She’s waiting for July 21, the release date of the seventh and final book. Then she plans to scoop up “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and the rest of the archive and absorb the Pottermania experience in one summer binge. She forbids friends to discuss the boy magician’s tribulations or his impending showdown with Voldemort. No spoilers, please.
It’s hard to judge which is the more daunting challenge: Reading all 4,125 pages of J.K. Rowling’s chronicle of the Wizarding World at a go, or remaining a “muggle” (Rowling’s word for nonmagical people) for the 10-year run of her books.
What other cultural phenomena encouraged parents to buy poop for their children? The first wave of Potterphanalia included the “Eeylops Owl Emporium Diagon Alley Kit.” It featured three owl pellets - partially digested remains of mice and whatever else the owl had for dinner - as a magical science experience for kids to dissect. Birthdaypartyideas.com suggests renaming chocolate-covered raisins “owl pellets” to bring a magical touch to a Potter-themed birthday. This takes potty humor to a new level.
And yet, such success may have built an equally high wall of exclusivity around the boy wizard and his school. Some people have a natural aversion to subjects with as much marketing as the Harry Potter franchise has acquired. There’s a hip aspect, like being the only person who never watched “Seinfeld.”
Pottermania missed some significant segments of society. In 2004, some wag published a bumper sticker that read “Republicans for Voldemort.” Both Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Brown and Democratic candidate Brian Schweitzer professed ignorance n they’d never heard of the arch-nemesis of the wizarding world or which office he was running for.
It may be sheer bulk. University of Montana education professor Rhea Ashmore specializes in children’s literature. But she couldn’t find the stamina to read all six books.
“‘The Lord of the Rings’ had that magic number three,” Ashmore said. “I’m a trilogy gal. With Harry Potter, I read the first three, and then dropped out completely after that.”
Even so, she finds the books excellent from a teaching perspective. They provide some of the best lessons in writing style, theme development, characterization, symbolism, figurative language and understatement a teacher could wish. They also are such reader magnets, teachers need do little to prompt a child to try them.
“Educators face that every day, getting kids to become readers,” Ashmore said. “If a youngster is reading, I’m thrilled, whether it’s one book and dropping out, or going to the seventh. It’s remaining a phenomenon. It hasn’t burnt out.”
The Potter movies haven’t helped. Ask any fan about them, and the conversation quickly leads to the cutting-room floor, where all their favorite scenes and characters were pruned out.
“The surprise hit of the summer is ‘Transformers,’” said Pharaohplex Theater owner Joe McLean. “It’s about a toy, but it’s also a fun movie anybody can like. Not everybody’s a Potter fan. There are some people who watch it because they watch everything. Other people, not so much. You have to be familiar with the characters, familiar with the book. There’s a lot to know.”
At Tuesday’s midnight preview of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” Missoula resident Scott Bollen came in a T-shirt with the word “muggle” on it. He said he’d seen all the movies, but never read any of the books. Even that way, he sensed how much was missing.
“I prefer some of the other films,” Bollen said in the parking lot as the 3 a.m. crowd faded away. “They were more eventful. This one didn’t go through the whole school time. It skipped right to the fighting.”
Like J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, J.K. Rowling has amassed a daunting mountain of characters, species, locations, events and backstories. She has a penchant for introducing an idea in one book, ignoring it in the next, and heaping significance on it in a subsequent volume.
One character’s pet rat performed no useful function for three books before it was revealed as a major character in disguise. No sooner did that character hit the stage then he was essentially erased for the next three books. But he’s predicted to have a big role to play before the end, and there’s only one book left. And one of the rules in Rowling’s world is that predictions are important and usually come true.
Keeping all that straight is a cottage industry in itself. The No. 4 New York Times bestseller in children’s paperback literature today is “Mugglenet.com’s ‘What Will Happen in Harry Potter No. 7’.” Encyclopedic Web sites offer search engines to ferret out obscure characters (just who was Ravenclaw’s house ghost?). There are also fan-created interactive maps of Hogwarts’ Castle halls and rooms.
That would intimidate most casual wizarding fans, let alone pureblooded muggles. Internet debates on the trustworthiness of Professor Severus Snape glean arcana from all six books, plus all of Rowling’s published interviews, the circumstances surrounding her “no comment” responses and various literary or mythological traditions she may have based him on.
Those who scoff at this obsessive love of detail forget the long history of such passions. Trekkies greet each other with Vulcan handsigns. Deadheads wrangle over which August 1976 concert bootleg has the definitive version of “Saint Stephen.” Model railroaders prowl garage sales for the mountain goat logo of the Great Northern line. Sherlock Holmes wannabes bore into British weather archives to see if there truly was fog on the downs when the Hound of the Baskervilles ran amok.
Beyond that, Rowling leaves us a pile of examples to reflect on. Her books are full of opportunities to choose between the good and the easy, the thorough and the quick, and mercy or justice. Her characters make decisions that don’t always work out, or have ramifications that don’t become clear until chapters or years later.
Potter has his detractors. He’s been called a wizard jock, dependent on friends to do his homework and his parents’ riches to support his lifestyle. It hasn’t become a staple of school reading programs in part because of the potential controversy over its magical themes.
MCPS Assistant Superintendent Gail Becker said Rowling’s books haven’t been included in any curriculum plan but are kept in the library by popular demand. That allows parents to have some choice what their children read, she said.
Whether or not Harry Potter survives the Deathly Hallows, his fans know they’re doomed. Rowling has sworn the story ends with the seventh book, and she will write no more tales of Harry’s adult life. We’ll have to find something else to make bookstores cool again.
UM’s Ashmore remains upbeat.
“There’ll be another phenomenon,” she said. “Some people thought the world was coming to an end when the ‘Lord of the Rings’ was coming to an end. There will be something else to read. It’s just not out there yet.”
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