(Slide 1)
What I’d like to share with you today is more of a two-part question: Why did we grab a hold of the Harry Potter cannon and develop a culture from it? And will we continue this culture in the future?
These questions struck me in July 2007. I was traveling the U.K. with my parents, preparing to speak at SECTUS, and my Dad and I were walking the countryside of a small town in Wales. Treking through the lush green my Dad was doing what he had always done in my youth when we were walking, showing me all the plant life and attempting to educate me by giving me its scientific name. On our way back to the B&B to meet back with my Mom, Harry Potter came into the conversation. My Dad told me how proud he was of me for committing to something I was so passionate about. My response was in laughter as I said, “Well, I hope so. It’s what I plan to make a living with.” And that’s when it hit. My life, my living, has been drastically altered because one day I picked up a book recommended to me. But it wasn’t just the book, it was what I did with the story after I closed the final cover that made me realize that with Harry Potter I have developed my life, as I’m sure is the same for many of you here now. We each made a choice to read Harry Potter, and we choose how to celebrate it.
(Slide 2) “It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
Dumbledore Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
I’d like you to take a moment to dream. I would like you to envision that first reader, that lucky person that wandered through a book store, scanned the shelves, picked up a few books, and because of the cover or dust jacket description choose Harry Potter and took it home. Now I want you to imagine that moment, the crisp turn of the hard cover, the hand leafing past the first few pages to come upon the first chapter title, “The Boy Who Lived.”
For thirteen years now we have been living in a dream world, the media has so pointedly coined Pottermania. We have read, posted, watched, discussed, and created all things Harry Potter. We as readers have created a new sub culture interwoven in our daily lives.
The books are discussed as a modern phenomenon. Within that first chapter “The Boy Who Lived,” we hear Professor McGonagall tell Dumbledore, “He’ll be famous- a legend- every child in our world will know his name.” How accurate she was. And yet how much further Harry’s name has traveled. It is not just the wizarding world, but the Muggel world that resounded, chanting his name in lines and ques across the globe. Scholars followed and the Media world reported. But there is a fundamental flaw in the majority or research conducted on Harry Potter, one major element left out and uncaught like a sneaky golden snitch. Quickly, I’d like to jump back—take a Time Turner—and review the past, which I’m sure many of you are quite familiar with. Can you see what’s missing?
(Slide 3)
I’ll give you a hint: It’s not a date, it’s not a number of revenue and it’s not a report on Rowling’s life.
Media and scholars discuss the books as the phenomena, but was it truly the books? Thousands of titles are published yearly without a second thought. So how can we say it was the books? Was it not the reader? The fundamental flaw in academic and media reporting on Harry Potter, what the majority has left out—is us as individuals and the impact a reader has on not only books, but on economy, industry, and most importantly for this presentation—CULTURE.
(Slide 4)
I’d like to propose here that it wasn’t the Harry Potter books that were the phenomena, but we the readers and fans and what we did with the story once the book was closed. Each of us breathed life into Harry with our actions. Our power to unite so quickly and broadly made Harry, and ourselves as the Harry Potter Culture, truly live.
So what is our culture? How do we define culture? And what do we need to have it? For the purpose of this presentation I am defining culture in an anthropological way, meaning culture to be the “ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.”
(Slide 5)
This will be a quick orientation not an academic definition highlighted with sources. Though if you would like information on the references I’m using please fill free to talk with me after. We were all initiated into this culture by either reading the books or watching the movies. We decided to take on identifying marks to build our culture and awareness to others. This includes vocabulary, clothing, food and even tattoos. Some may have furthered the culture by tripping over to England to see the sites referenced in the books and films or sit in the shop J.K. Rowling wrote her first novel. Developing the culture further we generated sports, arts, media, and even (organizations) all centered around the novels. Remember though, it was what we did after we closed the books…we as individuals that built the culture.
So for the moment, I’d like you to share your story. Group into three or four people and introduce yourself, tell how you came upon the Harry Potter cannon and what you’ve done in the culture. Because we don’t have much time, you have five minutes in the group to share. When you hear the end of the music, I’d like to come back and hear a few of your stories.
