Woohoo! It's officially my birthday month! Do bear with me as I milk the
hell out of this month—and what better way to start than with the list? As
you may know, I've been making
lists of goals for my birthday
for ages. Usually, it's an annual occasion, until in 2018 I decided to go
big and make a
30 Before 30 List. Since then, I just update how much of the list I have accomplished so far
every year. However, 2018 for me now feels like such a long time ago. So
many profound, life-altering things have happened since then and I can no
longer relate to the version of me from back then. Her wishes and goals no
longer resonate with mine of today—at least partially. This is something
I've been thinking about for a while: do I really want to fulfil goals and
wishes that I don't care about anymore? So I thought today I finally take
apart the list I once made and redirect the goals to actually reflect what I
want to accomplish in life. If you're curious, feel free to look at what I
decided to keep and discard from this list.
I know we've all done away with goals and accomplishments the minute 2020 hit
us with that pandemic—but I'm not willing to let it go yet. As you may know, I
made this 30 Before 30 List of goals long before the pandemic hit, and I'm not about to hit reset
on this determination due to a universally bad year. That, I know, is a very
privileged thing to say—which is why I'm extremely grateful to be able to sit
here and still have achievements to count. Last year I made a note of the things I managed to check off as well. This year, for what it's worth, for
me personally, has been an incredible year. I accomplished something gigantic
that I've been meaning to hit for a decade now—and I'm super thrilled at all
the doors and windows that it has opened for me. It may be short in
quantity—again—but it is unrivalled in quality to anything I've ever achieved
thus far. One thing has changed entirely, though, thanks to this catastrophic
year: I'm no longer dead set on my goals anymore. It's great if I can achieve
them, but it's not the end of the world if I don't. Priorities shift,
circumstances change; it's all a part of life.
Today is my 27th birthday! I think we all know what that means. Okay, maybe not all of us know—but I'll tell you anyway. It's time to make a recap of my 30 Before 30 List so far. It has been a huge relief for me to have this list that spans into the next 3 years, instead of one list per year. It has allowed me to stay focus on the things that truly matter and not create measly little goals, just for the sake of it. Of course, it also gives me a lot more time to start with what matters most first. Though this recap may be short in quantity, I hope you'll see just how much quality these accomplished goals have added into my life. There are, obviously, still some more goals to come until I hit the big 3 0, but, for now, this is as good as it's ever going to get. So here are the things I managed to tick off this list so far.
4. Be Financially Stable
When I wrote this list, I did it in an almost chronological manner, so I was quite surprised to find myself ticking this one off the list before the first three items. Who would've thought that I would go from being an intern, to a part-timer and, finally, to a full-time employee in a matter of months? It happened very recently too—with the help of some of my friends' support—and it couldn't have come at a better time. Let's just say that my family's finances right now aren't the best and it would be really helpful—and, trust me, it is—to have an actual income. That number that I had in mind, by the way, yes, I managed to surpass it somehow. Of course, human beings are never truly satisfied, so here's to more growth in the future.
6. Actually Read 50 Books a Year
As I've mentioned before, this goal is a bit of a cheat, since I knew I'd be ticking it off rather quickly. But I did it! And it is truly a goal that I've been meaning to accomplish for some time now. As of the end of 2018, I have officially read a total of 60 books in 365 days. Woot woot! Looking back, I honestly can't remember how I managed to do it, but, apparently, I did it. I must've read like crazy. Obviously, I'm not going to bore you with reviews of all sixty books, but you can check out the best ones and the worst ones I read.
8. Learn About Taxes
It was incredibly coincidental—or the universe's way of kicking me on my behind—that when I posted about this goal, I was forced to get started on it the next day. I was forced to create my tax ID card as soon as possible—as prompted by my client's accountant—and learnt all that was to learn about the whole system. Well, maybe not all, but enough to be safe than sorry. Several months afterwards, nearing the deadline for tax filing, I found out more about taxes and what my obligations are on that front. It turns out—at the time—I didn't have to file for taxes, because I wasn't obligated to pay them. But now I have pretty much all the knowledge on tax filing, should I need to do so in the future.
