Can anyone tell me (besides kids) what's so monumental about Harry Potter?

Question

I don't get the insanity. What's so special about this series? Especially for adults??

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hype, jumping on the bandwagon, a great marketing scheme, a simple writing formula, lots of bad coffee cooler conversations, effective over use of cliche, etc.

These seem trivial but apparently the all add up!

Yale professor and literary scholar and critic Harold Bloom raised pungent criticisms of the books' literary merits.

In a widely quoted article in the Wall Street Journal (7/11/2000) Bloom says Rowling's work appeals "to millions of reader non-readers because they sense her wistful sincerity, and want to join her world, imaginary or not" in their desire to feed "a vast hunger for unreality." Although this may not be bad in itself, Bloom concedes, he also asks, "Why read, if what you read will not enrich mind or spirit or personality?" He observes that "anything goes" when, as now, "public judgment is no better and no worse than what is proclaimed by the ideological cheerleaders who have so destroyed humanistic study." So, whereas Rowling's fans may always outnumber her detractors, Bloom asks, "Can more than 35 million book buyers, and their offspring, be wrong?" "Yes," he answers, "they have been, and will continue to be for as long as they persevere with Potter."

Answer 2

for any story to be a best seller it has to have three vital elements: 1) a compelling story 2) characters your readers can connect with and 3) the voice. think back to the really classic stories of the past forty years. Lord of the Rings, The Jack Ryan stories, The Hobbit, Star Wars, Hunter Thompson's works, douglas adam's hitchhiker series.
Harry Potter works because of Rowling's ability to make people believe in these characters, care about them and tell it like no one else could. likewise star wars or salem's lot would be the same if she wrote them. it's like when artists do covers for songs, one versions kicks people in the sac the others, no matter how could they may be just don't sound the same. Stephen King even says this in one of his forewards " it's the singer, not the song" It's why the second star wars series didn't do as well or become the phenom the first did: no one really clicked with this because our expectations were too high and the characters were blah. which brings up a 4th element: timing. Tom Clancy was successful largely because he wrote Jack Ryan at the height of the cold war and Ryan is a middle class character we all can relate too., now he's trying to sell a series with his son involved in fighting terrorists that isn't doing so well.Rowling could have been shot down by every publishing house on the planet if the timing wasn't right for her. Stephen King would be struggling to make it now if his wife hadn't saved Carrie and worked with him on it.BY the same token, once these writers hit that magic story almost everything else they do won't be the same because it's not the same no matter how good it may be. What's Chris Carter and Joss Whedon doing these days to give you another idea There's a lot of good stories out there but won't ever sit on a bookstore shelf because they don't have any of these things.

Vin

Answer 3

Both kids and adults enjoy the humor and imagination in these stories. Rowling is not a great writer (though her skills have improved over time), but she's a very entertaining story teller. Like all good children's writers, she doesn't write down to her audience, and she presents a sympathetic kid's-eye view of the world. A Hogwart's education becomes the school days we all wish we had. For adults, the fact that it's kid-lit makes it easy reading and lowers expectations enough to excuse some sloppy writing and clumsy plot contrivances.

The series has certainly been monumental for many kids in that it's introduced them to the joy of reading. As an adult, I'm aware of what separates J. K. Rowling from Virginia Woolf, but as light entertainment Harry Potter is superb. My own introduction to "real books" was through science fiction (Heinlein juveniles), so I'm predisposed to the fantastic, too.

Answer 4

I'm 35. I didn't start reading them until book 4 came out- and I couldn't put them down!! It brought back the joy I used to have reading as a kid- when I first picked up the Chronicles of Narnia or the Hobbit. I don't know if one could say exactly what makes a book compelling- It was the first time I can remember being sad when I finished a book that I'd have to wait for the next one to come out. (Maybe because the famous series I mentioned above were complete sets when we started reading them- since they were written before we were born).

They have cause me to re-become the reader I was. In between Potter novels- when I'm "jonesing" for my Hogwarts fix, I have been finding other similar series to read and am enjoying several other writers as well - for example Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series (The Golden Compass will be turned into a movie this xmas) and Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series. I can't wait to get a new book to read (had only been reading Stephen King before this new interest)- and ... we'll have a nice library of books when my 3 year old son grows up to read them :)

Answer 5

These are well written, imaginative stories. They are easy to read and have characters that people care about
The most important thing about the HP books, however, is the level of frenzy they can whip up in people in an age where people don't really get all that excited about reading.
If you look back over time, you'll see that books along this line, say the Oz books had the same amount of flurry, Baum didn't even want to write as many as he did (14) but he did because he was bombarded with requests to hear more about Dorothy and her friends. The same thing goes for H.P. none of the books finish the story, so you want to know what happens next until you're so wrapped up in it, you can't wait for the next book, that may be years in coming out. So you wait, and wait and then the book get so well hyped that people go nuts.

Answer 6

U said no kids but this is just to tempting for me, well it's just Phenominal and true, Harry Potter an Orphan turns from a nobody to the Hero and Savior of the WORLD!!!!!What is not Phenomianal about this it just hits home for a lot of people it tells the truths about childhood and yet throws in a twist a greater evil than anyone could imagine......well that's just my thought on that

Answer 7

The stories are very well told, with an amazing attention to detail. A world is created and every detail fits so well that you get lost in it. Once you start you can't stop reading because it sounds like a much more exciting life than your own. This is a place that exists outside of anything that we could ever achieve in reality, and everyone has wished they could do magic at some point in their life. Also, it is almost an allegory of what is happening in the world right now.

Answer 8

I'm 45 and my brother and sister-in-law gave me the first 2 books (right after the 2nd book came out) for Christmas and I've been hooked ever since. I've always enjoyed reading sci-fi/fantasy books (and watching sci-fi/fantasy tv/movies). So, I guess you just have to be "in" to that type of genre` - but I'm not into all the hype -- you definitely won't see me at any of the Harry Potter parties going on Friday/Saturday.

Answer 9

I am a children's librarian. I have never seen so much attention paid to a children's book before. I started reading them when Harry Potter 4 came out. They are well written. It is a wonderful fantasy world she created. They can be read and enjoyed by adults. They might not be your cup of tea but millions of adults and children do love them.

Answer 10

I'm 17, but i started when i was real young and into literature, and now it's the only series i read because i just feel i'm obligated to finish the series since i've already gone this far. But, i think the first movie was the only one i've seen all the way through. Oddly i find the books much more intriguing.