Harry Potter’s Impact on Pop Culture
Category: Books, Films, Harry Potter, Opinion, Science Fiction
published July 9th, 2005
As the release date for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince grows ever closer, expect to see article after article written about Harry Potter (kind of like this one really). In this case, I happened to find an interesting article by the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the effect Harry Potter has had on pop culture.
To be honest the article overstates things by suggesting it is Harry Potter alone who has shifted the balance of popularity from science fiction to fantasy. In the book world at least, I think the likes of Terry Brooks and particularly recently Robert Jordan had a lot to do with that particular sea change. Still the increase in fantasy movies and tv shows is unprecedented and Harry Potter can surely be thanked for that.
It's also true that Harry Potter has had a positive effect on book sales and on sales to children in particular. That has probably fed through to considerably more fantasy books for children being published. Which is a good thing in my book.
Actually while the article uses Harry Potter as a jumping on point, it is really looking at the fields of fantasy and science fiction as a whole and how it seems as though the popularity of science fiction is dwindling in written form, yet still growing on the big screen and even on tv. Though I'm not sure how well the tv argument holds up since all the sci-fi shows keep getting canceled.
But a detail the article doesn't bring up, which I think is key, is that science fiction movies usually have more in common with fantasy than they do with written science fiction. Really Star Wars is a fantasy story not a science fiction one. The same is true of the Matrix.
Pure science fiction, of the sort that fans of the literary genre appreciate, is much harder to find on screen. But that probably says more about the natural appeal of the two genres than anything else. Movies are a mass market medium, novels are a niche market. The reason that Harry Potter is such a success is that J. K. Rowling was able to create a character and world which moved from the niche market to the mass market.
Link: Atlanta Journal Constitution
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his his website eoghann.com.| 2.9 |
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2 Comments ... Have Your Say!
Milander (Profile) April 13th, 2008 -
Harry Potter books, while a commercial success especialy for JK Rowling, have had little effect on encouraging kids to read. In fact an article on the BBC who interviewed a whole bunch of parents said that many kids were asking for the books simply because their friends had them. The books were duly bought and then used as door stoppers in the kids room, ie plunked on the shelf unread.
The books are fine, not too intellectual, not too stupid and reasonably thought out. Bottom line is that, while they are a cultural phenomonen, they are the Spice Girls of literature in that no-one is going to be reading them in 20 years.
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July 10th, 2005 -
Ugh. Never got into Harry Potter personally. I’ll admit, that I never gave it a chance, but it’s just one of those things that doesnt seem to draw me in from the outside. I know alot of people love it–and maybe it’s for good reason, but somehow I doubt I’ll ever become a fan. I’ll stay with the Lord of the Rings movies and be happy–in my opinion, that is what’s really “shifted the balance” to fantasy from science fiction in recent movie history.