Harry Potter: the phenomenon

[hwdwag]

... the "phenomenal" aspect of the reception of the Harry Potter books has obscured the criteria "for anyone who wants to take literature for young people seriously" ... "the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and we are so taken by the phenomenon that we admire, worship and idolize it without grasping fully why we regard it with so much reverence and

Comments

[natacha92]

I cannot explain it. At all. I guess at the time, to me, it was something completely different and fresh and little after, I found da Intrawebzz and the fandom and finding people that loved it as much as me, people I could talk about it with only made my obsession grow, I guess. Besides, we quickly develop affection for most of the characters, even the smaller ones, so... ugh, I don't know.

[hwdwag]

lol, i've been waiting for a reply all day *hugs* lol. That's so crazy.. no one seems to be able to explain it. This just makes me wonder what I should make of it... are we so deluded by the media TELLING us we should like it that we can't be critical about it? Even I kind of get that feeling, because I always find myself defending choices made in the books and moreso in the films, just because it's Harry Potter which I've spent the last eight years growing up with. Maybe that's why... because he is so rooted in my childhood and that I have literarlly matured along with him. That could explain how its so hard to pinpoint things about Harry especially since I never notice things if they are similar to myself already.. like in Stone.. I was probably just as naive and innocent when it came to the real world. I didn't know about sex or drugs or crime and racism and all those temptations and evils and I guess it could be a metaphor for the real world.. without trying to be, of course.

[natacha92]

Yeah, I think that's how it is for many of us, we matured along with Harry and his friends, so it becomes way deeper than just another book for us to read and love/hate. I don't know about the media bit, though. I had never heard of Harry Potter when I started reading it and, nowadays at least, I hear more bad things about it than good things in the media, but the power of teh wizards is just too great for them to kill, lmfao.

[hwdwag]

True. Though, I read a thread on the Leaky Lounge (lol) to do a bit of research into reader's responses and found a lot of them started reading because everyone else at school was and they wanted to find out what the fuss was about. So then you sort of get that thing happening where people hear about how everyone ELSE is LOVING it either from friends or on tv and they sort of feel compelled to find out if its any good.. and then, maybe out of fear of rejection they say they love it too, without really thinking about it. All this is subconscious, mind you.. I don't think anyone is that vain. Well, you do get those people who hate Harry because its cool, if you know what I mean. So, I guess it could go both ways. It's kind of a fad. I don't think Harry is as popular amongst other age groups as it is in ours. My brother, for example, is just turning 13 next week and he doesn't read the books. He'll watch the movies, and like them, but he can't be bothered to read the books... either because he feels he doesn't need to, or he just isn't