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Why Is Harry Potter So Famous

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Why Is Harry Potter So Popular Among Adults

Why was Harry Potter so successful?

The book series and the movie adaptation of the series were released over a period of ten years, giving them time to focus on drawing the greatest segment of the audience to the franchise that is the children and young adults. Another aspect of why people were drawn to the books was that the books were always ahead of the movies, which means that a curious bunch of fans always gravitated towards the book to figure out what new twist was there in the storyline.

Since now all the original fans have grown up it is easy to understand that the piece of media that devoured such a big part of their childhood is still very near to their hearts. Though the marketing strategies implemented to gain the childrens attention can cause cringe among the adults, it isnt reasoning with Harry Potter.

The series had many dark themes incorporated in its stories which also intrigued the elder audience. The children once grew out of the story elements that rely on friendship and bravery and good vs. evil theme darker elements kept them captivated and refused to move away from the franchise.

The Breadth Of Imagination

Not a stone left unturned, the wizarding world is a fully-formed alternative that at once feels far removed from life as we know it, but still familiar and completely plausible. It’s Rowling’s ability to shape and invent a wizarding parallel for even the most mundane of tasks that contributes to the overall magnificence. It’s also the unknown. There are things we are yet to find out, but that’s what Pottermore is for, right?

Why Is Harry Potter So Good

One of the main reasons why the franchise is so good is J. K. Rowling herself. She managed to write a book that was set in a magical world the readers all around the world fell in love with.

She also managed to create characters with enough personality that people could root for throughout the story. Another addition is the fact that she wrote the books in a way that new information is revealed throughout the series which makes it easy to get invested in the characters and their lives.

The popularity of the franchise was also boosted once Warner Bros. picked up the rights to the franchise and transferred the story to the big screen. The script was written in a way that adapted the story extremely well and the cast, which was chosen by the author herself, made a perfect match for the book characters.

Besides the child actors, the cast featured a number of talented and well-known actors who allowed the kids to work with their own talent and produced a fantastic final project.

The format of the franchise made the series well-paced and allowed the producers to transfer the most magical parts of the book series to the movie format.

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What Makes Harry Potter So Popular

So what is it? What is the secret to Harry Potters success? First of all, J.K. Rowling deserves a lot of credit for creating such a beautiful world in the first place. Without her, Harry Potter wouldnt exist.

Secondly, the movies deserve credit for mostly sticking to the story told in the books and for introducing Harrys story to a wider audience. Yet none of this fully explains the popularity of Harry Potter, why the story took off so much. So lets get into it.

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Harry Potter is partially popular because of the brilliant writing by J.K. Rowling and the scriptwriters for the movies. Another factor in its popularity is that it portrays its protagonist as searching for and eventually embracing power. That is what adolescence, and indeed life, is all about. According to Lois Lowry, author of The Giver, another reason for the series popularity is that it includes the same things that exist in ordinary, unmagical life: the same uncertainties, missteps and pitfalls, the same mentors, villains, and conflicts between light and dark: all writ large by the nature of the genre.

In other words, Harry Potter is popular because people can relate to it. Though it takes place in a fantasy setting, the problems that Harry deals with are all too human. The genre just reveals these issues.

Magical Abilities And Skills

The Reason Why Harry Potter So Popular

Throughout the series, Harry Potter is described as a gifted wizard apprentice. He has a particular talent for flying, which manifests itself in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone the first time he tries it, and gets him a place on a Quidditch team one year before the normal minimum joining age. He captains it in his sixth year. In his fourth year , Harry is able to confront a dragon on his broomstick.

Harry is also gifted in Defence Against the Dark Arts, in which he becomes proficient due to his repeated encounters with Voldemort and various monsters. In his third year, Harry becomes able to cast the very advanced Patronus Charm, and by his fifth year he has become so talented at the subject that he is able to teach his fellow students in Dumbledore’s Army, some even older than him how to defend themselves against Dark Magic. At the end of that year, he achieves an ‘Outstanding’ Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., something that not even Hermione achieved. He is a skilled duellist, the only one of the six Dumbledore’s Army members to be neither injured nor incapacitated during the battle with Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He also fends off numerous Death Eaters during his flight to the Burrow at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

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The Tale Has Shaped A Generation

If you’re in your teens, you’ve never known a world without Harry Potter. Millennial lives have been enriched by this humble tale. It’s no secret that our generation love a nostalgic throwback and for many the story of the boy who lived is the ultimate childhood pillar. We’ll insist our children read the books and no matter what time of year, mood or age, nothing could ever beat a Sunday afternoon HP binge.

Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone

Harry first appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Starting in 1981, when Harry was just one year old, his parents, James and Lily, were murdered by the most powerful Dark Wizard, Lord Voldemort . He attempted to kill Harry too, but was unsuccessful and only left a lightning bolt shaped scar on Harry’s forehead. Voldemort’s body was destroyed, but his soul was not. Harry later learns that the reason why he survived was that his mother sacrificed herself for him, and her love was something that Voldemort could not destroy.

According to Rowling, fleshing out this back story was a matter of reverse planning: “The basic idea Harry … didn’t know he was a wizard … and so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn’t know what he was… That’s… When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry’s parents, and then he tried to kill Harryhe tried to curse him…. Harry has to find out, before we find out. And for some mysterious reason, the curse didn’t work on Harry. So he’s left with this lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead, and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard who has been in hiding ever since”.

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Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Ministry of Magic has been waging a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, disputing their claims that Voldemort has returned. Harry is made to look like an attention-seeking liar, and Dumbledore a trouble-maker. A new character is introduced when the Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge as the latest Hogwarts’ Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor . Because the paranoid Ministry suspects that Dumbledore is building a wizard army to overthrow them, Umbridge refuses to teach students real defensive magic. She gradually gains more power, eventually ousting Dumbledore and seizing control of the school. As a result, Harry’s increasingly angry and erratic behaviour nearly estranges him from Ron and Hermione.

Rowling says she put Harry through extreme emotional stress to show his emotional vulnerability and humanitya contrast to his nemesis, Voldemort. ” a very human hero, and this is, obviously, a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. And Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down, and say he didn’t want to play any more, he didn’t want to be the hero any more and he’d lost too much. And he didn’t want to lose anything else. So that Phoenix was the point at which I decided he would have his breakdown.”

The Costumes And Descriptions

Why is Harry Potter SO popular? | Harry Potter

One of the main reasons that the series has become so loved is it’s attention to detail and the costumes, clothing choices and descriptions of the characters. Think Harry’s lightening-shaped scar, his broken glasses and his “mother’s eyes”. Umbridge’s saccharine aesthetic which is so different to her cold elitist approach to governing and the differing appearances of Durmstrang, Beauxbatons and Hogwarts students. Yes, the film franchise has helped us grasp this, but the way that Rowling included and focused on character aided the magic of the story.

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Why Is The Series So Addictive

The author has written the series in such a way that allows anyone to immerse themselves into the thrilling universe of Harry Potter and imagine themselves being a part of that world. Once the Pottermore website was created, the involvement in the story got amplified by manifold. The website allowed the fans get to immerse deeper into the Harry Potter universe and get sorted into the Hogwarts house to get their own wands and Patronus.

Even J.K. Rowling is active on Pottermore giving additions through her interview to the franchise allowing the fans to get extremely involved in the universe. As there are new spin-off series that contain five movies that are being released periodically the author can provide constant new information regarding the characters and what will happen to them once the series closes. The constant information-sharing regarding their favorite characters and the new characters being developed for the authors franchise have kept fans hooked.

These are some aspects that have somewhat enlightened the answer asto why is Harry Potter so popularamong its fans and there is no stagnation compared to other such popular series.

In Which I Risk All My Friendships With People Who Read

I enjoy spending time with people who appreciate great literature. The number of my friends who are intimate with Dante or Tolkien or Austen is, as Oscar Wilde would say with a wink, considerably above the proper average that statistics have laid down for our guidance. My book-loving church regularly ships in world-class English professors to give lectures and field the usual round of questions about Peter Jacksons interpretation of Aragorn and Faramir.

And Ive noticed that in these circles, its often a faux pas to admit that I, like nearly every other Millennial in America, own extremely well-loved copies of all seven Harry Potter books. And I would lose all credibility with many of these people if I suggested offhand that I think the Potter books are in the tradition of the great English novels, deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence, and are easily the most morally and socially insightful works of fantasy published in this generation.

But I do think that. And I think Im justified. So Ive decided to step forward and offer a defense, on behalf of everyone who instinctively agrees with me and has better things to do than figure out why. So here are a few thoughts on why Harry Potter is great literature.

