'Arry Potter!

The times, they are a-changing. In an era when people are bemoaning the decline of proper society, citing a constantly-eroding sense of intellectualism and decrying what passes for entertainment, one of the biggest casualties has been literature. Sure, there are occasional flashes of intellectual curiosity that seem to deny the ever-encroaching onslaught of a collective cultural stupidity -- a TV show like The Daily Show or a movie like Memento require real, honest thought and give a new perspective on tired genres (news talk shows and mystery movies, respectively). How many people have read classic literature outside of a classroom setting? Really? How many teenagers or twentysomethings (or even adults) read for pleasure? Don't let my sorry excuse for a brainy opening fool you -- I was trying to toss around a few clever-sounding words, but mostly for fun. The truth is, we as a culture are indeed getting dumbed down by the day. People will accept some of the dumbest damn excuses for entertainment and cultural phenomena to latch onto and talk about -- the Macarena, Ally McBeal, Janet Jackson's nork flash, Ben-and-Jen-and-Angelina-and-Brad-and-Van-Der-Beek, et cetera. So what happens when a real, honest to goodness cutural shockwave hits and it's actually something worth investing brain cells in?

The phenomenon of the Harry Potter series has been nothing short of remarkable. A book -- a children's book, really. There's something to be said for a story that finally gets adults who haven't touched a book in years (adults for whom a stressful mental activity is trying to figure out if they can name two of their three children)...and that story is a damn children's book. But really, critics and fans can agree: It's fucking addictive and captivating.

A paradox of a published tome, the books get longer as the series goes on, and to add insult to injury, the series actually get darker and more serious as the story keeps going. The last book weighed more than a Volkswagon! And yet, here people come, lining up for pre-release events and ordering the book in advance with almost fervid fanatacism. When the fifth book came out, at midnight on Friday of the same weekend the Hulk movie was released, the Potter book pulled in more money in two days then the comic book movie made in three (and the movie made $60 million its first weekend -- RIDICULOUSLY huge, though it would wind up not being so loved). A movie that people went to see about a comic book, maybe too smart, maybe too dumb -- and most people chose the reading experience as their activity of choice. What does that say about society?

And as we arrive on the cusp of the arrival of the sixth book, the penultimate chapter in the saga, the phenomenon shows absolutely no real signs of slowing. It's captivating adults and children alike. People are actually getting seriously excited about READING again. Of course, people will criticize: The same folks who bitch that no one is reading are convinced the story of a wizarding school is going to convince children to suddenly devote their lives to Satan. Because we all remember after we saw Star Wars for the first time and renounced our chosen career paths, choosing instead to spend our time flying around the galaxy trying to find a guy in a black suit of armor with an asthma problem to beat up on.

People will also say the stories are derivative, drawing upon previous stories of heroes. Well, d-fucking-uh. It's 2005, and that's just the years on our current calendar. Millions upon millions of stories that came first, we expect every story to be completely and wholly unique? Look, there are only so many ways to tell this story: There's a hero, there's a villain, here are the complications, here's the plot. That's that. These stories at least try to tell things a bit differently -- adding humor, plot twists, cleverness out the wazoo, characters people are really interested in. So these stories are more then different enough, if you ask me -- they are quite original enough for me, personally. They add enough to the table it's worth the read, and I find them originally told and overally damn original.

So the cultural craze continues. On Friday night, parents will take their children to a bookstore where they will eagerly wander amongst shelves and shelves of crappy and classic books alike, plus everything in between. They will wait until midnight and when the clock strikes thusly, the children and their parents will take home the books and read them into the night. Some people will stay up the entire night and read through the books because they can't wait. Others, like myself, will portion out sections of the book to read, making sure the reading experience lasts(usually a few days, the weekend at the outside). Parents and children will enjoy this, both partaking in a cultural event, both enjoying the act of reading.

Sure, this isn't going to make anybody suddenly become a literary scholar. If it makes one kid read a little more, if one child picks up Hemingway or if one parent revisits Shakespear, then what is so wrong with a phenomenon that asks people to sit and enjoy the printed page? People can bitch all they want about a society of depravity and ever-lessening standards of entertainment. But (and Jon Stewart is quite right on this issue) the bitching is just noise, just adding to the din of chatter, people trying to make sense of it. There are real, honest-to-goodness issues out there. We've got wars, despots, terrorism, death, famine, health issues, starvation, crime, poverty, not to mention an environment we need to check on, and an entire galaxy we have yet to explore. There are real things to deal with, real problems to solve and real issues to face. So why waste time debating if the latest TV show or movie is ruining society? Who cares. People like what they like. These books are an example that sometimes, occasionally, people happen to like something that seems to be really different. Discuss some real issues if you're going to discuss anything. Or maybe curl up and read a good book. Apparently there's this book coming out this weekend about a teenager coming into his own in a world that sometimes doesn't make sense. Pretty identifiable. Maybe pick up another book or two while you're there -- or watch a crappy movie, or read a crappy magazine. Just enjoy yourself.