13. Build My (Portfolio) Website
Sometime last year, in a class, I was given an assignment to create my own website. It should contain my portfolio and has its own domain. Although, for most, this project is just that—a class project—to me, it holds a possibility to something more. You can already visit the website right now, although I still believe it to be unfinished. I'm planning on purchasing a new hosting and giving the website a whole makeover, in which, not only will it hold my works, but also this little blog here. Wish me luck, guys!
16. Work in an Office
When I put this goal on this list, I was thinking more along the line of doing an internship. Never once did I expect to go full-time so quickly—and to enjoy the office life so much either. Although I've worked before, office life certainly offers something different. At first, it was quite limiting as I can no longer just freely move about—as I tended to dance around when working at home—but soon I found myself bonding with my co-workers and learning all these new things about professional work. It has been truly an eye-opening experience; I didn't expect to love it so much!
26. Meet One New Online Friend
This is probably the goal with the most unexpected way to be achieved. I really didn't expect to meet these people when I wrote this goal down, but it was truly the best experiences. Not only did I meet one new online friend, I met six! The first ones I met was back in March, which are the lovely ladies from Tisseus des Idees and their friends Laura and Morgane. We chatted over a plate of vegan Padangnese food and visited Imaji's studio. The second ones I met was back in June, which are Mugidingdong (IG no longer available) and his lovely wife at their home in Cinere. We bonded over our love for books and his vinyl collection. They were truly a pleasant surprise this year!
28. Downsize My Wardrobe
Okay, I've been trying to do it, okay? It's not as easy as it sounds. At least one of the items listed above is already sold—to a dear friend and constant supporter of mine. If you're interested in taking a look around—and giving me a follow—you can find my preloved items on instagram. It would mean a lot to me, if you would spare some minutes in your life to take a look around. If anything takes your fancy, please don't hesitate to let me know, okay?
Other Things I Did at 26 Years Old
Starting this year, I want to start acknowledging achievements and first-experiences I managed to do in the past year—things I didn't set out to do and never expected to happen. Not unlike every year, life caught me off guard this past year too. Almost nothing went according to plan—some in the best possible way, some in the most regrettable manner. But I don't want to skip over the new things that I got to do, just because I didn't plan on doing them. So here are some more things that I hadn't expected to achieve—but did so anyway.
Won my first ever ethical giveaway
This isn't something that I did, necessarily. But it's something I was so excited about. The giveaway was held by Sadhu back in November. I've been following them for some time, so when they announced the winner to this giveaway, you best believe I was elated. Not to mention that it was the first pair of earrings I've got in 4 years. You can see how I styled it here.
Collaborated with a printing house
Late last year a printing house called Gogoprint approached for a collaboration. I thought, as I was joining Comic Frontier 12 earlier this year, I would use their services to print my products. I was so excited, as it was the first collaboration, in which I could mix my blog with my illustration career—if you could call it a career at all. Spoiler alert: the collaboration didn't end well. I was very much disappointed, although with very little loss on my part, fortunately. You can read all about it here.
Eliminated menstrual plastic waste
Truth be told, I started wearing a menstrual cup since before my 26th birthday. However, I hit the one-year mark just a month ago. And to commit to something so life-changing deserves its own medal, I find. It has been really fulfilling and incredible to switch to this zero-waste option. It's definitely less fussy and a whole lot more practical. If you're trying one on your own, I would recommend giving yourself some time to get used to it before throwing in the towel. Read all about my own experience here.
Visited a bulk grocery store
A packaging-free grocery store is truly the stuff of my dreams. Ever since I found out about zero-waste lifestyle, I've been wanting to visit one myself. It wasn't until earlier this year did I find out about Saruga, which is a bulk store located in Bintaro. Little did I know that, when I visited, the owner actually recognised me and was partially inspired by my instagram to start this store. Crazy, right? Read all about my experience at this store here.
Held an eco-friendly event at the office
One of the things I love about working at my office is how big of an impact I could make with my eco-friendly lifestyle. The first month or so of working there, I was given the opportunity to share about my love for the environment. It might not have been me, but I swear it changed the way catering was done at our office. Then, within 3 months afterwards, I was given the opportunity to host a trash-picking challenge at the office along with my friend Dinda. Read all about it here.