O.k. would anyone like to share one of the stories you heard.
(Slide 6)
Why did we do this? What was it that made us want to cling and be willing to wait for this story? Why this story?
“It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
Albus Dumbledore Chamber of Secrets, p.333
We made a choice to take Harry Potter and place it in our own personal story. With that choice came responsibility. For culture to be created and live, it must be passed on and practiced. Each individual within the culture plays a vital role no matter how mundane or trivial it may seem.
Friends, scholars, media, and even ourselves have a tendancey to by pass our actions and fandom as playful fun. When the truth of the matter is, our fandom has created a mass culture stretching the globe. It’s obvious standing here that we all chose to participate. We became part of the culture, made our choice and placed our abilities to it. But have we recognized its impact. The most vital piece for any culture to survive is the act of sharing and passing it on to others.
(Slide 7)
How have you passed this culture on to others? Who have you shared it with, and connect with because of Harry Potter?
There have been so many cultural impacts from this book. Whether you have had a Harry Potter birthday party, knitted a Gryffindor scarf, attended a mid-night release, dressed as the Whomping Willow, spoke the word Muggle to a person, or created a pod-cast, musical, or a blog discussing Harry Potter—YOU are the intricate Harry Potter culture.
So we know how our culture began, our initation, we’ve heard a bit of why we grasped this culture, and we know we have begun the steps of passing it on to others. Now comes the scary part. Now comes the moment for a new choice: Do we keep Harry alive?
(Slide 8)
This may seem like a ridiculous question, as we are all here at Infinitus celebrating our love for all things Harry Potter. But how do we maintain a culture when we are faced with the daunting task of pushing it forward without any new material, no new release dates, the story told.
In a years time this will be the case: the cannon written, the final credits will be rolling by our face, and we are left to our own devices. So will the midnight release of Part 2 of Deathly Hallows be a party for a new beginning to our culture, or will it be the largest gathering of a literary and cultural Wake?
The truth was in the pages, McGonagall knew it, Rowling dreamed of it, but it was we, the readers, that made Harry live. The simple fact is that each of us is connected together do to the mere fact of opening a book and acting upon the story when we closed it. We all have experiences, journeys, and probably a bunch of confused friends that look at us funny and perplexed when we talk about Harry Potter. We are not only fans, but a culture that sprung up thirteen years ago. And we are centered in the process of choice yet again.
(Slide 9)
Do we continue this culture or do we begin the building of a new white tomb to be left on Hogwarts grounds. We have taken on a new language, created new music, produced plays, knitted more Gryffindor scarves and hats then we can count, made a few puppet pals along the way, begun non-profit organizations that have generated thousands to aid muggels and wizards alike across the globe, listened to podcasts, searched Potter web sites. We have traveled to unite together at conferences, traveled across oceans to catch a glimpse of Harry’s world, and we now have a theme park to call home. We have stood in the cold, the heat, the wee hours of the morning, to either hold or see the next chapter of our story.
I say OUR story, because for many of you here, Harry, and all the characters, have become family. In a way, we find ourselves in the epilogue, each of us taking on the roll of Harry and Ginny, Hermione and Ron, sending their kids off on the Hogwarts Express. The experience at Hogwarts will be different, but if we choose, Hogwarts will still be there.
(Slide 10) “Love leaves it’s mark.”
Culture is fluid and constantly changing. We have left our mark for over a decade and now our culture must develop and adapt to the times. If we are the culture, we have the ability to move it forward if we so choose. Do we continue Harry’s story by passing it on, living the culture even without new material? Do we stand for Dumbeldore, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville? Or do we begin the stages of mourning?
Any ideas on how you will be passing it on after the final credits roll?
I’d like to leave you with yet another quote. This one from another great British author.
(Slide 11) “We read to know, we are not alone.”
C.S. Lewis
Today we are not alone, but I ask you now what you want the future Harry Potter culture to bring? I hope you decide to continue this culture. If we take Harry with us our world, and the words we read will be richer for it.
