# Why is Harry Potter such a huge phenomenon? (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719 "2016-09-11T23:13:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/61 "2016-09-14T17:06:47Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > That feels a little like “no one should write a love song, because its been done.” Ummmm… no. Just because I didn’t fall head over heels for the series doesn’t mean I condemn it and anything similar. ---
**Author:** ![TheStake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@TheStake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheStake)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/62 "2016-09-14T20:00:49Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I read the first three books at the same time when I was in 5th or 6th grade I think? > > And I read each subsequent book right as they came out. I aged the same pace as Harry. Including the final book coming out when both and and I were 17. > > The books are for people of my generation and as I matured, so did Harry. > > When we were both young (so to speak) our problems were light and airy. Making new friends, trying to find out who you are and things like that. > > Then the books got more serious as did my life. I had to deal with girls, bullies high expectations of myself thrown on me by others that I didn’t want nor could possibly live up to. > > It was a bit of a mirror into my life and my childhood. I’m by no means as obsessed as some people are, not by a long shot, but I loved the books because it was written specifically for me (or so it felt). I came here to write this. I aged with the books timeline as well. I don’t treat it like a huge deal either, but I do fondly remember all the books. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/63 "2016-09-15T02:06:28Z")
I think one of the bigger selling points for the books is the bathrooms. [ul][li]the troll destroys the girls’ room[/li][li]the chamber of secrets mostly takes place in the girls room (and for adults, “chamber of secrets” is a nice double entendre)[/li][li]Dumbledore finds the Come-&-Go room when he has an urgent need[/li][li]Harry and Draco have a big fight in the boys’ room[/li][li]the three kids enter the MofM through magical public toilets[/ul][/li]Rowling had a disturbingly incisive grasp on what children like, and a good sense of how to write for them – her style is as close to journeyman-artless as you can get, but that is fine for youngsters, and her constructive imagination is excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/64 "2016-09-15T03:03:17Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Ummmm… no. Just because I didn’t fall head over heels for the series doesn’t mean I condemn it and anything similar. Are you really going to tell me my FEELINGS about your statement aren’t valid? The correct way to say that would be “gee, that wasn’t what I meant.” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/65 "2016-09-15T03:25:06Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we ever find out much about what Arithmancy consists of. > > I’d _like_ to think it involves some genuine, substantial mathematics, used for magical purposes (so, no whining “When are we ever going to use this?”). > This, I think, is pretty much true. The wizarding world and muggle world are fairly well insulated from one another. Wizards don’t seem to understand muggle matters, though there are some (like Mr. Weasley) who are both fascinated and confused by them. I believe Rowling has said that most kids from wizarding families are home schooled (the Weaselys were). If you go to [Pottermore](http://www.pottermore.com/), there’s a LOT of background info. It’s a neat site, and it also contains a lot about the movies as well. (Hardcore geeks can even get sorted into a house and be assigned a “wand”. If you’re REALLY dedicated, you can also get your house at the American school as well) The [Harry Potter Wiki](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page) is a good one too. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/66 "2016-09-15T04:00:35Z")
in one of the HP ps2 games they had a wing that said “muggle/mundane studies” so we figured it was math and such… ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/67 "2016-09-15T04:05:24Z")
I remember what childrens books were like before HP 🙂 From '67 to '97, publishers were publishing _short_ books for children, teenagers, and young adults. There was a consensus about what young people wanted, it was focused on poor readers, and it excluded long books. That hadn’t always been the case: in the 30’s the “Swallows and Amazons” series by Arthur Ransom were long books, with, (in my opinion) comparable literary merit. But publishers weren’t publishing that kind of book, and libraries weren’t buying that kind of book. So, IMO, Bloomsbury showed considerable courage in publishing HP – and it paid off. It turns out that there is in fact still a market for long books with a strong plot and easy language. The rest of it is genre fiction - school story, bording school story, fantasy. It’s not very original, and it doesn’t have to be. If it was written in the short-action style of the 70’s, it would be just another 70’s book. If it was written in serial form, it would be just another 1870’s book. But it’s not: it’s a long-form novel, and it appeared in a market that was starved for that kind of book. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/68 "2016-09-15T08:31:21Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > Does Arithmancy teach the kids any muggle world math? It seems to be more numerology or predicting things with math. It seems that Hogwarts teaches kids how to live in the wizard world, they would be left behind if they wanted to get jobs in the Muggle world. When the first book came out, it had [this cover](http://static2.hypable.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/philosophers-stone-cover.jpg) in Britain (and Australia etc), which coloured my expectations of it. It felt like many books I had read before, the Diane Duane or Diana Wynne Jones type of books that had a gentle comedic “safe” feel. And I think that, though the story subsequently got to be very serious and epic, that was sort of what Rowling was going for when starting out, because the way she portrays things like Hogwarts, the Wizard World, and Quidditch, are all very simplistic and superficial. They’re amazing and weird and wonderful and odd, but they’re not properly thought out to any exacting degree. Over time she managed to flesh things out a little, but most of the school stuff was tertiary to the plot and the characters, just background fluff for world-building and atmosphere. I’m sure if you wanted to you could come up with a more solidified way the Wizarding World operates that would both make sense and still fit with what we know of it in the books, and we shouldn’t make the mistake, therefore, to assume that what’s written on the page for expediency’s sake is all there is. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/69 "2016-09-15T09:36:35Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > That hadn’t always been the case: in the 30’s the “Swallows and Amazons” series by Arthur Ransom were long books, with, (in my opinion) comparable literary merit. I’ll forgive you, given that you say it is only your opinion they are of comparable literary merit. Because the undisputed fact is that the “Swallows and Amazons” series are of far, far greater literary merit. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/70 "2016-09-15T10:07:08Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I’ll forgive you, given that you say it is only your opinion they are of comparable literary merit. > > Because the undisputed fact is that the “Swallows and Amazons” series are of far, far greater literary merit. 😃 I fully agree with that! ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719/71 "2016-09-15T10:23:36Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I’ll forgive you, given that you say it is only your opinion they are of comparable literary merit. > > Because the undisputed fact is that the “Swallows and Amazons” series are of far, far greater literary merit. 😃 Just a follow up: The characters in the Swallows and Amazons series are the most real children I’ve ever come across in fiction. Unlike most series, the books get better and better as the series goes on, and the quality of the writing gets smoother and more skillful. In fact, the writing is so good that it seems effortless. You don’t even notice how expertly written it is, unless you intentionally look for it. Also the books don’t follow any pattern, and each book has its own unique flavour and charm. Another refreshing thing about the Swallows and Amazons series is that Arthur Ransome is not trying to push any point of view. There is no ‘message’, there are no little moral lessons. The characters don’t have to resolve personal differences among themselves and ‘become better people’. There are hardly any villains or ‘bad guys’. Nothing very implausible happens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-harry-potter-such-a-huge-phenomenon-open-spoilers/765719.md?page=3)