Harry Potter and Christianity

Religious allusions are a mark of great literature. The Bible, the Koran, the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, the Avesta, and other such works are pillars of culture, and by leaning on this spiritual and temporal wisdom, authors bring power to their own writing.

I know, I know. The preceding paragraph doesn't jive with political secularists. But I don't care.

Harry Potter has been a particularly controversial work. From 1990 to 2000, the series by J.K. Rowling was the seventh most challenged book in the world. Certain Christian groups, appalled by the Hogwartz practicum, which has similarities to modern Wicca, have denounced Harry Potter as flat-out evil.

Father Michael Bernier, parochial vicar at St. Mary Parish in Westfield, MA, has a different opinion. He told the Catholic News Service, "I happen to be one of the people who believes that there's a great deal of Christian imagery and symbolism in the books. And I think it answers, at least in parts, a longing that we have for Christ."

However, Father Bernier also admitted that, "On the surface level, [the magic in Harry Potter] does sound suspect and does raise red flags."

Jeff Diamant, a religious reporter, and Dave Kopel, a columnist for National Review Online, have likewise noticed Christian allusions in Harry Potter.

Citing John Granger's book, The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, Kopel argues that the Potter series is not, as some have claimed, anti-Christian. The phoenix, unicorn, the stag, the griffin, and other beneficent animals found in the books, he says, are traditional symbols for Christ. Further, the young wizard's parents are named "James" (the brother of Jesus Christ) and "Lily" (the flower of Easter).

"It's Pilgrim's Progress for a new audience," Kopel says.

Is Harry Potter great literature? Many critics, including Harold Bloom, have aruged to the contrary, though only time can reveal which books are ephemeral phenomena and which are truly great. Without question, however, Rowling has included no shortage of Christian allusions in her narratives, and although her publishers have not specifically marketed the Potter series as a Christian allegory, the religious debate surrounding Harry Potter has undoubtedly boosted publicity.

Controversy, particularly Christian controversy, sells.

Harry Potter: Teasers

The first review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has hit the press fans.

Awarding the film only 3 out of 5 stars, Leo Lewis wrote that "The fifth - and longest - book on which the film is based plays a crucial but faintly turgid role in the saga. Much is explained, much is left hanging and there is nothing like the pace of action that readers had grown accustomed to in earlier episodes (especially The Goblet of Fire). The book pulled this off because it was tantalising in what it didn’t tell us. The film, meanwhile, a necessary digest of the 800-page book, leaves us faintly annoyed that the true denouement of the cycle is now two movies distant."

In his review, Lewis highlights an essential element of serialized fiction: the teaser. In magazines and newspapers, for example, front pages are not uncommonly littered with lines like "Who's the hottest hunk in Hollywood? See page 12." The purpose of these teasers is to, well, "tease" readers so that they delve deeper into the publication. As a novelist, you have to give readers a reason to continue from Book One to Book Two. Readers want to be intrigued. They want to be teased.

Scholastic, Potter's American publisher, has been tease-crazy over the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Their marketing campaign has rallied behind questions like "Is Snape evil? See Book Seven." "Who will live? Who will die? See Book Seven." "Will Voldemort be defeated? See Book Seven."

In short, see Book Seven.

Millions of fans are waiting to do just that. A month ago, more than 1,000,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had already been pre-ordered on Amazon.com.

Of course, marketing hooks like those in Scholastic's playbook rely on good storytelling. With so many conflicts awaiting resolution in the Harry Potter story, readers are kept in suspense, and they wait eagerly for July 21, when all of J.K. Rowling's secrets will be revealed.

Save your secrets. Tease your readers. It makes for good fiction and even better marketing.

Harry Potter: Controversy

Controversy has long been a standard in the entertainment industry.

J.K. Rowling is no Dan Brown; I don't think she wrote the Harry Potter series with the intent of offending, shocking, or surprising her audience. Nevertheless, she has been the target of numerous accusations.

Consider this tirade:



Another of Rowling's critics is Steve Wohlberg, bestselling author of Exposing Harry Potter and Witchcraft: The Menace Beneath the Magic. Wohlberg told the Canada Free Press, "There's plenty of real occultism embedded in Rowling's fantasy works, and in spite of naïve popular opinion, Pottermania is aiding Wicca's growth." He further warned, "Occultism has a dark side, and practitioners can easily become trapped like a fly in a spider web."

