Harry Potter: Darkness

Something in the human spirit is attracted to darkness.

I'm not suggesting that men and women are inherently evil, but a glance at the New York Times Bestseller list reveals a few trends. As of June 25, these are the top five sellers for hardcover fiction:

1) A Thousand Splendid Suns. Two women maintain a friendship in Afhganistan, a country long ravaged by war.

2) Blaze. A man who was abused as a child plots a kidnapping.

3) Double Take. FBI agents try to solve a murder mystery and locate a missing woman.

4) The Children of Hurin. A dark lord in Middle-earth seeks to destroy the children of his rivals. (Yep. It's a Tolkien.)

5) The Harlequin. Vampires, vampires, vampires. And vampire hunters.

Really, the only book in the top fifteen that isn't based on murders, kidnappings, or some other atrocity is Mitch Albom's For One More Day. The reading public have a taste for evilry. I suppose they always have.

Thus, when fans hear that the latest Harry Potter installment is darker than the others, they flock to the bookstores and take to the theaters, eager for spine-numbing plots, characters, and motifs.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, director David Yates has reportedly portrayed the movie's protagonist as an "adolescent boy wizard walk[ing] a thin line between good and evil as he experiences the growing pains of teenage angst." To borrow the word used by Daniel Radcliffe, Phoenix has more "grit." (See itv.com)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is likewise attracting attention because of its darkness. Fans want to know which characters die and whether Snape is good or evil.

Marketers love giving people the chills. Darkness sells.