The Nature of Popularity - The HP Phenomenon

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 142944

Recently we have had discussions both on why we individually like the
books and on the nature and quality of JKR's writing.

Some have speculated that the popularity of Harry Potter is merely a
fad and that many readers are just jumping on the band wagon to stay
in sync with their friends. Others speculate that while JKR is only a
fair writer, she does none the less tell a good story. 

I am going to try to add a unique perspective to the HP phenomenon,
and see where that leads us.

Recently, like 5 minutes ago, I checked the various categories at
FanFiction.net and made a list of the most popular subjects in each
category. The number to the right indicates how many fan fictions have
been published on that subject. 

Here they are -

Movies -

Star Wars (14021)
Pirates of the Caribbean (7151)
X-Men: The Movie (5030)
Matrix (2902
Labyrinth (2774)

Anime-

Yu-Gi-Oh (36966)
Gundam Wing/AC (35593)
Dragon Ball Z (28833)
Digimon (26186)
Sailor Moon (20593)

TV Shows-

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (27849)
Stargate: SG-1 (11030)
CSI (9575)
X-Files (5600)
StarTrek: Voyager (3879)


Now the important one...

BOOKS-

Harry Potter (215,865)
Lord of the Rings (38,338)
Tamora Pierce (5,834)
Phantom of the Opera (5,168)
Animorphs (3,637)

Note that Harry Potter is nearly **SIX TIMES** more popular that the
second best in all categories combined. [Which just happens to be
'Lord of the Rings'; a book]

Keep in mind that this is published Fan Fiction. The people involved
had to take action, they actually had to do work, they actually had to
actually write a story. That tells me that the Harry Potter phenomenon
is far more than a fad. The level of creativity and extension of the
imagination is to far above and beyond anything else for it to simply
be a fad.

The imagination of these people has been so stimulated that they
couldn't help themselves, they had to write these stories. I, myself,
who had never written anything outside of a school assignments, was
motivated to write over 1200 pages, nearly 300,000 words of Harry
Potter fan fiction. [Most of which is unsuitable for anyone under the
age of 21 and requires a very open and liberal mind.] That is
extraordinary. That's not just being a fan, or following a popular trend. 

I also like Artimus Fowl, Eragon, Ender, Bean, and the Bartimaeus
Trilogy but I haven't been motivated to write 300, much less 300,000
words about them. No degree of popular trend or mass marketing can
generate an ACTIVE response like Harry Potter has. No book could be so
far out of proportion in stimulating creativity in readers based on
nothing more that popular appeal. 

So, what is it that makes these books so unique? What is it about them
that makes them so very special? Why do people who rant and rave about
the books flaws here in this very group still eagerly await the next
installment?

Here is what I think, and to some this is old news because I've said
it so many times before.

1.) Open-Loop Writing - I'm not so sure I like this description, but
it was a nice phrase brought forth by another member of the group
[Sydney] to describe this particular aspect. Since I couldn't have
said it better, I will quote Sydney.

Post# 142762
"To me the strongest thing about JKR's writing as STYLE, ..., is that
she's an open-loop writer-- she wants the reader to meet her half-way,
so she'll sort of go half-way out and then wait for you to cross over
the rest yourself. ... This goes for descriptions of things-- you have
to do most of the picture-painting yourself-- but it also goes for
plot points, such as the vast off-stage drama of the Crouch family;
and for details implied as opposed to stated, such as Neville's toad
being an unfashionable pet given by an out-of-touch older relative."

JKR has an immensely compact writing style. The description of her
characters are usually brief and vague, but so skillfully crafted that
it stimulates our imagination to quickly and fully fill in the blanks.
Because the characters come from our own imagination rather than long
drawn out 'word-picture painting' by the author, these characters live
for us; we create them. As I have said before, if you look at the
original description of Ron in PS/SS, it's almost nothing, yet we are
all able to fully form an image of Ron in our mind. Further, to the
best of my knowledge, we aren't told that Draco is a blond until the
Quidditch World Cup in GoF. Yet despite that missing detail, we each
again had a clear image of Draco in our minds.

Also, this compact style keeps the plot moving. We never get bogged
down in long drawn out narratives. In HBP, despite two interesting
information filled chapters, we first see Harry on page 38. In OotP,
the Dementors appear on page 16 and Harry is at Grimmauld Place by
page 59. Think about how much story is contained in those few pages.

2.) Universally Human Characters - in JKR's stories, even the
non-human characters are 'human' or perhaps I should say humanized.
There is nothing so dull, uninspiring, and boring as flawless, always
right, never wrong, near sainthood characters. When 'perfection'
overcomes every obstacle and every situation, the characters become
walking morals both in the story sense and the spiritual sense. I
don't need someone to beat me over the head with 'the moral of the
story'. Just tell me the story, and if I find the moral of it then I
am a better person for it because that moral and those morals came
from inside me. They were not forced on my by some 'holy roller' of an
author.

This goes back to point 1.), and to a basic moral premise that
overrides anything anyone could ever tell me, and that is - the lesson
I learn the best in life are the lessons I teach myself. /Revelation/
is always a more inspiring teacher that /explanation/. So, JKR doesn't
bother to explain the moral of her stories. She doesn't make clear any
message that may be contained there in. The characters live their
lives and they live them as flawed human beings. They struggle with
both the big and the small question of life, and frequently they get
it wrong, but usually they get it right. Harry breaks the rules to
accomplish great things, but JKR doesn't sermonize about this, we
simply see it and draw our own conclusions.