Learnt about digital marketing
The most groundbreaking and life-changing part of the past year was meeting our office's Digital Marketer, Mawan. He taught me all things related to digital marketing—things I thought I understood already, but turns out to know squat about. From the get go, I could already tell how smart and intelligent he was and it's always been a pleasure chatting with him. He taught me everything I know about SEO, social media ads and digital marketing in general. He's the polar opposite to who I am as a person, but that's what makes it so interesting to work together. Never in my life did I think my life will go down this path, but I'm loving the view so far.
Managed a herd of interns
When I started interning at my current office, never in my wildest dreams did I think I was going to go full-time and have a herd of interns of my own—in less than a year, no less! It has been insane to have to transition from intern to part-time to full-time, all the while interviewing several people to become my own interns. These kids I would eventually teach all that I know about copywriting, SEO and the works. At the same time, they taught me a lot about the world, about their respective passions and about human relations. I've had to say goodbye to most of them already—and you best believe I cried every time. Mawan—my co-parent on this—has been very helpful at things I'm not very good at, so that's always been a relief.
Never in my whole life did I think 26 was going to be a big year for me—but it was. It started out rather serenely, with no hard feelings for whoever might forget or remember the date. Maybe, without realising it, even back then I knew things were going to be different. It was the year I started to feel like I've earned my years—the first time in such a long time. Everything started to feel like they were falling into place and I couldn't be happier for how things turn out. Life isn't perfect, sure, and in the past year I've made several mistakes too—mistakes that I might even still be making, whether consciously or subconsciously—but I'm starting to feel like an adult again. It's about time, don't you think? Here's to more growth, maturity and accomplishments in the years to come. Thank you for sticking around and for whatever support I'm sure you've given me.
Here it is, the list that you've all been waiting for. Okay, maybe not all, but at least I know one person who's excited to see it—and I hope the rest of you would be too. You might've seen this kind of list floating around Youtube and other parts of the internet; so did I. It's been really inspiring to see other people's lists and snatch one thing or two goals that feel just as close to my heart. It may be a tad too late for me to create such a list, now that I'm 26—gosh, I still can't believe that number represents my age—but it's never too late to create goals and pursue our dreams, I'd say. Also, since this list takes longer to accomplish, I would most likely re-evaluate it from time to time—maybe annually?—to change some things that I no longer prioritise. And I will be keeping at least one of the goals private, I hope you'd understand. So here are my 30 Before 30 goals.
When I made this list last year, I'm sure I was excited about the contents. But, as usual, I didn't expect life to take a great turn. Technically, nothing particularly life-changing happened, but a little surprise came knocking on my door a few months afterwards: Firu came home! It got me rearranging my priorities. To be honest, these lists, for the past few years have felt a whole lot like stalling and keeping myself busy so my mind won't wander to dangerous territory. However, when Firu came and we hashed out so many things and blew everything out in the open, it reshaped my mind and my heart in a way that I haven't felt in such a long time. Long story short, my priorities have been rearranged and it suddenly became clear that there were a lot more important things to accomplish outside of this list, so my will to complete the list fades almost instantly. That being said, I managed to tick a few things off it. Here they are.
1. Read all the Harry Potter series
Probably the first thing on this list I checked off. It was done quicker than I thought and not as painfully insufferable as I had anticipated. To be honest, it didn't intrigue me so much that I couldn't put the book down and needed to race through the series. It wasn't bad, sure, but it was, frankly, not one of the best series I've ever read. However, I did get a much deeper understanding and appreciation for the story as originally written—although I do believe reading the books and watching the movies bring the story together nicely. You can read the full review here, if you want.
3. Design merchandise and start selling them online
I think I mentioned this before, but I actually have a Tictail and Tokopedia store. You can order stuff that I made on either of those stores—one for international orders, one for local orders. To be honest, it's not successful at all. It wasn't until I attended Comic Frontier XI did I manage to sell anything—and, yes, only on the spot. It was a sudden decision on my part too, but a lot more fun than the previous time so I was happy. Afterwards, although I updated my stores, nothing sold at all. The only thing that has ever sold on my Tictail was the commission—and only once. So, if you like my work, please take a look around.
