It's been a week and a half since I saw the last Harry Potter movie and I'm still failing to feel any sense of nostalgia or even closure. Am I the only one?
I was talking to two non-Harry Potter people (Muggles?) today about whether you could find philosophy in any movie and Harry Potter in particular. First, I came up with the topic of free will vs. determinism, particularly starting in Order of the Phoenix with Harry learning about the prophecy. There's all these questions raised of whether Harry ever had a choice in the matter of killing Voldemort, which leads to questioning whether any of us have a choice in any given situation. Are we just reacting to past events and dealing with things in the way we've adopted and adapted from our life experiences?
I'm not about to outline all the interesting frameworks J.K. Rowling presents for thinking about these questions--that might take a while--what I wanted to say was how interesting it is to talk to people rationally about Harry Potter when they are obviously not as invested as we are.
It's like trying to explain unschooling to a hardcore conventional educator; they might humour you, depending on their personality and temperament, but they won't truly get it, and maybe they can't. And maybe it's better that way.
On one hand, I want this magic to be shared, for everyone to feel like I've felt. On the other, I have this idea that it's never going to be the same for other people and that exclusivity makes it more special. As much as I want to believe that 'there is no them, only facets of us'* sometimes I feel like there has to be an outside for there to be an inside. I'm working on questioning that belief, I am, but for now, I'm going to continue loving Harry Potter with the other people that do and smiling knowingly (though as non-condescendingly as possible) at those who don't.
Now I just need to make time to reread the entire series. Maybe that will jump-start the nostalgic palpitations.
* John Green, not sure how close to his quote that is.
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