I think this is one of the biggest draws of these books, JKR's
characters struggle with the great and small aspect of daily life.
They struggle to understand what is truly 'right' and what it truly
'wrong'. If Harry did what was right by the rules in PS/SS, he would
have forgotten about the Stone and Voldemort and gone to bed. He would
have let the grownups handle it. But to Harry in his own moral
struggle, it was clear that the grownups were NOT handling it. So, he
had to make a choice, follow the rules, or do what is right and what
was necessary. 

JKR doesn't put it to us like that though, Harry simply makes his
decision to go after the Stone and we are allowed to draw our own
conclusion. We have had some very deep and intense discussions here in
this group about Harry's rule breaking and his apparent lack of
punishment for such rule breaking. The diversity, depth, and range of
those opinions should make it clear that the author didn't not resolve
this issue in the story. We must resolve it in our own minds and with
our own conscience.

I don't think kids or adults want to be told what is right and wrong,
they want that knowledge to spring forth from within themselves. They
want to reach their own conclusion. JKR lets us do just that. Rather
that putting moral messages in her stories, she tells us of Harry
struggles with moral questions, and lets us each decide for ourselves
whether he did the right thing or not. Once again, Revelation is far
more powerful that explanation.

I think we identify with Harry because we are all fighting the same
fight in our daily lives. No I don't mean dragons and dark wizard, I'm
talking about internal struggles. We all struggle with right and
wrong, not just in choosing, but in knowing which is which. 

3.) The Common and Familiar - JKR set her story in the modern day
world, which is very different from 'Lord of the Rings' or 'Eragon'.
She give us a world that is completely common and familiar, she draws
into her stories not only the everyday life in Britain, but she draws
on myths and legends that are universally familiar to all people of
western culture and to many of other diverse cultures. Centaur, for
example, are pretty much a European construct, but Dragons, on the
other hand, are somewhat universal to cultures east and west. 

The story taking place in a familiar world, I think, is very
captivating to readers. To imagine that perhaps magic is all around
us, and we are just to busy and blinded by our routine lives to see it. 

There is also that familiarity of life's struggles which goes back to
item 2.). We all know what it is like to be a kid, we all know what it
is like to become a teenager and struggle with identity,
relationships, the opposite sex, and yes, even sex itself. We all know
how horribly bad teachers can be and we have all burned with
indignation at life's injustices. We've all felt powerful and powerless. 

As an example of the familiarity with our own daily lives, I think JKR
has done a stunning job of depicting the inner workings of the minds
of boys; Harry's sense of mischiefness, his sense of awkwardness, his
total confusion about the minds and motivations of girls, his
frustration at the lack of control of his own feelings when girls are
around. 

The same is true of girls. Many people found Hermione's explanation on
the nature of girls to Harry and Ron as being a little too insightful
for some one Hermione's age, but I can't agree. First, it's always
easier to understand and solve OTHER PEOPLE'S problems than it is your
own. I find it very realistic that Hermoine would have that insight
into Harry and Ron's relationships, but notice the Hermione doesn't
have any relationship of a romantic nature of her own. That's because
the emotions involved in dealing with your own problems and
relationship are infinitely more complex that those of other people.

4.) The Classic Heroes Journey - I mean this in an abstract sense, in
the Joseph Campbell's 'The Hero of a Thousand Faces', 'The Hero's
Journey', 'Power of Myth' sense. JKR has tapped into a universal
story. In a sense the greatest stories every told are all really
telling the same story; the universal story that lies at the spiritual
core of all mankind. In tapping into this universal mythos, JKR has
unleashed a story that will endure beyond anything that is mere fad or
marketing hype. Let's remember that this story originally grew without
marketing hype. It moved by word-of-mouth from kid to kid, from reader
to reader, spanning the globe at an unprecedented rate. It has more
gross sales upon the release of one book than many good authors ever
expect to see in the lifetime of a single books. 

As I said, this is certainly not marketing hype or fad, JKR has tapped
into some universal essence, some essential deep-seated aspect of life
that transcends time and culture and touches us all.

Is JKR a technically good writer, well maybe not, but she is a
stunningly good storyteller, and good story telling is a tradition
many centuries, even millennium, old, it transcends the written word.
JKR's worst book is still more interesting than many other top best
sellers. 

Conclusion-
As I have said, JKR has tapped into some universal aspect of mankind;
she has touched us at our ancient core. Further, you will notice that
one word 'imagination' has appeared frequently in my 'essay'. JKR has
stimulated our imagination in ways that many popular authors simply
could not. She made us reach deeper inside ourselves, and search for
the hero inside. She has inspired us, and opened up a world filled
with characters that to many readers are as full alive as the people
around us, and in some cases, even more live because they live in our
imaginations and they have the power to take us where we want to go,
teach us what we want to know, and give us a forum and framework to
say what we want to say. 

The universal power and ancient core make JKR's work far more than
popular fad or good marketing

Steve/bboyminn