4. Come up with a consistent workout regime
For the past year or so, I've been re-joining my Stepmom's aerobics class across the street from my house. It is the first thing I do on Wednesday morning—and, yes, only meets once a week. Probably not the most optimal of workout regime, but it's as comfortable as I want to do at the moment. And, even then, I still sometimes skip it, with various excuses on the tip of my tongue. However, I've stopped doing that for the past month, so I'm looking for a fresh, new way to work out.
5. Set a monthly budget
This is a tough one. At first, I wanted to do it to manage my money better. Unfortunately, I should've reminded myself that freelancing is hardly financially stable—especially at my level of expertise. But I went with it anyway. I determined the size of the budget and how much would that amount to per month, if I were to meet all my needs. At first, I went easy on myself and added in entertainment budget—for eating out and other luxurious needs—but it turns out to swell up the monthly budget. It was still doable, though I went over it a few times. Later on, as work starts to trickle and money becomes scarce, I ended up not even making enough to fulfil my budget. But at least I did it.
6. Set aside time to work on personal projects
The silver lining to the disaster I brush on above is that I've got plenty of time to do this. In fact, I feel like I've managed to create the most personal work—most of which I end up being quite proud of—in such a long time. After creating a separate instagram account for my illustrations, I became a whole lot more driven to draw and make art. There were various art-specific hashtag challenges that attracted me, including #betterthangold_sketch, #drawinyourstyle and #komik10tahun. They have inspired me to draw and invest my time in my personal projects a lot more. Also, in August I opened a booth at Comic Frontier XI with a few friends, and that really fired me up to create worthwhile work—more on that on no. 14!
7. Create a weekly schedule (and stick to it!)
One of those things that works only at first. I was so excited to do this one, made a template, printed it out and stuck it on my whiteboard behind my desk. Then, unfortunately, it quickly became tedious to change the accounts every week. It probably would've worked better if I had used the whiteboard in itself, but it was already full with numerous illustrations and magnets on it. In the end, I made daily to-do lists instead and it works so much better, although it may not be a good time-management exercise.
8. Take time to take care of my tool and space
This was the year I started to actually take a look at my tools—specifically my laptop and camera. Although, unfortunately, I haven't been able to set aside money to take the camera for a service or buy kits to take care of the lens, I've been really letting my laptop take a break from time to time. For instance, when I know I'll be out of the house for a while or after working it like a horse, I often let shut down my laptop—while I unplug completely and/or go to sleep. It definitely help my tools work better and, especially after organising my desk, it really helps me keep my peace of mind too.
9. Only buy books from my to-read list
I would say this is the most successful one, except for two loopholes. One, if I buy a book that I swear was on my to-read list—and due to some issues, I couldn't check—I would just put it there afterwards, if I couldn't find it on the list. Two, I never say anything about books that I borrow or being given to me by some means. Fortunately, a lot of the books on both these categories have been sitting in my to-read list for a while now. It almost seems like fate! Also, super proud of myself this year for only buying less than 10 books this year. A whole year of only 6 books bought? That is surely unheard of from a bookworm.
11. Do more volunteer work!
I think I made this goal vague on purpose. Now, since I hardly ever do volunteer work anyway, one would literally count as more. Yep, that is the number of volunteer work I managed to do in the past year—and it came to me by pure chance too. One day my friend Rama suddenly asked me to teach a class for children; a creative activity that can produce a sellable item. That was tough. I'm an illustrator, you know, it takes a lot of time and process to be able to sell what I make. In the end, I decided to teach—or more like encourage—the class to draw on tote bags, pouches and t-shirts using their material of choice. As I understand it, they get to sell the products in the end and keep the money, to teach them money management at such a young age. Does that count as volunteer work?
14. Practice going out of your illustration comfort zone
When I wrote down this goal, I don't think I expected to make something so out of my comfort zone to sell—and it actually becomes quite popular among all my work. It is this set of prints for Comic Frontier XI. They are set in a commuter line train and the city bus respectively, depicting my original characters as the main focus. Not only did I use perspective—which I'm not particularly good at—I also played around with the colour in ways that I've never imagined I would use. To think that they are still my usual colour palette too! Granted, for the perspective, I still used photo references, it was quite an experience to have. I can't say I'm now an expert in perspectives, but I do feel more inclined to use more of them in the future. Ahem, they're still available on my Tictail and Tokopedia, if you're interested.