Wohlberg is currently setting up a new anti-Potter website, AvoidHarryPotter.com.

Of course, the irony of fighting controversial media is that, the more attention critics give them, the more they'll sell. Think of The DaVinci Code, If I Had Done It, The Passion of the Christ, Borat, and Fahrenheit 911.

Controversy may also take the form of rumors, many of which are ignited by over-eager gossip columnists. One of the latest rumors is that of a rivalry between actresses Katie Leung and Emma Watson; in one sentence, however, newspapers like Daily India squelched this Harry Potter hear-say:

"Harry Potter actress Katie Leung has dismissed rumours that there's a cold war going on between her and Emma Watson."

Sure, rumors can be amusing, even if they're untrue. Marketing-wise, they've ensured that Harry Potter stays in the press lights.

If used ethically, controversy can make a fine addition to any novel's marketing plan.

Harry Potter: Sweepstakes, Contests, and Competitions

Sweepstakes can be found anywhere from TV shows to cereal boxes. They add excitement to any product, captivating audiences with dreams of sports cars, luxury cruises, or even a "moonlight signing."

After reviewing more than 40,000 entries, Scholastic recently announced the winners of their Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows competition. Muggles Andrew Lee, Paige Raudenbush, Ayoluwa Hill, Sophie DeGroot, Joseph Walsh, Anne Harbaugh, and Yanira Rodriguez will be flown to London's celebrated Natural History Museum to attend "J.K. Rowling and the Midnight Signing."

"Just like millions of other fans in the U.S. and around the world," said Lisa Holton, President of Scholastic Trade and Book Fairs, "our sweepstakes winners have been inspired and touched by Rowling's genius work, and this is sure to be an unforgettable experience." (See Earthtimes.org)

According to Abe Books, 1,700 fans will receive a signed copy of Deathly Hallows at the event, and a randomly-chosen 500 will be invited to the midnight reading.

But wait, there's more.

For fans under 18, Amazon.com is hosting a contest of its own. To enter, children must submit a 300 word essay on their favorite Harry Potter character, and if chosen as one of the nine winners, they will receive a free copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The deadline is June 27, and the official rules can be found here.

Most novelists and publishers can't offer all-expense paid trips to London, but give-aways of any kind, if widely publicized, can work wonders for a book's marketing plan.

Harry Potter: A Love Story

The media continues to grasp for anything related to Harry Potter. Hear-say, hoaxes, trivia - anything.

One of the hot stories at present is the boy wizard's first kiss. Sources say that the entire film crew gathered to watch Daniel Radcliffe lay one on Katie Leung; seeking to make that kiss realistically awkward, Leung refused to practice the scene before filming.



Marketers love romance. Love stories sell.

Of course, people don't want to see Pride and Prejudice in everything they read, but in any coming-of-age story, they want to see the characters, well, come of age. Spoofing the sentimental connection that many readers feel with Harry Potter, one man offered the following prediction of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

"Harry, having seen off Voldemort, sweeps Ginny up in his arms in a Richard Gere in An Officer And A Gentleman type way but in overly camp wizarding clothes. I will cry for hours on end I can feel it now. Public outcry will force Rowling to write another book."

In creating this romance, J.K. Rowling's storytelling has been especially effective. By writing budding love relationships as mere secondary plots, she has attracted an audience far beyond the typical "chick lit" readership. Plus, by building romantic tension throughout the series, reserving official coupleship - Ron and Hermione? Harry and Ginny? - until book seven, page seven hundred, she ensures that her fans keep those pages turning.

Readers are more than willing to invest in a subtle love story.

Harry Potter: Ambiguity

These past few days, I've been buried under pages of copy, redacting my novel for its printing run, so I've struggled finding time for the blog. But now I'm back.

July will be a big month for Harry Potter. The Order of the Phoenix, the fifth movie in the series, will hit the theatres on the 11th; and on the 21st, the much-anticipated seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will storm the shelves. Anxious for these next installments, Potter fans are asking, Will Harry die? Will he and Voldemort merge and bring balance to the Force? What happens to Harry and that one girl he kisses? What will become of Hermoine and Ron? Is their romance star-crossed? Will Emma Watson return for the sixth movie?

