L ocals, like the rest of the world, love “Harry Potter.”
In fact, residents of Falls Church love “Harry Potter” so much, they pre-ordered more copies per capita of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” than any other city, topping Amazon.com’s list of top 100 “Harry-est Towns in America.” Amazon donated a $5,000 gift certificate to the Mary Riley Styles Public Library Foundation Trust of Falls Church.
Northern Virginia’s Fairfax and Vienna made the list at third and fourth, respectively, and the District topped the 50 states as “Harry-est” jurisdiction.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling’s series about a boy wizard, sold a record-breaking 11 million copies in the first 24 hours on sale. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” held the previous record at 9 million. The series has sold more than 325 million copies worldwide.
Given such astounding success, it’s no wonder fans are having trouble saying goodbye to Harry. Fans just can’t get enough. The saga is over, and we know Harry’s fate and those of his loved ones and enemies, but that hasn’t stopped devotees from clamoring for more.
And Rowling has responded. After the final book’s release July 21, she gave an exclusive interview to “The Today Show” and participated in a live Web chat, providing plot and character information that didn’t appear in the final book.
Why are the books so successful? Rowling combined the British boarding school fiction genre with the classic “hero’s journey” tradition, mythology and orthodox Christian themes to create a compelling series that reminds many of the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. “Harry Potter” is thus a compelling series that will entertain and delight readers for generations.
Not all reactions have been positive, of course. Stuffy literary critic Harold Bloom called Rowling’s writing “dreadful” and said her mind was “so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing.” And according to the American Library Association, the series tops the list as most challenged books of the 21st century.
The challenges are partly the result of Christians’ objections to the books. Believers have debated such questions as: Do the books promote witchcraft? Do they lure impressionable children into the occult? Does the Bible forbid Christians to read fantasy literature with magical elements?
The series’ most well-known Christian critic is Laura Mallory, a mother of four in Gwinnett County, Ga. Her futile fight to have thebooks removed from government school library shelves ended when a Gwinnett County Superior Court judge upheld the Georgia Board of Education’s decision to allow the books to remain in Gwinnett County libraries. Will Mallory give up the ghost?
“I never understood why I was involved with ‘Harry Potter’ in the first place,” she told AP. “I never expected all of that to happen, but I’m called, and my husband is called to this generation. We want to see them delivered from drugs, alcohol, the occult and sexual perversion.”
As a former promiscuous alcoholic, I believe ministering to youth caught up in substance abuse and premarital sex serves a more pressing need than spending taxpayers’ funds crusading against books. But that’s just me.
The cultural phenomenon that is “Harry Potter” will remain vibrant for decades to come, spawning even more academic and pop culture books, papers, blogs, podcasts, fan fiction and fan conferences.
Whether one thinks Rowling’s work is high-brow or low-brow, good or evil, fans who can’t let go will keep Harry Potter’s story alive.
La Shawn Barber is a member of The Examiner’s Blog Board of Contributors and blogs at lashawnbarber.com.
