We Are Wizard People

Brad Neely, creator of many very humorous (and very graphic and irreverent!) comics and videos, like the one to the right, has written an alternative script/commentary for the first Harry Potter film. Entitled "Wizard People, Dear Reader," it may be downloaded here. You may also experience it chapterwise on Youtube, with the Neely audio replacing the film's. It is awfully funny, in every sense of that word. Like his other stuff, this is quirky and may put off some folks. One nice bit is when Harry catches the Snitch and is looking 'round the stadium. Neely narrates him bellowing to the crowd, "I'm a beautiful animal. I'm a destroyer of worlds. I'm Harry F-ing Potter!" I'm embedding the first chapter here; you can find the others for yourself.



While we're thinking of all things Harry, you might also check out the documentary We Are Wizards (also found here). Neely shows up in it. And if you're like me, you'll hear way, way too much about the odd musical sub-genre known as "wizard rock." Harry and the Potters, anyone? The film opens with a dire voiceover warning about what'll happen to our children if they are exposed to Harry Potter, but most of the film is a fairly friendly look at Potter Fandom. It isn't until about 53 minutes in that we meet the Christian woman who voiced the warning. She's worried that "we're giving [our children] over to the dark world of vampires, lizards, serpents, half creatures, the dead..." And she's alarmed that the Harry Potter books are teaching our children magic. They don't have to go into the dark alleys to learn spells anymore, but can learn them in their clean and well-lit houses. Really? How many folks think this way? She's made a film about Harry Potter, too, that you can watch here (though I couldn't make it through).

Exploring any region of fandom (or its opposite!) shows us just how weird and obsessive we can be. Understandably, not everyone wants to be shown this.

Fandomania--Star Wars

When Star Wars came out in 1977, I was about 13. I fell for it, hard. I saw it many times. I read the novelization over and over until I had it practically memorized. And when none of that was enough for me, I eventually did a dramatic reading of the novelization into a tape recorder (along with sound effects and a musical prelude on my clarinet). This is a clear and embarrassing example of what I'm calling "fandomania." It's what happens when fandom gets way out of control. A long time ago in a low tech setting far, far away (California, which sometimes feels like another galaxy), that's the best I could do. But now we can do much, much better.

For example, check out these instances of musical fandomania here and here. Yes, the first one is a lip synch. Doesn't that make it an even clearer case of fandomania?

Okay, it's your turn. Give me your stories of people whose love of Star Wars has gotten out of control. Confess as I have, if you want. Or give us another link.

I'm not talking about Star Wars humor here. We'll do a post on that at some point, I promise. But for the most part we're now looking for people who aren't trying to be funny. So save the Robot Chicken etc. for another day.