16. Learn how to blog design from scratch
This one wasn't intentional at all. Well, it was something I've been meaning to do, but never got around to doing. Then this semester—yes, the semester that just started last month—I have a class on web building and designing. It's probably not going to make me really good at it from the get go, but the goal was to start learning and that's what I'm doing. So far, we've only gone so far as to learn html and CSS. I'm already pretty experienced with html—and, apparently, some CSS—through this blog, but the class helped me understand the logic and system behind each code. We've only had like 4-5 meetings so far and I already feel my intelligence level raising. We'll see where this leads.
17. Participate in Fanart Friday at least once a month
21. Create an illustration for every "holiday" of my choosing
Okay, this is where I make an executive decision to cancel this goal. I did try doing this for a while. I was quite pumped to start drawing various fanart and illustrations for—well, not holiday, it turns out—important dates. It was really a lot of fun, I must say. The problem arises when it comes to the temporal limit that I set for myself. You see, drawing a Fanart Friday once a month would require perhaps a week to finish—including sketching, revisions, colouring and finishing. That's just not a viable option for the long-term. The same goes with the greetings illustration, as—it turns out—the number of important dates that intrigue me is quite large and frequent. Keep on going on this track, I feel, will actually keep me from growing as an artist. That being said, I feel like the experience taught me a lot—especially in regards to colour study and composition. It won't be the end of me doing this kind of thing, though, just not as often.
18. Take one photo a day (and organise in a folder!)
This was quite impossible and, frankly, patronising of past-me. I probably do take photos everyday—or, at least, most days—but to spend more time on organising these photos on a folder is just ridiculous. I'm not entirely sure what the point of this task was either. Maybe I should appreciate my days more? Maybe I'd like to look back to this year through these snaps? Well, at the very least, let me show this random photo I took from godknowswhere.
19. Discover new places/events to visit
I went crazy with this goal last year—can't believe the number of places and events I managed to visit. Aside from the usual ventures in Surabaya that my sister and I undertake—we visited the Tugu Pahlawan park, which was new for us, by the way—we also visited a lot of places and events that we've never gone to before. In terms of places, we tend to try new restaurants—which you can just see here—but we also managed to do that, by visiting new events. We visited two film festivals in the past year, including Japanese Film Festival—actually caught one of the screenings on my own near midnight—and European Film Festival. We also paid some good deeds in events, such as book for good's Ruang Buku—where we donated a few of our books—and Eco Market—where we donated our waste to waste4change and bought some low-impact tools from the vendors. Even with very little money, we experienced a lot, huh?
20. Watch all Wes Anderson/Satoshi Kon films
Satoshi Kon and Wes Anderson are among my most favourite film directors—and I think it's fun how different their approach to filmmaking is. The amazing thing is their movies are often regarded as bizarre, with a definite unique touch that makes them distinguishable from the crowd. I haven't managed to watch all of their works yet, unfortunately, but I did catch quite a few titles that I hadn't managed to before. From Satoshi Kon, I watched Perfect Blue—which sent chills down my spine the whole time, it was so unsettling—and Millennium Actress—which got me all emotional throughout. From Wes Anderson, I caught The Darjeeling Limited—ever since my former roommate Adit told me this was his favourite, I became intrigued—The Royal Tenenbaums—watched it in three parts as I caught it by pure chance on separate occasions on TV—and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou—I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this one. Definitely will watch more!
23. Organise my working space
Don't really know what to say about this one, so I'll let my earlier post just do it for me.
I think it's about time that I change it up a bit on this front. This year, instead of creating a yearly list titled, as usual, "26 Before 27," I think it's about time that I actually make a 30 Before 30 List. It'll allow me more time to really accomplish some of the big goals and tackle some of the major tasks. It'll be filled with the most important things I want to tick off—my bucket list of the decade, if you will. It's been really inspiring to see this list float pretty much everywhere on the internet, and I think you should make one too—even if you're not sure if you can accomplish them all. If you're curious, my list will be up later this month. Watch this space!
