Pottermania is just as evident on Staten Island as it is in
the rest of the world. Fans of Harry Potter held "Midnight
Magic" parties here Friday waiting for the final book in the
series, which would arrive at the stroke of 12. They showed up at
the Barnes & Noble store on Richmond Avenue wearing signature
Potter eyeglasses and his famous lightning-bolt forehead scar.
The phenomenon of a book causing such excitement in children used
to every technological gadget and game pales in comparison,
however, to the phenomenon that is J.K. Rowling.
One would think the rags-to-riches tale of a former single mother
on welfare who is now richer than Queen Elizabeth would generate
more ink. Instead, much of the controversy about the "Harry
Potter" novels seems to come from Christian evangelicals who
regard the boy wizard's saga as anti-Christian and celebrating
magic and witchcraft.
In 1999, I wrote a column for the Staten Island Advance defending
Halloween and Harry Potter. A series of articles had suggested
that children were delving more and more into Satanism. As my
daughter was entranced with the novels, I wrote: "Harry
Potter is a fictional character. If I thought that my daughter
would be more influenced by him than by the religious values I
have instilled in her over the years, then I obviously don't have
much faith in my own religion."
I had no idea Staten Island had so many puritans, but the mail I
received indicated that I had offended many devout Christians,
who quoted several biblical passages to support their
condemnation. I therefore plunged into reading all the
"Harry Potter" books then in publication, and I
discovered that Joanne Rowling is a brilliant writer.
For me, few novelists bear rereading - Graham Greene and Agatha
Christie are two - but I have read each of the Potter books four
times, and on Saturday, the postman dropped off three copies of
Ms. Rowling's latest for my family. Her writing is eerily
atmospheric, and reading "Harry Potter" transports one
to another realm where the battle between good and evil has
become increasingly dark - not unlike our current reality.
Ms. Rowling has created a classic series, and any adult who
thinks Harry Potter is for children only has lost the ability to
fantasize. I have two senior citizen sisters who are just as
enchanted as I am with Harry.
Potterphiles who feared that the films would spoil their
enthusiasm have found instead that the remarkable settings have
boosted their imagination. None of the films, however well done,
compares to the novels themselves, and yes, I finished reading
the seventh and last of the Harry Potter books and have no
intention of spoiling the ending for others. There is something
cruel about those individuals who posted spoilers on the Internet
before the official release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows" on July 21.
I can't help but wonder what it was that distinguished this one
single mother going through a rough patch in life from all the
others seemingly stuck in neutral in the inner cities around the
world. One thing may be that Ms. Rowling is an educated woman who
earned her degree in French from the University of Exeter. She
fought poverty after a failed marriage and the death of her
mother from muscular dystrophy, and lived with her infant
daughter in a vermin-invested flat on a meager welfare check.
Unable to heat her home, she spent many hours in a coffee shop
working on her manuscript, which she had dreamed up many years
earlier.
Therein lies the clue to her success. Ms. Rowling had a dream and
never gave it up. I can recall my own hours on the fire escape
facing 110th Street daydreaming about my future as an artist or a
writer. I was never told by the nuns in parochial school that
this was impossible because I was poor, but that seems to be the
subtle message some children are getting in the schools today.
Academics are providing excuses for poor performance by blaming
capitalism, society, the government, and the "man."
Their idea of boosting self-esteem is issuing pseudo-trophies and
promoting failing students when they should be instilling
confidence in students' innate abilities.
I wonder how many people in that coffee shop wrote off J.K.
Rowling as a typical loser, a single mother with a baby, living
off their taxes. Are we doing the same thing - passing judgment,
squelching dreams?
Ah, but judging a book by its cover is a great way to pass up
another phenomenon.