

One very interesting part of We are Wizards is when the girl goes into the car dealership and says something like ‘I am the former leader of the Potter Wars’ and the car salesmen is speechless because that is most likely the dumbest thing he has ever heard. Now that may sound harsh to you, but let us consider the reality of this world. No one is ever going to take you seriously if you come in for a job interview and have Klingon as one of the languages on your resume. You cannot say that you have amazing memorization skill because you know the lines of all the Trek episodes. You will not be taken seriously and you will not be hired. There is one kid who posted a video where he explains that he is “Harry Potter himself” and goes on to tell why he is the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world. This boy has read all the books over a hundred times, meaning he most likely has read nothing else. He also has tattoos of Harry Potter symbols on his body forever labeling himself as a “Pot Head,” thus leaving him as a candidate for never having a real job or respectable position in society. Yes, it is good to have a passion, yes, it is good to fall in love with a story, but I find no true benefit to obsessing over something.

Jenkins does make a good point that we can build off the shoulders of others who come before; it is the apprentice idea. It is good to get a start in another’s creativity in fact there is a book about Architecture for the Poor that says that no one is perfectly original and that we must build off what others have done before. However, we must be both familiar to our audience and original. “Harry and the Potters” is a band that is actually really bad. I suppose they are not worse than other local bands that I have heard but they draw a bigger crowd then maybe they deserve. Their fans come because they somehow need more Harry Potter and in doing so give this band a false sense of accomplishment. I am sorry but this is not creative—“I’m Harry Potter, and I’m Harry Potter, We’re Harry and the Potters, this song’s called Harry Potter. Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter.” What will happen, for example, to the seven year old when he is no longer cute for head banging about dragons? These band members will be left one day with the reality that they have not truly valuable skills.

One person that I would like to briefly defend is the lady in the documentary that says there are dark spirits and evils that we must avoid. We laugh at her but this is what we as Christians believe. To label Harry Potter as this dark evil may be ridiculous. We know that the intentions of the book are innocent and even positive. But I don’t blame her. She grow up in a time when witches were synonymous with devils, and if we saw a book about a little demon that goes to hell school to learn how to tempt people we would not want to read the book, unless of course it is written by a genius making to point to avoid such demons. Darkness and evil is something we should avoid, it may not be Harry Potter but it is out there. 

There is so much more to be said about this that requires further discussion. Jenkins has a whole section called “What would Jesus do with Harry Potter?” They question maybe unanswerable, though I sure it is fine to him. What he must not be okay with is bad parenting, singing about groupie sex to four year olds, and putting the things of the world before him. In conclusion, Harry Potter is cool, but it’s not that cool.