J.K. Rowling's American publisher, Scholastic, has additionally released a marketing campaign focusing on seven questions that, reportedly, will be answered in Deathly Hallows. Is Snape good or evil? Will Hogwartz reopen? Where are the Horcruxes? Etc.

Such is the ambiguity surrounding Harry Potter.

Fans are eager to know what happens next, even if they have to pay $7.00 per ticket or $17.99 per book.

If writers tell a good story and leave some questions unanswered, their series could definitely have some go-power. Once readers are sucked into a story, answers are a commodity they're willing to pay for.

Harry Potter: Wizard Rock

I thought this website was pretty informative: http://www.belindapalmer.com/photo2.html

Interspersed with the writer's personal experiences, belindapalmer.com suggests fifteen different strategies for marketing an e-book: posting bookcovers on book-related sites, getting listed on search engines, advertising in e-zines, etc. Of course, these strategies are not limited to e-publishing alone; traditional novels can likewise benefit.

Theoretically, once you've put a good product into the hands of enough people, your reputation - and sales - will spread by word of mouth. If your readers enjoy your book, they just might recommend it to their friends, who might in turn recommend it to others.

Harry Potter has added a entirely new dimension to word of mouth advertising. Some readers were so enchanted by the bespectacled boy wizard that they've adopted Harry as their muse. According to MTV, a new genre of music, "wizard rock," has appeared on the indie scene. Basing their tunes on the Rowling novels, groups like Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, and the wizard-rappers Siriusly Black are growing in popularity.

That'll add a punch to any novel's marketing plan.

Harry Potter: Humor

At a London auction on June 26, a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is expected to sell for 7,000 pounds ($14,000 US). A thousand novels were printed in the first batch, but since then, J.K. Rowling has sold more than 325 million Harry Potter books worldwide.

And counting.

Perhaps Rowling's family-friendly humor contributes to her sales. Posted on MuggleNet, the following gag is from the first Potter novel in the series:

"Now, you two - Behave yourselves. If I get one word that you've blown up a toilet or -"

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."

"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."

Toilet jokes are becoming an industry standard in children's humor, though Rowling's wit isn't limited to the bathroom alone. Her description of Dudley is also pretty endearing:

"Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel. Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig."

Novelists have to compete against the rest of the entertainment industry, and thus far, it's been pretty hard to trump sit-com saturated cable TV. Generally, however, the only difference between a "good" novel and a "boring" novel - or a "good" show and a "boring" one - is the audience's attachment to the story. And laughter is perhaps the shortest distance between writer and reader.

Harry Potter: Cliche

I love Harold Bloom. In fact, sometimes I think of him as my Uncle Harry, though no familial relation exists between us. Bloom is, without question, one of the most respected voices in literature, but when it comes to Harry Potter, he's anything but a fan.

In a scathing Wall Street Journal article, the critic slams the J.K. Rowling books, saying, "Can more than 35 million book buyers, and their offspring, be wrong? Yes, they have been, and will continue to be for as long as they persevere with Potter." According to Bloom, Harry Potter is the poster-boy of an enormous "dumbing-down" in our society.

After reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Bloom voiced the two following grievances:

1. The book, he says, is not well written. Rowling's prose style is "heavy on cliche" and "makes no demand upon her readers."

2. It lacks "authentic imaginative vision"

Yet, from a marketing standpoint, what can we learn from Bloom's critique?

Like countless other authors, Rowling feeds the public's "hunger for unreality," but by incorporating cliche words and ideas into her novels, she makes Harry Potter particularly accessable to readers, both children and adults. Because of her reader-friendly writing style, Rowling can make sales.

Such is the great dilemma in fiction writing. Every author wants to make big sales, and every author wants to write timeless literature. But an author can't usually do both. Consider the Modern Library's list of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. Absent from this list are Michael Crichton, Stephen King, James Patterson, and every other New York Times best-selling author.

Rather, the Modern Library's top five are Ulysses by James Joyce, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce, Lolita by Valdimir Nabokov, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. All of these books, as far as I know, have never been best-sellers and, in fact, had only small circulations before the death of their authors.