If you saw my 25 Before 26 List, you would know that reading the whole Harry Potter series was one of my goals. Although I've watched all the films—most of them multiple times—I've never finished any of the books before. I don't know why now I'd like to experience that, but I just feel like I ought to. Since there are seven books in total and most of them are rather thick, I thought I'd start straight away, but I really didn't expect to finish so quickly. The experience was like nothing I've ever gone through before, because—as I've mentioned above—I've gone through the story before in an entirely different form. However, just like most book-based films, the story can be quite different in the books, so I'm intrigued to follow it. I think, though, that time is a major factor on how you feel about a certain experience, so I feel like me being in my 20s is a major part on how I feel about the books. And I want to talk about that a little bit.
First Impression
Being someone who has devoured the movies over and over again, it was very difficult for me to take in first impression from the books apart from what I already knew. It got really easy to get carried away comparing the two—mostly siding with the film, unusually, because that's my first experience of the story. What I decided to do, instead, is compare the series to other novels—specifically YA series. Apart from that, I also vowed not to become a Potterhead later on—but that's just my aversion towards anything popular, really. Honestly, at first upon reading the book, I don't feel like it's anything special. Of course, it's probably because I already knew the whole story before and I'm most likely not part of the target market anymore. However, if I were to compare it with, say, Narnia or Percy Jackson, it lacks a lot of qualities, in my opinion. For starters, the writing relies more on "telling" instead of "showing," which is such a shame because I find the storyline rather interesting. A lot of the time, one of the characters would go on a long-winded monologue that can get quite dull. Also, I realise it is meant for kids around 11-17 years of age, but there is barely any metaphors or any form of figurative languages, making the story feel quite bland. The lack of humour is also something worth noting, in my opinion.
Through this experience, however, I realise what makes the series tick. How could it have blown up the way it did? Why do people still declare their undying love towards the series even now? I think it's a beautiful mix between escapism—in the form of offering a magical, unreal world that is so close to our own—and relatibility—by showing the daily life of students not unlike the readers themselves with their teenage struggles and drama. I think J.K. Rowling did very well, in not using outside references and completely reeling the readers in by making her own. One can argue that the world she created is laden with plot holes and not made from scratch, but in inventing her own facts and trivia, she lets her readers experience it for the first time through her books. The self-reference within the books are, to this day, still talked about amongst Potterheads worldwide.
Books vs. Films
One of the first things I've noticed, in terms of deviation from the books, is that the films add in a lot more humour and comedy, that can really bring out the colour in the story. It is often little things that bare no significant effect to the big picture, but create quite a major difference to your experience of it, in my opinion. Films being films, they also create a more action-packed environment, which may as well have left out a great deal of detail that might contribute to a deeper understanding of the whole story in general. Potterheads alike have been exasperated by the omission of characters or events from the film, resulting to changes in the story and roles of certain figures, that may or may not have a bigger part to play in the books. Ginny, for instance, is a commonly known character everyone regrets not having more of in the films—which I think is heard by the filmmakers as they add more of her screen time since the fifth instalment.
Not only omitting, the films also go so far as to change some of the characters' personalities as well as the creatures' form and/or behaviour. The most prominent one I find in the form of Hermione, who in the books are stricter, less devil-may-care and seem quite incapable of much physical activity. In the films, however, she is a lot looser in regards to rules, a lot more capable of humour and isn't so hopeless in terms of body exercise. Harry, too, is slightly different. In the films, he seems to know that his friends are his strength and he should count on them. Snape, to me, is leagues apart in the books and the films. For starters, there's more of a comedic quality to his mannerisms in the films—especially his tendency to smack Ron across the head—and he doesn't seem to favour any of the Slytherins over any student of the other houses'. And, well, several others I could mention, but then we'll be here all day.
