Brown: Harry Potter's spell is powerful
Why the boy wizard's epic story is one for the ages
By Jesse Brown (Contact)
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last entry of the famous book series, was released this summer to the eager public with thunderous applause. While this is no review for the last book or the last movie, this is a salute to Harry Potter for its huge impact on our pop culture. I mean kids are actually reading again. When I was a kid, somebody would have to force me to read a book. These days, many others and I crave for something like Harry Potter, hence the astronomical popularity about a boy wizard and his journey to adulthood and maturity, and what a story it was.
It is amazing to think that such an idea for a book was once just a little seed in J.K. Rowling’s mind that quickly grew to a phenomenon. It has penetrated the pop culture sphere of influence directly and indirectly. While the direct influence is obvious, it has indirectly found its way into other forms of pop culture. In Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code , his main character Robert Langdon makes a joke about Harry Potter outselling The Bible. Saturday Night Live made a skit within the Harry Potter universe using its terms and concepts as sexual innuendo while Lindsay Lohan as Hermione Granger waving her wand showing a lot of cleavage while the other characters just watch. According to Rowling’s official website, she was delayed on a train for four hours when the idea of Harry Potter came to her. In just those four hours, with just that little idea, she created the icon that would turn her into the richest woman in Britain.
I think we should really appreciate such a phenomenon, because the size of the impact the Harry Potter series left do not come so often. I would assume its safe to say that the last great similar impact on pop culture was the original Star Wars trilogy. I honestly wish I would have known and read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone back when it came out in 1997 but I wasn’t aware of its presence until the first movie came out. At first, I did not see the appeal of Harry Potter. I just thought it was kids stuff. Then I saw the second movie and it got me thinking: Harry Potter is growing up through each book and I expected it would become more mature and exciting for someone my age to read. This was of course, after my craze for The Lord of the Rings series was satisfied with the movie trilogy. So I gave the first book a try and it was entertaining but when I finished the chapter titled, “The Mirror of Erised,” I put the book down and realized that this was more than just children’s literature; this had emotions and heartache on the page that hopefully, most kids do not know at the age of 11. The love for Harry Potter and his adventures now had a heavy beating heart and fans worldwide were beating with it.
Although the supposedly last book has just come out, will that be the end of Potter mania? While plans have been made to make Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince with the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix director David Yates and with the whole cast returning, it is safe to assume Warner Bros. will make the seventh installment which guarantees Potter mania will last a little longer but will it be as strong? Has the Star Wars mania really ended? I would agree that fans still crave Star Wars, hence the prequel trilogy, the new television series that is being created focusing on other characters in the Star Wars universe, and the numerous books and games that are created within the Star Wars universe. Are we to think, that after the movies and the rich universe that J.K. Rowling created, that that would be the end of it?
Reasons to keep Potter mania continuing are numerous: the money that could be made but what means most to us fans is that we just want more. Whether if its popularity falters or not, the phenomenon of Harry Potter is an experience that I was happy to participate in. While the future of Harry Potter is in the dark right now, I do not think we have seen the last of him.
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