If you so desire, how can you incorporate cliche into your own writing?

Harry Potter: Characters

Under some literary theories, characters, above all else, are the most important elements in a story.

They make for darn good marketing, too.

As I continue to read through Harry Potter critiques, I find increasingly more reviewers who praise the novels for their characters. With Ron, Hermoine, and of course Harry, J.K. Rowling's world of wizardry has captivated both the young and the young at heart - as a marketer, you can't ask for a better target audience.

"The Real Magic of Harry Potter", an article published in Time Magazine, gives the following critique of Rowling:

"She addresses children as though they know as much as or more than she does about the things that matter. Kids like the characters she has created, Harry above all, not because he is fantastic but because he is familiar. Rowling, they say, gets everything right, writes as though she knows what it is to be 13 years old and anxious or shocked at discovering what you can actually do if you try. Maybe she finds her way straight into the hearts of children because she never left in the first place."

On Scholastic's website, one young reviewer wrote of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, "I think this is the beginning of a beginning of a beautiful friendship." Another child said, "i thought it was aaaaaaasome."

If you can appeal to children through your characters, then you can also, in all likelihood, capture the attention of at least a few adults.

Harry Potter: Lexicon

I took a research sabbatical yesterday, but it's good to be back. Trying to delve more deeply into the Harry Potter phenomenon, I encountered this article:

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070531/harry-potter-park.htm

"Harry Potter Land" is coming to Florida.

That amazes me. How many theme parks are based on, of all things, a novel? As a writer, you rest assured of your financial success when you've got Universal Studios on the phone.

What has J.K. Rowling done to appeal to so many people?

One technique I've noticed is that Mrs. Rowling expands the English lexicon. In any fantasy world, even one as modern as Harry Potter's, readers expect to encounter new words that they don't find in ordinary life. Thus, simple, creative terms like "muggle," "mud-blood," and "quidditch" have particular marketing appeal, and with the novel's success, they've become as commonplace as "Big Mac," "McNuggets," and "quarter-pounder with cheese."

I mention McDonalds because, wherever they set up grills, they invent new language to attract customers.

Apparently novels can ride on the same strategy.

Harry Potter: Only four keys to success?

Over the past few days, I've been researching the marketing strategies behind Harry Potter. One article published on Business Week suggests that those strategies are fourfold:

1) Narrative. J.K. Rowling makes sales because she writes well.

2) Ambiguity. Harry Potter appeals to a wide audience, attracting children and adults alike. In addition, Rowling blends different literary genres; not only is Harry Potter a fantasy novel, but it's also a bildungsroman and a thriller.

3) Mystery. Rowling bases much of her plots on secrets, making sure her readers keep the pages turning. (Consider also The DaVinci Code, which likewise captivated readers with secrets, mysteries, and forbidden knowledge galore.)

4) Entertainment. People read Harry Potter because it's fun!

That's Business Week's take on the phenomenon. Personally, however, I think there's more behind Harry Potter's success than these four strategies alone - narrative, ambiguity, mystery, and entertainment. Stay tuned.

Harry Potter: Marketing

Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. With his fifth movie and seventh novel pending release, no one can escape his bespeckled, lightning-scarred grasp.

I have to admit that, although I love the Harry Potter movies, I've never actually read any of the books. When I started writing fantasy, I stopped reading fantasy; except for his movie adaptations, I had read all of Terry Brooks' novels and most of R.A. Salvatore's, and I was ready to expand my reading into other genres. Mr. Potter, however, fascinates me.

Harry's not just a book; he's an empire.

J.K. Rowling, who was on welfare when she first put pen to the series, has since become, in terms of U.S. currency, the first ever billionaire author. For most authors, writing isn't a terribly lucrative endeavor; especially in the fiction genre, the competition is intense and the market is saturated. Yet, I think all of us can learn something from the Harry Potter phenomenon: Mrs. Rowling's wild success has shown that, in order to be not only a good writer but a successful writer, you also have to be a good marketer.

How have Mrs. Rowling and her publishers marketed the Harry Potter novels?

By no means am I a marketing expert, but I'd like to do a little research and find out.