The major flaw of the book, to me anyway, is its tendency to drag things on for days and days and days, which could really come off rather boring. There are books that I feel would end a whole lot quicker if certain scenes are cut short several pages—i.e. the Goblet of Fire and the Deathly Hallows. The films, in turn, offer an entirely different outcome—or a fast-paced one—that saves a whole lot of time and still makes sense. Ironically, the Order of the Phoenix—which is obviously the largest book of the lot—doesn't have any lulls or scenes that feels really dragged on. There are too many things going on in that book, sure, but they're all greatly essential to the story—or at least most of them—and will lose meaning or effect if omitted. Strangely, the film managed to fit almost all of them into the limited time it has.
On the other hand, the books also have some great qualities that are not to be forgotten. First of all, the books include a lot more characters, which shows how big Harry's world at Hogwarts actually is. From the films, you would think that Hogwarts is concerned with only Gryffindor and Slytherin—save for Cho Chang + Luna (Ravenclaw) and Cedric (Hufflepuff), I guess. But, it turns out, that Harry knows a lot of people from the other two houses, who may or may not be his comrades later on. Also, it shows a bit more of the history of the characters—with the existence of Fenrir Greyback, for instance. This, however, also becomes a little difficult and kind of unnecessary when the Death Eaters start appearing—because naming each of them when they appear contributes nothing to the story.
The books also reveal a whole lot more about each character's history and background than the films are able to do. It tells the story of Harry's father (and his friends) during their school years, for instance. Also, there's the story of Voldemort's origin, Snape's past, Lupin's background, and even Dumbledore's young romance. Although most of these stories—except for Snape—are not entirely essential to the main plot, they really give the characters a well-rounded personality. It gives depth to the story that offer that relatability to the young readers and it feels almost like sharing secret between friends. While I see why the readers adore this aspect of the story so much, I also understand why the filmmakers choose not to include them in the films.
Concluding Statement
As I've said over and over and over again throughout this post—and book reviews—I know that I am most likely biased towards the films, as I've seen them multiple times first before even trying to read through the books, but in the end I stick by them. I just find my humour and heart fit more with the films than the books. I do feel that the films can be quite unfair on certain parts—specifically Ginny's part in the story—but I would still choose them over the books. That being said, I feel like if we really want to do the story justice, we should consume both versions of the tale. The films allow us to really see what the wizarding world looks like, while the book gives sense and background of it. Also, some adjustments and changes made by the films—i.e. the Ravenclaw symbol and scarf—make more sense to me than the original version of J.K. Rowling's.
Apart from that, though, I don't feel for Harry Potter characters as much as I do for other YA series that I have read in the past. Usually, after a long series like that—and Harry Potter is longer than most series I read—I would feel slightly empty, like I've just lost a friend and I don't know how to move on from it. But, strangely enough, my reading experience felt almost anti-climactic. I didn't like the last book almost at all, although I don't find the ending disappointing or unpleasant—it's a well-deserved ending—but I feel like the delivery isn't packed with the punch it should be. Also, the tendency to "tell" instead of "show" decreases the weight the entire storyline can give the reader, by the end. Of course, all this can also be due to the fact that I am not within its target market anymore. Had I read this, say, 10-15 years earlier I might have an entirely different opinion on these books.
At the time, obviously, Harry Potter opened up a whole new genre and perspective in the world of fiction—or more specifically, YA fiction—not unlike that of Sailor Moon or Astro Boy. It offers entertainment and education in the form of a 7-part series of wizards and witches. It goes way deeper, beyond fantasy and imagination, bringing us back to reality through each character, showing that though they may have magical powers, they are still human with flaws, insecurities and histories, not unlike you and me. I think, before Harry Potter, YA fiction has always skirted off certain topics—death, racism, politics—and J.K. Rowling shook that world by bringing The Boy Who Lived. She also shows that there is no one truly good or truly evil, there is always a reason for everything. Her series manages to bring various serious topics to the surface, teaching children about the real world without them realising it. I think that is magnificent and I admire her for it. At the same time, I feel like a series's success also comes from knowing where to let it end and Harry Potter hasn't managed to do that.
Lastly, I'd like to leave you with a couple of my favourite interviews J.K. Rowling has done—this one and this one—which shape a whole impression I have on the films and influence my view on the books. They might also give you a behind-the-scene insights to the wizarding world as you know it.
