Harry Potter and the Harry Potter and the 5 Dimensions of 5 Dimensions of Cultural PotencyCultural Potency

Harry Potter and the Harry Potter and the 5 Dimensions of 5 Dimensions of Cultural PotencyCultural Potency

Does it Work?• If we were conducting an analysis of

Harry Potter using Michael Schudson’s 5 R’s, we would have to start with the question of whether the book works.

• To make the case, we need evidence:– Earnings from sales, number of books in

print, number of language that the book has been translated into

– What else? What other evidence would you want to see to convince you that the book works?

Sociological Significance

• There are a number of sociologically significant issues we could address using Harry Potter (perhaps surprisingly)

• I want to focus on the question of safe culture. I assert that Harry Potter is an example of safe culture, meaning simply that it is not implicated in the inequalities of race, class, gender, sexuality, or disability status that have plagued so much of the culture we have examined this semester.

Sociological Significance

• I may be wrong in my claim• From your reading so far, would you

agree that this is an example of safe culture?– Does it contribute to the Dreamworld? Is

it a merchant of cool? Reproduce a dominant ideology? Contribute to class antagonisms?

Sociological Significance

• Some other issues we might consider as forms of sociological significance in Harry Potter include:– Literacy and its role in social mobility– Ethics, such as the clarity of good and evil

vs. the relativism of our time– The role of leisure reading in shaping our

sense of identity, perhaps as compared to school-assigned novels

– What else?

Retrievability• The books are featured prominently in stores• Around times of new releases, the books can often

be found at the front of the store• At other times, they are given special displays at

eye-level • There’s usually a heavy supply• Like many books, you can find these novels online,

but unlike most other books, you can usually get to the HP novels in just a few clicks.– At Amazon and similar sights, until recently, you could often

find an HP section right on the front page, rather than having to search for the books

Retrievability con’t• The language of the books is very

accessible– You do not need to have special knowledge

or specialized vocabulary prior to reading these novels

• The price of the books, especially when they are first released in hardback, is not so retrievable—generally about $30/copy

• The length of the books, especially the more recent volumes, can be daunting

Retrievability con’t• Internet piracy is helping to offset the effects of price, as well as

the frightening task of sifting through a Barnes & Noble that might be crowded with young HP fans

• As reported in the NY Times, “JC, a 36-year-old Harry Potter fan in Kansas City, Mo., decided he was too old to go chasing after the fifth book in the popular series when it came out last month. Instead, he downloaded the book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from the Internet, conveniently avoiding both bookstore crowds and the $29.99 cover price.” …

• “’What is unusual for us as people who deal with piracy of books is that these are people who are not directly making money for having put them on the Internet,’ said Ian Taylor, international director of the Publishers Association in Britain. ‘That is obviously what’s been happening with peer-to-peer music, but it’s not something we’ve had to deal with before.’”

Rhetorical Force• The issue of rhetorical force directs us towards

the language of the novels, as well as the actual events of the novels.– Is the language striking?– Do the experiences of Harry and his friends (the plot)

sear themselves in your mind?

• This is a tough question to answer. We are safer ground when we do this by way of comparison to something else.

• In lieu of a comparison, let’s turn to an expert…

Rhetorical Force con’t• Harold Bloom is an English

professor at Yale. He is the author such books as The Western Canon and How to Read and Why?

• Seems to be a good expert on English language literature, so let’s see what he says about HP

Rhetorical Force con’t• From The Wall Street Journal, July 11,

2000 – “Can 35 Million Book Buyers Be Wrong? Yes” by H. Bloom

• “Though the book is not well written, that is not in itself a crucial liability. It is much better to se the movie, ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ than to read the book upon which it was based, but even the book possessed an authentic imaginative vision. ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ does not.” …

Rhetorical Force con’t• “One can reasonably doubt that ‘Harry Potter and the

Sorcerer’s Stone’ is going to prove a classic of children’s literature.”

• Rowling’s “prose style, heavy on cliché, makes no demand upon her readers. In an arbitrarily chosen single page—page 4—of the first Harry Potter book, I count seven clichés.”

• “How to read ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? Why, very quickly.”

• “Can more than 35 million book buyers, and their offspring, be wrong? Yes, they have been, and will continue to be so for as long as they persevere with Potter.”

• The cultural critics will, soon enough, introduce Harry Potter into their college curriculum, and the New York Times will go on celebrating another confirmation of the dumbing-down it exemplifies.”

Rhetorical Force con’t• Obviously Bloom ranks HP fairly

low in Rhetorical Force• Counter-arguments?

Resonance• The dimension of resonance requires that

we ask questions about the ways that the cultural content taps into on-going social conversations about related issues

• Those conversations may also be located within the realm of popular culture

• What would HP resonate with?

Resonance con’t• A bit of resurgence in sci-fi/fantasy has

been underway – Return of Star Wars– Lord of the Rings films

• Commodification of nerd culture– HP, like many protagonists in film and

literature, is a big nerd. Nerds are replacing Rambo and Terminator.

