The most desirable accessory this year is Harry Potter anything.
JK Rowling’s final installment in the seven-book series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” prompted Entertainment Weekly to name her 2007 Entertainer of the Year. In his celebratory article, Mark Harris lauds her accomplishment of getting the world to pay attention for 4,100 original pages: “In an era of video game consoles, online multiplayer ‘environments’ and tinier-is-better mobisodes, minisodes and webisodes, she got people to tote around her big, fat old-fashioned printed-on-paper books as if they were the hottest new entertainment devices on the planet.”
The books are enough for some, but the vintage version will not hold the attention of millions of Harry Potter readers who will always need more. Some feel that each book full of visits to Hogsmeade and encounters with Bellatrix is a sacred entity within itself, and the stories are not to be tampered with.
There are readers all along the Harry Potter spectrum, from those who just don’t want to get involved to those who are playing organized club Quidditch games on their college campuses and know every character and plot twist by heart.
Members of the counterculture (those who haven’t read page one) are repelled by the overwhelming Harry Potter empire.
Does Potter’s overexposure dampen his impact? Is it possible for an exploited story to have anything left to the imagination?
The enormous Harry Potter movie fan base would answer that well-done extras add another dimension to the story. The fan sites and movies are just many expressions of one long, magical and complex story.
According to Trans World News, Rowling has given fans permission to write online-only sequels to the world-famous Harry Potter books. This will allow fans to pick up where Rowling left off after the series’ final installment, “The Deathly Hallows.”
Perhaps allowing fans to interact with the story will keep it alive.
On the Harry Potter Official Web site, fans can join Dumbledore’s Army and take a quiz to see if they belong in the Gryffindor House. A Harry Potter theme park is being planned to open up in Florida’s Universal Orlando Resort. This item is hot.
As the spin-offs, theme parks and media attention make more money for the Potter industry, would-be fans will likely continue to be put-off from the goings on at Hogwarts, and maybe a bit of the magic will be lost in the process.
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