FAQF -- The Universal Appeal of Harry Potter

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 23595

Prefect Marcus:"I have mused on the question, "Why is Harry Potter so 
popular?", for  some time.  There are some that say it is only popular 
because it is well marketed.  Yes, there is little doubt that it IS 
well marketed, but so are many other things in our world.  How does 
this explain their popularity in places around the world where 
marketing is very primitive or even non-existent?"

It wasn't marketing. The popularity of SS/PS began as word of mouth. 
Adults started reading the books and kids started begging their 
parents for their own copies. Parents and teachers noticed and got 
curious. Eventually the media noticed and started reporting on the 
phenomenon. Did you see a blitz of advertising *before* the books got 
famous? I didn't. *After* the books got famous it was another story. 
How often do bad books succeed because they were marketed well? the 
people who say it was just marketing are simply wrong.


I believe it's the characters that make Harry Potter so successful. 
What do we discuss most on this board, and all the others? the 
characters, and the wizarding world they live in. Without Harry, 
Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, and all the rest, these books would not be 
the same.  You could drop these characters in a hundred different 
plots [as we do in fanfiction] and we would stay interested.  If we 
took some dopey characters and put them in Hogwarts everbody would be 
up in arms.


JKR is a wonderful storyteller, and the whole world has listened 
to storytellers since we lived in caves. JKR's writing is not an 
example of high craft in the writer's art. Her writing is simple, 
straightforward, and doesn't get in the way. It's the people she's 
given us that matter.