The boy who lived, and the books that made him famous...

Harry Potter Series

The Context:

When it comes to Harry Potter, I think the context in which a reader has encountered these books is critical to understanding their opinion of the series. Were they an adult or a child when they first read them? Are they a re-reader? Or do they rely on their nostalgic memories and binge-watching the movies on whatever channel currently airs them? Are they a religious zealot who thinks the series is turning children into Satanists? I think my personal context resonates with many who helped make Harry Potter the phenomenon it is…

First, I will make the simple statement that I love these books. I am not a blind fanboy who is incapable of recognizing the flaws that are present, but I think the strengths greatly outweigh the flaws, and some of the “flaws” actually contribute to the success of the series at large.

I have always been an avid reader. My father first read me The Lord of the Rings when I was in 2nd grade. I then read them myself in 4th grade. At the same time, HP3 (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) was quickly becoming one of the fastest selling books in history, and the books were starting to make major media waves. Being a kid who read more than the average bear, I guess I somewhat resented the fact that all of a sudden every other kid in school was also excited about a book. Maybe resentment isn’t the right word? Was it just that I assumed other kids wouldn’t hold the same standards as I did? I honestly don’t remember. What I do remember is that I flat out refused to read the Harry Potter books despite their popularity. That refusal lasted until Christmas of 1999, when my mom gave me a copy of the first book, and I couldn’t not read a Christmas gift.

The rest is history. I quickly devoured the first 3 books, and joined the ranks of kids eagerly awaiting book 4. My mom did the same. Luckily for us, we only had to wait a few short months before HP4 (Goblet of Fire) came out. The important thing to note here is that I was just a few months shy of 11 at Xmas 1999 when I read the first book; Harry was also 11. The final book came out just after I graduated from High School, so I was 18. Harry was also 18 and in what should have been his final year of school.

I am a re-reader and re-watcher or Harry Potter many times over, and while these books don’t quite have the type of depth where you get something new out of every read, I do definitely approach the books differently now that I am not only older, but much more capable as a critical reader (especially in the fantasy genre).

With all of that in mind, let’s dive in to why I personally love these books, and then we can look at why I think they have been so successful, and then we can delve into the issues and flaws.

A Personal Review:

I love these books for a number of reasons, but I think the primary factor is simply that J.K. Rowling is a master story teller. She has many strengths and weaknesses in her prose, world building, etc., but her ability to craft and tell an entertaining story may be unparalleled. The characters are familiar, relatable, and largely very likable (1). The action comes thick and fast, and very rarely do you go more than 10-15 pages without an important event or discovery. There is just enough exposition to give the world some depth. The language is extremely accessible and makes for some serious speed reading without sounding like a children’s beginner book. And, most importantly, the books are massive fun.

We’re talking about the kind of magic you dreamed about as a kid; point a wand, say the magic words, and anything is possible. There are cool creatures, giant castles, bad guys (2) to root against, friends to meet, and harrowing challenges to overcome, and more than a couple of dashes of humor. And it’s all hidden just out of sight (3). It’s the type of bed time story you wish your parents would tell, but fleshed out way beyond your wildest imagination and with better writing than 99% of people can manage. Quite simply, Harry Potter is a series that is easy to get into and quick to finish. It’s fast paced all the way through and before you know it you’re emotionally invested.

Honestly, the best way to describe Harry Potter may be to relate it to a real world magic trick. The spectacle of the theatre and the skill of the sleight of hand are so enthralling that you miss the critical details that might make the illusion fall apart. As a critical reader, the Harry Potter series has a number of issues. As a reader for enjoyment, I don’t care about those issues. Also worth noting, the vast majority of first time readers won’t even notice the issues at all. Partly this is because most readers will be younger and may not have the necessary critical reading skills, but also because it is just so damn fun that you forget to put your critical reader pants on in your rush to find out what happens next.

Rowling crafted a journey that was just so enjoyable to go on, and it’s one I’m happy to relive many times. This is what makes the books so good. They are that funny story your dad has told 1000 times and even though you roll your eyes you still laugh at the punch line, because it’s an honest to goodness funny story. Even if you know what happens and even if it’s grown in the telling, the heart of the story is just too good.

Reasons for Success:

Here’s where I will put my critical reader pants back on, but focus on the things that I think allowed the books to find such huge success…

Let’s start with the context again. I think it was extremely influential on many readers that they felt like they grew up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They weren’t just likeable characters who lived in a world and went to a school we all desperately wanted to join, but they were the same age as us, often dealing with similar problems, and they got older right along with us. The books never really cross into the Children’s Lit category, I think they’re best described as YA, but a younger reader can definitely manage at least books 1 & 2 on their own; and by the time they finish 1 and 2, they should be capable of tackling 3 and 4. At the same time, Rowling avoids alienating older readers by not overly catering to children (5). Much like a PG-13 movie, Rowling made sure the books were accessible to the as broad an audience as she could manage.

I think this is the key theme behind HP’s success. Accessibility.

