The first international gathering of fans of the children's books turns out to be mostly female.
By Associated Press
Published July 20, 2003
LAKE BUENA VISTA - Harry Potter is popular with children, but hundreds of adults are at Disney's Swan Hotel to explore grownup themes in the stories of the mop-topped magician.
Throughout the weekend at Nimbus 2003, the first international Harry Potter convention, every possible aspect of J.K. Rowling's bestselling novels will be discussed.
The 2,715 pages of Rowling's five books will inform workshops such as "It's Not Easy Being Hermione: Harry Potter and the Paradox of Girl Power"; "Harry Potter and Stoic Virtue"; and "Jewish Perspectives on Harry Potter."
Nimbus 2003 also will give grownup Potter fans a chance to meet friends they've only known online.
On the Internet, fans spend hours each week debating possible plot twists and characters and even borrowing Rowling's characters to create their own stories.
While kids may be the ones propelling Harry Potter onto bestseller lists, organizers purposely made this an adults-only event.
That's fine with the participants, most of whom discovered the adult online discussions - which include literary criticism and wickedly good humor - on Web sites such as fictionalley.org or the Yahoo member site Harry Potter for Grownups.
Inside the hotel's colorful halls, wizards' hats and long black robes have temporarily replaced Mickey Mouse T-shirts on the throngs of women.
The crowd is about 90 percent female.
"I think some men are afraid to be labeled, in part because of the Trekkie-nerdy phenomenon," said John Kusalavage, 58, a retired doctor and fan who lives in Aiken, S.C.
"But if they knew there were so many women here, they'd think again."
