A long time ago, in a boarding school for young wizards far, far away...
A long time ago, in a boarding school for young wizards far, far away...
Uh, wait...wrong story. Or is it?
Originally I had intended to review the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, but it didn't take me long to realize what a redundancy this would be. Even if you're one of the few folks left on the planet who haven't read any if not all of the four books, you can't possibly have missed hearing about them or about Ms. Rowling's sudden rise from single Mom on the dole in Edinburgh to the hottest thing the publishing world has seen since...well, ever.
Harry Potter, the young hero with the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, has captured the imaginations of the world's children - and many of its adults, as well. My Mom is just as Harry Potter mad as my 11-year-old niece Sarah; I see plenty of folks reading the books on the commuter train each morning during the week; my sister Kathy was reading the first book while sitting in the gynecologist's waiting room, and when he came in to get her he pointed out that he too was reading the books! It would appear that anybody who's anybody knows Harry.
So, what is it that makes Harry so popular? When Steve gave me the first three books for Christmas in 1999, I got to experience first-hand the spell they weave around their readers; these were easily the most exciting children's books I'd come across in a long time, and the fact that adults were going for them as well says something about their universal appeal. Their very popularity intrigued me as much as the story, and so I put a lot of thought into the reason behind it. In doing so, I began to draw a parallel between an equally popular phenomena that took place about twenty years ago...
In a nutshell: you have a young orphan, living with an aunt and uncle, who dreams of a quite different kind of life. Quite suddenly, his life changes: he learns he possesses a plethora of untapped powers; he leaves the place of his childhood to seek his destiny and to try to realize his potential under the tutelage of an old, wise wizard; he learns he has a cruel and powerful enemy in the guise of another wizard - a wizard responsible for him being a orphan...
Shall I keep going, or is this beginning to sound familiar?
But before anyone thinks I'm accusing J.K. Rowling of plagiarizing the Star Wars franchise, let me point out that George Lucas wasn't coming up with anything new, either. Harry Potter may have a lot in common with a young Luke Skywalker (though more appealing to me because he's much less of a whiner than Luke was!), but he could also be seen as a young Arthur hauling Excalibar out of a big rock back in the Dark Ages. Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Harry's school, may have a lot in common with Ben Kenobi, but he also has a lot in common with Merlin. The evil, inhuman Voldemort (sorry for saying his name) reminds one of the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, but they both share an ancestor in Queen Mab.
To quote my brother Tim from his Good Will Hunting review:
"Okay, so some parts of the story-line seem a little well used. There is an old aphorism in writing that there is no plot idea so good that a bad writer can't butcher it, nor a plot so trite and over-used that a good writer can't make it fresh. Affleck and Damon make this plot fresh."
And so does Rowling make it fresh: brilliantly, wittily fresh. All in all a brilliant combination, for who among us can resist a thrilling adventure tale chronicling a basic conflict between good and evil, in which a heroic underdog gets by through talent, wit and sheer luck? It's a story we've experienced and learned to love since childhood.
Nor are these books old and "fussy." The author impressed me by her uncanny instinct for what will make a child laugh (or an adult, for that matter). And of course, with her handling of basic conflicts that every child - wizard or Muggle - must face. Part of what makes Harry so appealing are the everyday scrapes (with a magical twist, of course) that he gets into: anxiety over being the new boy, a fight with his best friend, getting blown off by his first crush...these are the things that kids Harry's age go through, and his fortitude in dealing with them both makes him real and endears him to the reader.
One thing regarding these books that I feel I must address: there is one school of thought out there, held by some conservative Christian groups, that these books are unhealthy for kids because of the frank and light way they treat witchcraft and magic. In this writer/reader/Christian's opinion, this is complete and utter nonsense. I don't know any non-Christian who is not a Christian because they believed in Santa Claus, celebrated Halloween, or read charming books by people like J.K. Rowling when they were children. I also happen to know plenty of Christians who did all of the above, and I don't notice that it affected their beliefs one way or the other. If you decide to be "Dursleyish" about the whole thing (for you Muggles out there, this means narrow-minded and fearful), you won't be protecting your kids by keeping these books from them. You'll only be depriving them of a wonderful, imagination-enhancing childhood experience.
January 2001
