Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

With all the hype currently about the latest Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, there’s post at Monotonous dot net asking just what is so special about Harry Potter. The author does enjoy fantasy books, but doesn’t “get” the excitement about Harry Potter.

Its a fair question. Harry Potter is hardly the first fantasy book series. It’s not even the first children’s fantasy book series. Both the Chronicles of Narnia and The Dark is Rising books are at least equally deserving of the accolades and attention which are showered on Harry Potter.

But they don’t get it, and there’s a number of reasons for that. For one thing, the Potter books are being published in an era where synchronized marketing campaigns are the norm. The books do well so we see articles in newspapers, that leads to coverage on the tv, which leads to a film, which in turn leads to more articles in newspapers and more tv coverage. It’s self feeding, at least until there are no new books or films to talk about.

Which is the second point. The series I mentioned are complete. There’s no new ones coming out which removes most of the marketing aspects which draw people’s attention. Those current children’s fantasy series which do have further books to be published will not get the same attention Harry Potter gets because rightly or wrongly, they will be seen as copies, clones or derivatives of Harry Potter. Being the first to be recognized has certain advantages.

There are other reasons though for Harry Potter’s popularity that are not related to marketing, but rather to the decisions which the writer J. K. Rowling made while writing the books. First off she has aged her characters and evolved her writing style accordingly with each book. This has allowed her not only to grab children of a certain age with each book, but also keep a hold of many of her existing fans. This increasing sophistication has also encouraged more and more adults to read the books too.

Another factor working in favor of Harry Potter over other fantasy books is the fact that Harry Potter is set in the “real” world. Many people who find themselves unable to suspend their disbelief enough to read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or the Lord of the Rings have no problem reading Harry Potter. Sure their are magical elements, but in each book we start off in the grounded “real” world and thats where we end up again at the end of each book.

But all of that sounds very dry and I think whats really so great about Harry Potter is that fantasy or not, its a story and characters that most people can relate to.

Link: Monotonous dot net - Harry Who?