Harry Potter Fandom Also Paved The Way For The Mainstreaming Of Fandom And Geek Culture
Harry Potter has a tremendously outsized cultural reach: One 2011 survey suggested that a third of all American adults ages 18 to 34 at the time had read at least one of the books. But what really makes Harry Potter stand out is the way people loved Harry Potter.
First and foremost, the series helped make it cool to be a geek. People generally didnt read the Harry Potter books in isolation they wanted to talk about it with their friends, and then find more friends who loved the books as much as they did. This pattern coincided with the rise of Web 2.0 that is, an increasingly interactive and social internet. As more Harry Potter fans became more active online, they made discussion of YA fiction, fantasy, and science fiction seem commonplace.
And Harry Potter fans creativity is still being felt in and outside of the fandom. In the early 2000s, Harry Potter fan forums, fanfiction and fan art archives, and email discussion groups exploded across the internet. Harry Potter conventions drew thousands of fans, and Harry Potter cosplay became a well-known sight at larger geek and comic cons.
A number of Harry Potter fans also went on to make significant marks on mainstream culture. As a member of the University of Michigan theater troupe Starkid, a young Darren Criss starred as Harry Potter in the viral YouTube video A Very Potter Musical, and his popularity catapulted him into the role of Blaine on Glee and a career on Broadway.
Subsequent Harry Potter Publications
Harry Potter and the Cursed ChildPalace TheatreWest End
Rowling has said it is unlikely she will write any more books in the Harry Potter series. In October 2007, she stated that her future work was unlikely to be in the fantasy genre. On 1 October 2010, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Rowling stated a new book on the saga might happen.
In 2007, Rowling stated that she planned to write an encyclopaedia of Harry Potter‘s wizarding world consisting of various unpublished material and notes. Any profits from such a book would be given to charity. During a news conference at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre in 2007, Rowling, when asked how the encyclopaedia was coming along, said, “It’s not coming along, and I haven’t started writing it. I never said it was the next thing I’d do.” At the end of 2007, Rowling said that the encyclopaedia could take up to ten years to complete.
In June 2011, Rowling announced that future Harry Potter projects, and all electronic downloads, would be concentrated in a new website, called Pottermore. The site includes 18,000 words of information on characters, places and objects in the Harry Potter universe.
Inspiration And Mother’s Death
Rowling worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary in London for Amnesty International, then moved with her boyfriend to Manchester where she worked at the Chamber of Commerce. In 1990, she was on a four-hour delayed train trip from Manchester to London when the idea “came fully formed” into her mind for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry. When she reached her Clapham Junction flat, she began to write immediately.
In December 1990, Rowling’s mother Anne died after ten years suffering from multiple sclerosis. Rowling was writing Harry Potter at the time and had never told her mother about it. Her mother’s death heavily affected Rowling’s writing, and she channelled her own feelings of loss by writing about Harry’s grief in greater detail in the first book.
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Your Old ‘harry Potter’ Books Could Be Worth Over $100000 Now
It’s time to dig through your childhood novel collection because your old Harry Potter books may be worth a small fortune.
One U.K.-based auctioneering house has been selling first-edition Harry Potter books and the price tags are astounding.
Hansons 1607704010.0
Some of the novels are going for over CAD $100,000, according to Hansons Auctioneers.
One woman sold a forgotten hardcover on her shelf for $84,500 after discovering how rare it was, reports CTV News.
According to AbeBooks, there’s a relatively simple way to tell if your Harry Potter books were one of the first printed back in 1997.
“The main characteristics of a 1997 first edition first printing are a print line that reads “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1″ and the crediting of ‘Joanne Rowling’ not J.K.,” says the site.
The line of numbers represents the printing edition and can be found on the copyright page of the book.
If either of those characteristics matches your childhood copy, you could be in a position to become a whole lot richer.
Narcity may receive a small commission if you purchase something we recommend in this article, which was created by the Narcity Shop team. Items are in stock and prices are confirmed at the time of publishing, but they can change at any time.
