Potter-mania thrives despite embargoes and bans

It’s hard to compare, I know, but I don’t recall anyone standing in line at a book store forty years ago waiting for the newest Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mystery to be unveiled. What a difference a few decades of high-tech hype make!
A couple hundred fans squeezed into our own independent bookseller, Mendocino Book Company, for the Saturday, July 21, 12:01 a.m. countdown to celebrate the new Harry Potter release. After competing in contests, watching Potter films and munching popcorn, then more schmoozing and book-talking, I watched with other locals as bookstore owner Ann Kilkenny refused to open the guarded cartons of books one second too soon.
With seven Harry Potter novels – and no more to come, J.K. Rowling has by chance, then by design, placed her phenomenal and controversial series in the forefront of today’s readers of all ages. The internationally-renowned series may have grown darker, but its popularity has not faded; rather, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows parks at the number one spot on bestseller lists – as expected.
Helping to build Potter momentum was the calculated release of the fifth Harry Potter film on July 10. The midnight opening show was filled to capacity, overflowing with Potter-mania. Customary for Ukiah’s Regal Theater Potter film openings, Caleb Meek-Bradley continued as honorary emcee dressed in his Hogwarts cloak and other Potter fixtures – the hairdo, black-rimmed glasses and necktie. Armed with his wand, recent Ukiahi grad Caleb (Potter) warmed up the audience with trivia questions during the last few minutes before show time. A great number of those costumed fans were again seen in their regalia at the new book release party. These were not just pre-teens, but adolescents and adults as well!
Rowling may not be the first series writer to capture and hold universal interest; but she is doing it right now and very successfully - with readers aged 7 to 70. That’s hard to do – just ask most authors! Billed originally as children’s literature, her books are also a hit with mainstream, adult audiences whether they speak English , Greek or …Parseltongue.
How popular are they? Well, though an embargo was in effect until 12:01 a.m. last Saturday, July 21, the mail arrival of some books (what a weight on postal shoulders!) plus scanned pages via the internet made it available early to unscrupulous fans. But, don’t worry, I won’t spoil the end for you – in fact, I’m just now reading book six. Yes, I lag behind; but I always get there.
Rowling’s official and very interesting website (http://www.jkrowling.com/) is her personal attempt to handle the constant deluge of fan responses to her writing. A better example of a young, struggling writer’s success story is hard to find. But, some would definitely like to shorten her time in the sun.
Her books of fantasy (a fact many critics and hard-line Christians often forget) have perhaps put a metaphorical spell on many of us. But, it’s hard not to see ourselves in her characters and their struggles with fate and with each other. Admit it - countless stories of witches and spells have entertained children for the last few centuries!
Controversy can work magic for a writer’s book sales; her books’ banning by alarmists and “goodness protectors” is not necessarily a bad thing. Her statement during last year’s Banned Book Week (posted on her webpage) admits, “Once again, the Harry Potter books are featured on this year’s list of must-banned books. As this puts me in the company of Harper Lee, Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger, William Golding, John Steinbeck and other writers I revere, I have always taken my annual inclusion on the list as a great honour. ‘Every burned book enlightens the world.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson.”
One embargo-breaker reviewed the book a day before its release, but thankfully didn’t spoil much. New York Times Writer Michiko Kakutani did say it is, “a somber book that marks Harry’s final initiation into the complexities and sadnesses of adulthood.”
No matter your age, you can feel for Harry – either you’re in the throes of growing up, or you can recall the hard-flung emotions which chipped away at the child in each of us. Potter’s magic attracts us to Rowling’s characters; we would like some magic added to our life stories, perhaps.
Staying up late – again with Potter-costumed Ukiahans was a novelty for me, but I discovered via the internet some lengths to which many Potter fans went to celebrate. Dropping countdown balls, together with fireworks and popular bands playing across the globe, fans found numerous exciting ways to usher in the last of this book’s era. What is exciting for bibliophiles like me is to see such a to-do about a book that millions of people will stand in line to buy for $35.
What is the big deal? Arthur A. Levine, the Scholastic editor who first bought the United States rights for Rowling’s book, says “I think there is something that is extremely special about having lived through the first wave…But when I read Jane Austen for the first time, I didn’t feel like ‘Darn, I wish I’d been there when Jane was out there letting them go for the first time.’ ”
At the end of the day, Levine said in a Times article, a reader’s experience is a “special, one-on-one intimate experience whenever you have it.” To which I say, “Amen – and thank you, Ms. Rowling!”