If you look at book 1; my Nook eBook version is 239 pages, book 2 clocks in at 252, and book 3 at 309. This is right on par with other popular series like Redwall. But how did Rowling get 12 year olds to read the notably larger books 4-7? Easy. She started with books of a manageable length and complexity, and by the time she brought out the big guns, we were already hooked. To this day I remember that the hardcover version of HP4 I received on publication day via Amazon was 734 pages. The amazing thing is, even kids who would normally have groaned at the sight of such a large book were absolutely thrilled to see the page count because it was like getting two HP books in one. Rowling made sure to not scare readers away at the beginning, and to build up enough trust with us that she could expand on the complexity as the series went on.

Keeping in theme with accessibility; Rowling keeps her magic system, locations, flora/fauna, etc. very recognizable to a broader audience as well. Everything more or less mirrors what your average person has heard in traditional fairy tales, just tailored to fit her world. By using dragons, goblins, werewolves, vampires, etc. Rowling allows your average reader who may have no experience reading fantasy or horror (where the supernatural is normally found) to begin with a high level of familiarity. She leverages common knowledge like vampire’s weaknesses or dragon’s characteristics to save on the need for expository passages, as well as to help inexperienced readers jump right in without having to deal with informational overload. She leverages locations like London and the Scottish Highlands to avoid having to develop too much of her own world (see Middle-Earth or Westeros). Her magic system is similarly simplistic. There are practically no limits to what magic can do (with just a couple of exceptions) and there is very little for us as readers to learn in order to understand how it works, because how it works is essentially that you have magic or don’t. While she includes a few “rules” around specific things that can or cannot be done in world, the “laws of magic” so to speak don’t really exist. She is essentially working with a blank canvas where she can make just about anything work without having to worry about it clashing with the internal logic of the series.

The simplicity continues with the relatively small cast of characters and viewpoints. Throughout the series we are almost exclusively seeing Harry’s perspective with only 5 chapters (out of 199) that aren’t from Harry’s POV. It’s proven impossible to find a true count of the named characters in the main series, as different lists show different criteria and often include characters from outside the main series/books. However, the number of characters whose names you need to remember in any significant way is fairly small. Epic fantasy often requires you to remember hundreds of characters, their genealogy, and what they ate for dinner last night, but Harry potter keeps you focused on a fairly linear and concise story.

Accessibility wasn’t the only thing that led to HP’s success though. As I mentioned before, I think a huge reason people loved these books is because of how fun and fast paced they were, but this didn’t happen accidentally. Like The Hobbit, the HP books may have ultimate story arcs and climaxes, but each book has a number of exciting incidents and actions. I described The Hobbit as being like a series of vignettes all set in the same time and place with the same characters. HP is quite the same, there is no period any of the books where you are just learning about the world or a character for a significant period of time without anything happening. The HP books move from one event to another, with little down time in-between, and Rowling is very clever in how she arranges the “down time”. It might seem logical to have a chapter follow the traditional Dramatic Structure with the introduction at the beginning and climax toward the end of a chapter. Instead, Rowling tends to have a climactic moment earlier on, so that she has time to build the suspense and anticipation right back up by the end of the chapter, leaving you wanting to jump right back in rather than using the chapter break as an opportunity to put the book down. I can specifically remember with book 7. I read all the way through in one sitting (starting at about 7PM and finishing around 3AM). I walked into my parents room, put the book down on my mom's bedside table and told her it was her turn. The next morning, I gave her a warning. I told her that there were maybe 3 or 4 good spots to put the book down, so when she ran into one of them, she needed to take advantage of it so she didn't end up spending 3 hours straight reading every time she picked up the book.

A More Critical Read Through:

Harry Potter overcomes its weaknesses not by dancing around them or making excuses, but by focusing so much on its strengths, that the weaknesses become beaten down and dejected things, easy to ignore. I’ll explore this more later on, but, in short, I think some of the “weaknesses” aren’t weaknesses at all… they are choices made by Rowling to focus on the fun and the story sometimes at the expense of internal consistency or real world logic. I think she made these choices because often times the other option is to focus on those more literary aspects at the expense of the fun and story. Both choices have their place, and in the context of Harry Potter (a youthful target audience and a purpose of being successful rather than a Pulitzer winner) I think she chose wisely.

I read the series to my wife (she's already ream them herself) at bedtime, and the slower pace plus reading it not for yourself really made me notice a number of the minor plot holes and issues that exist. The Time-Turner in book 3 and its implications for the rest of the series is an obvious one, but I think that's been discussed elsewhere ad nauseam; suffice it to say that whether or not you think the time travel itself is handled well, the impact it has on the world and the plot is so vast as to have caused some major plot holes. Time travel never should have been introduced. There are a ton of small little things though...