Fall home decor is all about texture, colour and warmth, so here are 17 inexpensive items that’ll evoke all those nice, cozy feelings.
Books In The Harry Potter Series
- Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child although a script and not a novel, it was advertised as the eighth story in the series
On film Harry Potter was portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe, at the time a relatively unknown child actor. His friends Ron and Hermione were played by Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, respectively. Irish actor Richard Harris assumed the role of Dumbledore for the first two films and was replaced after his death by Michael Gambon for the remainder of the series. Voldemort was played by Ralph Fiennes, and his followers included Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy and Helena Bonham Carter as the mad witch Bellatrix Lestrange, among others.
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Harry Potters Us Publication Made It A Bonafide Phenomenon
Harry Potter did fine when it first emerged in the UK 20 years ago, winning a Smarties Award and garnering respectable sales for its publisher, Bloomsbury. But it only started to approach phenomenon levels when Scholastic bought the US publication rights for an astonishing $105,000, about 10 times more than the average foreign rights sale at the time.
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The first Harry Potter book wasnt perfect, but it was magic
Arthur Levine, the Scholastic editor who acquired the books, had an excellent eye for British books that would work in the US, having already acquired the US rights to Redwall and His Dark Materials. But even he didnt know that Harry Potter would grow as big as it did. He just knew that he loved it and wanted to publish it. Scholastic President Barbara Marcus Barbara Marcus kept saying do you love it? and Arthur said yes, so we went for it, a Scholastic spokesperson recalled in 2002. I would have been willing to go further than that if I had to,” Levine said in 2007.
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The first Harry Potter book wasnt perfect, but it was magic
The $105,000 sale granted Harry Potter two things: a built-in publicity hook, and a big budget.
The hook came from the press: Newspapers featured articles about the little English book that had garnered such a huge sale. Reviewers wanted to know what kind of book would justify that kind of money. It was a curiosity, and as such, it was a story.
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Binge Watching: Everything You Need To Know
Consuming endless hours of television is kind of a staple of nowadays media culture. The binge watching guide below is the result of my extensive research on the history and psychology of binge watching. Read more to learn about its dangers and how you can turn this phenomenon into a positive experience!
What To Read To Younger Children When Harry Potter Gets Too Dark
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the last book in the Harry Potter sequence that feels good to read to most younger children, but what to fill the gap with while they wait to be old enough to read the last four books? The Book Doctor has magical ideas from Diana Wynne Jones to Eva Ibbotson
I read Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone to my seven year old and we then went straight onto Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He loved both of these titles so we moved immediately onto Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. However, it is a much darker book and the subsequent titles get darker still so I have paused with the sequence for now. Can you recommend any books with a similarly magical theme which would be suitable for an eight-year-old to listen to?
For many reasons, pausing in the seven book Harry Potter sequence seems like a good idea. As you say, there is a very noticeable difference even between Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and its a difference that grows as the series progresses. The darkness as represented by the malevolence of Voldemorts world and the sense of his increasing power begins to outweigh the magical fun of Hogwarts which so sustains Harry in the beginning.
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Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban
Another birthday, but this time not forgotten. Birthday presents arrived just after one oclock on July 31st. Harry was officially 13 years old for a whole hour.
The whole school year passed on trying to solve mysteries, and in the end, after saving two innocent lives of Sirius Black and Buckbeak, Harry went back to his aunt and uncle for the summer holidays. We saw him off one month before his 14th birthday.
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Book number five started on August 2nd, just a few days after Harry became 15 years old.
Almost thrown out of school but defended by Albus Dumbledore, Harry proceeded with his fifth year at Hogwarts fighting the Ministry and running an underground fighting club, Dumbledores Army.
As we thought the events couldnt get any more difficult for Harry, he was just one and a half months short of his 16th birthday when he lost his beloved godfather, Sirius Black.
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The Harry Potter Films
The Harry Potter books have been made into eight films which were released between 2001 and 2011.
The films star English actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in the leading roles of Harry Potter and his best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
The films are terrific for adults and for children although, as with the books, they get progressively darker and more scary with more adult themes as you progress through the series. With that in mind, it can be a good idea to watch them yourself before you introduce your younger children to them.