Resonance con’t• New discussions about issues of literacy

and a surge of books and book clubs that get Americans reading– Oprah’s book club, which began with Toni

Morrison’s Song of Solomon, a book that was published in the late 70s but then suddenly became a best-seller in the late 90s

– Similarly HP was, perhaps unexpectedly, a novel that got people talking about books again

Resonance Con’t• The publishers have also worked hard to

increase the resonance for specific readers– The original novel was published as Harry Potter and

the Philosopher’s Stone in Britain• The word “philosopher” has connotations of alchemy

in Britain that really are not present within American English. So publishers worried that the title would fail to resonate. So they changed “Philosopher” to “Sorcerer” for the American release

– Also for the American release, many words that were deemed overly British were Americanized…

Resonance con’tBritish AmericanCrumpets English muffins

Rounders bat Baseball bat

Trainers Sneakers

Jumper Sweater

Sellotape Scotch tape

Bobble hats Bonnets

Roundabout Carousel

Cine-camera Video camera

Football Soccer

Resonance con’t• In France, the books were

published with separate cover illustrations for adults and children

• In China, Harry Potter’s name was changed to Ha-li Bo-te– A chapter of the book was distributed

in schools and a Chinese website was established to promote the book

Institutional Retention• Initially the books were frowned upon

by schools (a logical institution to begin with for books)– More recently, however, many teachers

have taken a stance in favor of the books– The publishing company actually released a

sourcebook for teachers, designed to help teachers teach English language and literature using the HP novels

Institutional Retention con’t

• Religion, another logical institution to explore, has also offered contradictory stances towards the novels– On the one hand, many religious (esp.

Christian) groups have frowned upon the novels because of the presence of magic

– On the other hand, many religious groups have embraced the novels because of their affirmation of good and evil (in contrast to what these churches view as a heretical embrace of strict relativism in which there is not clear good or evil

Institutional Retention con’t

Awards for HP and the Sorcerer’s Stone• Nestlé Smarties Book Prize 1997 Gold Medal 9-11 years • FCBG Children’s Book Award 1997 Overall winner and

Longer Novel Category • Birmingham Cable Children’s Book Award 1997 • Young Telegraph Paperback of the Year 1998 • British Book Awards 1997 Children’s Book of the Year • Sheffield Children’s Book Award 1998 • Whitaker's Platinum Book Award 2001

Institutional Retention con’t

• Harry Potter Porn– In 2001, MSNBC produced a report on a surge of online

fiction that eroticizes the HP characters– “Produced and consumed almost entirely by young women,

naughty Harry Potter stories belong to the larger online phenomenon called slash fiction (“slash” refers to stories that pair male characters like Captain Kirk and Spock, or like Starsky and Hutch; a much smaller category about male-female sex is called simply het).”

– The HP slash fiction focuses especially on a romantic/sexual relationship between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy

Institutional Retention continued

• Slash: refers to / that appears between 2 characters names: Harry/Draco

• Shippers: Slash writers who focus on relationships• Canon: The material from the original novels, and details

from other releases by Rowling, from her blog and from associated books

• Fanon: The material produced by fans• Mpreg: Stories that focus on male characters who are

pregnant (Snape bearing Dumbledore’s baby)“I’m committed to Harry and Ginny in canon, but I’m a

Harry/Draco shipper in fanon.” A recent high school grad speaking at a Harry Potter Studies conference.

Institutional Retention con’t

• In terms of informal institutional retention, readership of these novels is so high (they consistently top the best seller lists) that to not read them is to be unable to participate in many cultural conversations. There is a sense, although you may have resisted it up til now, that you just have to read these novels.

ResolutionWhat do these novels give you to do?• Read the next novel—promised to be a series of 7, perhaps more will

follow• See the movies—there’ve been 4 so far, and presumably at least 3

more• Read the companion books—Quidditch through the Ages and Fantastic

Beasts & Where to Find Them• Buy the collectibles (see HP Collectibles)• Play the Game: Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup • Log on to the website/s:

– http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/ – http://www.jkrowling.com/– http://www.leakymug.com/index.php– http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/home.asp– http://www.hp-lexicon.org/– Many more

Resolution con’t• Read the books about the books

– Unauthorized Harry Potter Book Seven News: "Half-Blood Prince" Analysis and Speculation

– Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter (Analysis of Book 5) – Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter (Analysis of Books 1-4) – Mapping the World of Harry Potter (Smart Pop series) – Fact, Fiction, and Folklore in Harry Potter's World: An Unofficial Guide – The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us About Moral Choices – Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts – Looking for God in Harry Potter – The Sorcerer's Companion: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter – Muggles and Magic: An Unofficial Guide to J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter Phenomeno

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– The Hidden Myths in Harry Potter : Spellbinding Map and Book of Secrets – The Science of Harry Potter : How Magic Really Works – Harry Potter's World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives (Pedagogy and

Popular Culture) – The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter : A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and

Fascinating Facts – God, the Devil, and Harry Potter : A Christian Minister's Defense of the

Beloved Novels– Many, many more

Resolution Con’t• Believe in magic• Don’t be afraid• Trust your friends• Persevere• What else?

Overview• Retrievability: Very high, especially by

cf. to other books• Rhetorical Force: Arguable• Resonance: Fairly high, but not striking,

esp. in cf.• Institutional Retention: Under

negotiation, but already high• Resolution: Very high

But have we explained Harry Potter?

• In July 1997, the first printing was made of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone—only 750 copies

• When book 6 was first released, 6.9 million copies sold in the first 48 hours

• Book 7 sold 11.5 million copies in the first 10 days