Off the top of my head... the fact that the magical community aren't just oblivious, they turn into total morons when it comes to anything to do with muggles. The inability to figure out muggle clothing is just ridiculous, but its purpose is not realism, its humor. The blatantly horrible teaching and behavior that multiple professors (particularly Snape/Lockhart) consistently do to students make the education a sham. The concept that muggles "metal wands" (read guns) are almost laughable in that they cannot defend themselves against the magical community makes no sense, especially when a knife causes so much stress in book 3. How Lily's love for Harry protected him is also non-sensical. She loved him and died rather than give him up, and with no explanation he is now apparently invulnerable to Voldy. The implication is either that no other mother in modern memory of the wizarding world has ever died protecting their children, or they just didn't love their kids enough. Otherwise this wouldn't have been old and mysterious magic that no one knew about. The magic system in general has a total lack of structure, which sets a stage for Deus Ex Machina to run rampant, though I think Rowling does a good job of not falling down that path terribly often. I could go on for a while nitpicking. The books are written with a YA sensibility, and suspension of disbelief and realism just were not the priority. As mentioned, Rowling chose fun and humor as her priorities and obviously succeeded.

Additional Media:

The movies are far from perfect, and lack the general cohesion across all 8 films that would have made for a better overall series, but they are super fun. In other words, they have their flaws, just like the books, but they are so easy and fun to watch that we so often find ourselves binging them on TV despite commercial breaks.

Personally, I think the 2nd movie was far and away the most successful with regards to its literary source. The 3rd being far and away the worst. The thing that bothered me the most about the movies was I believe a quote from Alfonso Cuaron (Director of Prisoner of Azkaban)... where he said that he didn't just want to turn the books into movies, but wanted to create a movie that used the books as an inspiration. While I can fully get behind the idea that some changes are necessary when moving between media, his statement was so far away from what every single fan wanted. We aren't all purists, but literally give us the books in movie form (as much as possible) and you would have had a billion happy fans. Instead, I, a big fan of the books, hate the 3rd movie. The changes were not for the betterment of the story (Rowling has sold more books than every other author except god, let's trust her version is best), they were for director's own egos as they made the decisions they liked best. HP more so than probably any other book to film project should have been as direct as translation as the could make it. Having a number of different directors I think messed with that quite a bit.

I was also slightly baffled by some of the things left out. I'm sure they were budget related, but let's be honest, these films were going to make a shit-ton of money no matter what, so open up the wallets and make them as good as posisble. Specifically I am thinking about the movie versions of the 3rd task and the department of mysteries at the end of OOTP. The opportunity to showcase cool creatures and action in the hedge maze with the Sphinx, the Acromantula, The blast-ended Skrewts, etc. was awesome, the reality was a vegitation trying to trip the contestant. Similarly in OOTP... for a book that doesn't have as much action romp sequences, the end has a boat load, and yet they left out the majority of the rooms our heroes battle through.

I also never really was sold on the majority of the actor's interpretations of their characters. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all do jus fine, without being definitive. But many characters (Snape, Trelawney, Dumbledore (although that was more the Richards to Gambon change), etc.) felt very much like someone else's vision. I can't complain about this, as they were someone else's vision, but it was disappointing when compared to how the LOTR cast so definitively nailed their roles for me.

Footnotes:

1. Many of the characters reflect both standard Fantasy and Children’s genre archetypes. Harry is an orphan, the funny best friend who isn’t quite up to par with the hero, the brainy friend, the older magical mentor… the list could go on for quite a while. You could argue this risks being boring and predictable, but we must remember that part of what allows the books to be accessible to a wide range of reader, as well as fun and fast paced, is that we don’t need to waste time trying to figure out complex plots, motivations, or characters. These are archetypes for a reason, they tend to make good, reliable, familiar characters that allow us to focus on what the author wants us to, her strength, the story.

2. A nice thing here is that JK Rowling doesn’t fall into the pattern of bad=evil. Many of Harry’s challenges come when dealing with a crappy family life, difficult or incompetent professors, and a rival/bully at school. I won’t say shades of grey are Rowling’s biggest strength, but she does provide just enough ulterior motivation or redemption moments to allow for a more real world feel than the straightforward good vs. evil.

3. The use of the hidden world with the real world tactic works quite well here. Not only is it fun to imagine as real (which is half the battle when it comes to suspension of disbelief) but Rowling doesn’t have to spend too much time on maps or in-world logistics. Additionally, using more familiar pieces of the supernatural or magical landscape, there isn’t really too much that is critical for us to learn. We simply have to join Harry on his journey into the magical side of the world, learning the fun details rather than starting at ground zero and having to learn the fundamentals first.

4. Even if you started right at the very beginning and had a 10 year gap between first opening HP1 and closing HP7, the books did not suffer the ill fate of leaving its readers behind as they morphed into cool and mature 20 year olds. The books got a bit darker and more adult as they went along. Rowling never went so far as to alienate the younger readers, but she did write to Harry’s age, which allowed her initial fan group to stay along for the ride. I think it’s also worth noting here that I don’t think the books started excessively child-like either. The language and subject matter may be simple enough for a young reader to manage, but they aren’t written like The Magic Tree House or most other children’s books that focus more or less exclusively on that audience. HP is really more of a young adult range, but Rowling was clever enough to make sure that the barrier of entry was low enough that younger readers could join in on this YA journey just as easily.

5. Contrast this to a series like A Song of Ice and Fire which has 25 POV Characters, through 5 books. 13 of these characters have double digit chapters from their POV. Even more complex, the Wheel of Time has 147 unique POVs.

6. I just want to call out the dedication in book 7, which I think was perfect.