Pottermania is big news

2001-11-04 17:36

London - After record book sales and marathon hype, the Harry Potter phenomenon reaches a new high this weekend with the world premiere of the young wizard's first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

The Warner Bros production, which goes on general release from November 16, is likely to rake in tens of millions of dollars, all suitably supported by a prodigious commercial operation.

Pottermania is already big news - and big business - in Britain.

Newspapers have exclusive competitions, promotions and cartoons.

Last Christmas, BBC radio cleared its schedules for a unique, uninterrupted eight-hour reading of the book.

School playgrounds are awash with Harry Potter paraphernalia, books, cards, glasses like those worn by the young wizard.

And the internet hosts scores of websites dedicated to Harry, chums Ron and Hermione, his favourite game Quidditch - a sort of magic lacrosse - and his sworn enemy Lord Valdemort.

But what is it that has made bespectacled goody-goody Harry and his wizard school exploits so enchanting that the books have sold over 100 million copies in 200 countries and 40 languages?

Or that has made author JK Rowling (the JK stands for Joanne Kathleen) as well-known as Charles Dickens and Roald Dahl to young readers in countries ranging from Albania to the United States?

"I think she's pressed all the right buttons," said Robert Potts, editor of the very serious Times Literary Supplement.

She has managed to combine some traditional elements of children's stories - magic, boarding schools, chums - with modern concepts of good versus evil, and even death.

"What Rowling offers is both the fantasy and escape which we all want from art and literature, and at the same time she's placed enough elements that are absolutely recognisable from the difficulty and frightfulness of the modern world."

There is an appeal too for girls. One of the key characters is Hermione, a steadfast, clever heroine more than able to stand up to the boys.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first Potter book.

Dreamed up by Rowling on a stranded train one day, it has been followed by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the latest, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The Warner Bros movie of the first book has added to Pottermania, while at the same time raising concerns that the magical aura of the books, their appeal to children and adults alike, is not over-commercialised.

When Warner signed an exclusive deal with Coca Cola, which is investing $150 million to promote the film, Rowling received a stream of letters and e-mails in protest from both sides of the Atlantic.

She was able to extract a promise that no Coca Cola bottle would appear in the film, and the company has promised investment to promote reading skills.

Rowling also warned against a sugary, Hollywood version of her books, and appears to have succeeded.

Nonetheless, schoolchildren compare Harry Potter cards, stickers and pencil cases, sleep under Harry Potter duvets, play a human version of Quidditch, buy Harry Potter wands and practise disappearing through walls.

Parents and teachers console themselves by arguing that at least the books are giving children an incentive to read.

Not everyone is happy, though. Such as Gary Grant.

The proprietor of a chain of 28 toy shops, he refuses to sell Harry Potter products because he thinks they encourage children to believe in supernatural beings and the occult. - AFP

- SAPA