I just got back from the HPEF conference, Portus 2008, held in Dallas, TX. It was a pretty fun experience. I took my niece, the same niece who introduced me to Harry Potter in the first place. I walked away from the conference with two very different feelings:
1. the fan community felt generally ambivalent. The magic that fueled the community seems to have relied upon the release of the newest installment of the series. Now that there aren’t any more books coming out, what next?
which leads to 2. those who were there for scholarship were serious scholars. Yeah, you can go to the conferences and play quidditch, dress up, attend the ball or some wizard rock performances, but at the end of the day, the conference revolves around the “formal programming,” whether those are presentations, roundtables, panel talks, or workshops. I wasn’t super excited by the overall selection of topics, but I figure that has something to do with the fact that there is no more speculation. but there is plenty of opportunity for analysis..
My presentation was “the seven jungian horcruxes” in which i offered a jungian interpretation/mode of interacting with HP. I think my presentation itself went well, but I was a total bundle of nerves. I’m still working out the kinks of public speaking, especially since I have become increasingly more introverted as I’ve gotten older. Public speaking is definitely one thing i fear the most (and I give myself props for still making the attempt).
The two most exciting things that happened were the friends I feel I have made – I always love meeting new people – and the experience of meeting Andrew, the founder of The Harry Potter Alliance sought me out because he missed my presentation and wanted to talk to me about it. Since he’s a bit of a celeb in the fandom, I was/am really excited about the meeting.
Jim Dale was a very special guest at the conference. He does the narration/voices for the American HP audio books. He gave a special presentation of his favorite passages to read from HP and a talk about how he was inspired to do some of the voices.
Overall, it was a good experience and very fun. I came home with a t-shirt, a hoodie, some buttons, pictures and a dark mark patch, some new earrings, and some books. One of the books i got was written by one of the presenters, and he personalized it for me. His name is edmund Kern and the book is The Wisdom of Harry Potter. I also got John Granger’s book about HP & alchemy, The Psychology of Harry Potter and From Homer to Harry (which is an exploration of mythology and stuff). I’m glad to be home, but I’m already eager for next year.
