AOL GB about Harry Potter

[KXX4493553 at aol.com]

By some appropriately magical alchemy, the new Harry Potter book is both the 
most hyped and the most secretive project the publishing industry has ever 
known. The book, which is due for publication this coming Saturday, has 
already set records in internet sales and bookshops have been required to 
sign affidavits to protect the plot being leaked.

But what is the spell to 'Entice Parents to Part With £14.99 For A Hardback'? 
Bloomsbury, Harry Potter's publisher, is hardly having to look for a magic 
wand to make copies fly off the shelves. Does it have more to do with a 
devilishly clever marketing campaign or are the books classics as Rowling's 
supporters claim?

In the last three episodes it was the books' popularity with Muggles of all 
ages that helped to fill the Bloomsbury coffers. The philosopher, Mary 
Warnock, once decried the preference of one of her students for reading 
childrens' books, describing the 'irritating feyness' of the sight of a 
student 'curling up, metaphorically thumb-sucking'. To counter such shame a 
plaincover edition appeared in the UK, for grown-ups who don't want to be 
seen reading a children's book. The hardcore 'adult' edition consisting of 
exactly the same content, cost two pounds more but sold more than 140,000 
copies. Clearly this is pretty hot stuff, subversive literature. 

This time Bloomsbury, armed with a multi-million pound marketing purse, are 
whipping the nation into Harry Potter frenzy. Revealing the title at the 
eleventh hour caused a surge in orders at Amazon.co.uk, where security has 
been tightened to ensure nobody reveals the plot ahead of the book's official 
launch. Offline, Waterstones has announced that it will hold a slumber party 
for would-be buyers to allow them to grab their copy on the dot of midnight 
in its flagship branch in Piccadilly, central London, and in branches in 
Glasgow, Birmingham and Leeds. And, in a week's time, J K Rowling, OBE will 
reach the remainder of the book-buying nation by steam train, no doubt 
departing from platform 9 ½.

But forget the hype for the minute - what about the product? Critics have 
pulled Rowling up on her pedestrian style and grammatical inaccuracies, 
whilst contemporary childrens' authors have lambasted her for producing a 
book lacking intrigue, excitement and originality.  But as George Lucas has 
shown it is not scintillating prose or dramatic plots that have made Harry 
Potter a roaring success. Traditional themes are the key to the vault and 
Rowling is a wizard at the magic art of bricolage: new stories crafted out 
off recycled pieces of old stories. As adults begin to read the books, the 
inner child, steeped in children's classics, joins the adult self, to play 
the game of 'Can You Spot The Source?', a philologist's variant on the old 
children's game of 'How Many Animals Can You Find Hiding in This Picture?'.

Harry's story is one about an orphan (Oliver), with horrid cruel step parents 
(Snow White), who realises he is special (The Ugly Ducking). Harry, who is 
poor and weedy in the Muggle world (James of Giant Peach fame) has incredible 
magic powers in his parallel world (Peter Pan). He can talk to animals 
(Narnia), mirrors (Snow White) and wield special weapons (King Arthur). His 
enemies feed off his fears and hate (Star Wars) and his companions are an 
eclectic mix of individuals (The Hobbit). Old themes fleshed out with comic 
genius provide the hardcore TV-computer generation with an undiluted hit of 
all the books their parents have been trying to make them read for years. In 
the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry's, friends tell him of an old witch in Bath who 
had a book she couldn't stop reading. 'You just had to wander around with 
your nose in it, trying to do everything one handed'. Was that old witch any 
relation to J.K Rowling?