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Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
The second book started just over one month after the end of the first one, on Harrys 12th birthday. A very sad event with no presents, no letters, and having to pretend that he doesnt exist.
When he went to Hogwarts again, in a flying car this time, Harry was twelve years old and ready to face his second year at school. After the great ordeal with the poisonous King of Serpents, Harry went back to Privet Drive, being 12 years and 11 months old.
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Harry Potter Age In Each Movie
Before going onto the age of the wizarding genius for each movie, well go over a summary of each one so you have enough context to process the information.
You may even reflect on your own time during school, especially if you remember when the original fictional movie series or even book series was released.
Read further below if youre curious about this subject.
The Harry Potter Series
The Harry Potter series by J K Rowling is brilliant to read aloud to your child but when’s the best age to start?
My husband started reading the first Harry Potter book – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – to our twin sons when they were six. .
This was in 2001 when everyone was first talking about the books and the four of us were keen to find out what all the fuss was about.
And for our two at least, six turned out to be exactly the right age to start reading the Harry Potter series. The boys absolutely loved reading a chapter a night and their dad and I also loved discovering the story with them.
Each Harry Potter book is just a little bit more complex than the one before. For our boys and for millions of other kids around the world, this meant that they were pretty much growing up with Harry and his friends as they read their way through the series.
We read the first three books aloud as a family and have some very special memories of these times. My daughter was only three when we were reading them but she snuggled up on the bed to listen too and the experience seems to have inspired in her a life-long love of all things Harry Potter.By the time Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out in 2005, my boys were eight and keen to tackle it on their own. The only problem was, they both wanted to be the first in the family to read it!
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How Old Was Harry Potter When He Went To Hogwarts
Harry Potter was 11 years old when he went to Hogwarts.
The Quill of Acceptance in Hogwarts chooses newborn wizards and witches, who receive a letter before their 11th birthday stating their acceptance into the school.
Like Hermione, some young witches and wizards have to wait almost a whole year to attend Hogwarts. Hogwarts Train leaves September 1st. Everyone whose birthday happens to be after that date has to wait until next September rolls around.
Books After Harry Potter
Artemis Fowl 12 year old Artemis Fowl is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history! This series combines folklore, fantasy, and a fistful of high tech funk with its fairies. This is the first book in a series of 8 books.
Grade Level: 5-9
The Land of Stories Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book series, twins Alex and Conner leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face to face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about. A 5 book series.
Grade Level: 3-7
Warriors: Into the Wild For generations, four Clans of wild cats have shared the forest according to the laws laid down by their ancestors. But the warrior code is threatened, and the ThunderClan cats are in grave danger. The sinister ShadowClan grows stronger every day. Noble warriors are dying and in the midst of this chaos, an ordinary house cat named Rusty appears.who may be the bravest warrior of them all. This is the first book in a series of 6 books.
Grade Level: 5-7
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Ways To Make Reading Harry Potter Fun
For many children, teens, and young adults, Harry Potter is cited as the series that made them fall in love with reading. But some children just arent as inclined to read as others, and they may need some other immersive, engaging activities to get them interested in reading the books. Here are some ideas to help turn your kids into readers!
- Start a Harry Potter book club. Invite your childs friends along with their parents to read the books along with you. Try to assign a couple of chapters each week or two, and meet up to discuss your thoughts. You can ask trivia questions, play games, or include fun activities like taking a sorting house test.
- Whip up some delicious Wizarding recipes. Whether it be for the book club or just for a fun surprise, try recreating a recipe from the books with your kids. There are plenty of unofficial Harry Potter cookbooks and recipes out there. Heres a chocolate frog recipe to get you started!
- Have a game night- Harry Potter style. If you have an Xbox, Playstation, Switch, or another compatible gaming system, offer to play Lego Harry Potter with your children. Youll be surprised at how much fun the game is! If video games arent your idea of a good time, there are also Harry Potter versions of Clue, Uno, and more.
Finally, dont stop at reading just the Potter series make sure you expose the kids to books like Harry Potter.