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He Didn’t Fully Understand What A Wizarding War Even Meant

All throughout Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry struggles with Umbridge in an attempt to get her, or anyone at the Ministry for that matter, to acknowledge the fact that Voldemort is back. This is a very noble thing that he does, but the moment everyone accepts that he isn’t lying, Harry seems to immediately forget that a wizarding war will affect more than just Harry Potter. Suddenly everything becomes a grudge match between him and Voldemort, even though Harry is not the first person who lost their loved ones to Lord Voldemort. His life was not the only life that was ruined by He Who Shall Not Be Named, but for the entire series, Harry does not seem to understand that a war is just that… a war. Harry may have been the Chosen One, but he was only one cog in a vast machine.

The World Of Books And Genres

Why Is Harry Potter So Popular

The success of the franchise is even more remarkable when considering the declining readership during the 2000s. Statista reported that in 2000, 47% of newspaper readers in the United States had read a daily newspaper the day before, this number declined to 40% in 2006 and decreased to an abysmal 29% in 2012. When looking at book readership in the United States, 34% of respondents replied theyve read a book the day before in 2002, which increased to 38% in 2006 and decreased to 36% in 2012. While lower than six years prior, it has been relatively stable.

The concept for Harry Potter struck Rowling in 1990 when was on a delayed train from Manchester to Londons famous station Kings Cross.

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Harry Potter As A Brand Name

Time Warner Inc.`s Warner Bros. has not only acquired the film rights of Harry Potter, even the merchandising rights which make the world wide marketing possible.34 Some parts of these rights were sold for a limited time. So the danish toy manufactures Lego are allowed to produce toys. The deal includes development of two films based on the first two books Harry Potter and the Philosopher`s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . 35

Time Warner also signed a deal with Hasbro to market Harry Potter trading cards, games, role playing games, candies and electronics.

Mattel, home of Barbie and Hot Wheels, signed a similar licensing deal to sell other Harry Potter items, such as figures and board games.36

Time Warner expects sales from over 100 million US-Dollar. The lawful foundation of this merchandising success is not only the owning of the licensing rights of Harry Potter. Time Warner has also many words from the Harry Potter books protected by law. For example: Hogwarts, Hedwig, Nimbus 2000, Quidditch, Hagrid, Gryffindor or Dumbledore. 37 Other firms are forbidden to use these words. Only Time Warner has the licence to use them for brand names. But the protection of these words is doubtful.38

Rowling And The Fantasy Tradition

Fantasy appeals to us, to put it crudely, because of the relationship between magic and morality. An alternate world filled with strange and wonderful things, a world defined by imagination, gives us a setting in which to engage with moral questions free from the complications and biases with which we engage our own setting. This can be blindingly obvious, as with Lewiss explicitly allegorical Narnia, or more subtle, as with Tolkiens stubbornly not allegorical Middle Earth. Fantasy, mythology, and fairy tales allow an author to shape our unconscious ideas about what our own world should be likewithout beating us over the head with them or even stating them outright. Fantasy stories can tell you a lot about what a civilization values, and the best fantasy stories help a civilization value the right things.

Rowling does both.

The Millennial generation is dealing with a real world increasingly bereft of the healthy families, relationships, and institutions that gave previous generations a framework for considering moral questions. Its also increasingly bereft of the framework people used to have for knowing who they were. Todays kids are told that all the answers can be found within that they can achieve anything they want if they just follow their passions. Its been called the litany of expressive individualism. The further past college they get, the less true they suspect it is. But theyve been shown no alternative.

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Reasons Why Harry Potter Is Still One Of The Most Popular Literary Series In Ireland

Harry Potter titles continue to find new readers

Hermione, Ron and Harry

Harry Potter fans grabbing copies of a book

Copies of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling Hardcover first edition first printings of this book have become the Holy Grail for Potter collectors. Only 500 were published and 300 went to libraries. One notable characteristic of a first edition first issue is the crediting of ‘Joanne Rowling’ and not the JK who has gone on to make billions from the teenage wizard. Prices vary from $40,000 to $55,000 though a handful of advance proof copies are available from $7,500 to $13,500.

Twenty-two years after the publication of the first book in the series, Harry Potter is still one of the most beloved literary franchises in Ireland.

JK Rowling’s fantasy series dominates the list of the most borrowed books in Irish libraries, as revealed by the Local Government Management Agency, with three of her Potter novels in the Top 5.

The first three books in the seven-book series – ‘The Philosophers Stone’, ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ and ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ – come in at first, fourth and fifth place on the list respectively.

This raises the question, what is the magic worlds magic formula for ongoing popularity? Here is the list of the top reasons why the love for Harry, Ron, and Hermione is still going strong, more than two decades later, as compiled by an original Harry Potter fan.

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