I am not ashamed to say that when the final Harry Potter book came out, I immediately barricaded myself in my room, leaving only for necessary meals. After three straight days and an all-nighter, I had made it through all 759 pages of that gigantic beast of a book.
This was in no way an isolated phenomenon: Countless fans around the world devoted those final days of July 2007 to completing a series 10 years in the making. What made the series such a monumental success was more than just J.K. Rowling’s vivid imagination. Dynamic, relatable characters and real-life applications of the books’ themes solidified the series as an international phenomenon for myriad readers in the Muggle world.
The release of the sixth film of the series last week is a fresh new chapter of Potter mania. Whether we have read the entire series multiple times over or never even touched a book, we were all a part of the Harry Potter generation, witnesses to a phenomenon that took young readers away from computers, televisions and gaming systems to sit still and enjoy the tales of a boy wizard. In this technological age, it is mind-boggling to think that anything, much less an 800-page book, could have the magic to pull us away from our beloved electronics.
But that’s exactly what happened. Rowling’s creation of an entire wizard universe, filled with unique characters, sports and governing systems, among other things, was exactly the escape many needed from the mundanity that pervades our lives.
In a 1997 interview with The Herald of Glasgow, Rowling explained what she considered one of the main appeals of the Harry Potter books.
“Kids are so powerless, however happy they are. The idea that we could have a child who escapes from the confines of the adult world and goes somewhere where he has power, both literally and metaphorically, really appealed to me,” Rowling said.
The immense fan devotion to the books also has a lot to do with readers growing up with the characters, maturing as Harry, Ron and Hermione did in their own world. The series was part of our childhoods, something that provided a kind of companionship for so many years.
That is why it was so difficult for me to finish the final chapter of the final book, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. This endearing aspect of our childhoods was simply finished. I couldn’t come to terms with that fact and sought comfort by starting the entire series over the next day.
Above all, it is the sense of community that is among the most powerful effects of the books. Any book can be read in the privacy of one’s home, but it is the ability to communicate with such a vast international network of fans that makes Harry Potter the behemoth it is. Entire Web sites like Mugglenet.com are forums for fans to discuss, debate and predict all aspects of the Potter universe.
Simply put, the books did in a modern context what few novels in the future will do: become a primary source of entertainment when countless other means of instant gratification surround us. The books were not required texts for a class. The hours we devoted to the series were out of a pure enjoyment and love for the characters and teachings ““ something truly unheard of in this technological age.
Personal enrichment is in no way the only consequence of the Potter phenomenon. A recent article on
CNN.com described real-world actions of fans on behalf of the boy wizard. The Harry Potter Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to involving fans of the series in social activism, has taken the teachings of characters like Dumbledore and applied them to causes such as promotion of literacy via book drives, voter registration and even the war in Darfur.
The group’s founder, Andrew Slack, told CNN that he realized the books could inspire a powerful love for reading.
“I saw that the books weren’t just empowering personally,” Slack said. “The books speak to something that is very unique, because J.K. Rowling has been able to express a story about the importance of love.”
Slack said one such book drive raised more than 13,000 books ““ 4,000 of which went to youths in Rwanda who lived through the brutal 1994 genocide.
Anyone doubting the cultural implications of Harry Potter need only remember the endless lines that wrapped around bookstores during the books’ midnight releases or the equally considerable mania surrounding the series’ films. The fictional nature of Potter’s world in no way negates its significance in the real world, and those of us who have loyally followed the series over the years each have unique stories about the effect of the books on our own lives.
As depressing as it may have been for some to realize that they would not receive that acceptance letter to Hogwarts around their 11th birthday, the enrichment that Rowling’s books brought to so many is undeniable. It is a phenomenon that future generations may find more difficult to understand.
If you were at the midnight showing last week, e-mail Gharibian at cgharibian@media.ucla.edu.