8 - 14 November 2001
Issue No.559
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 8 - 14 November 2001 Issue No.559 |
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Limelight
Embrace the magic
So many sites to see, so many towns to pass, so many names to ponder. She looked forward to the long train ride from Manchester to London. She took out her notebook and started to scribble. Thrilled at the stretch of brown hilltops and lush green meadows as they flashed by her window, she contemplated her impossible dreams, her deepest wishes, her darkest fears. She closed her eyes. A flood of happy carefree childhood pleasures, rushed to her conscious mind. She vividly saw the country homes she grew up in with her parents and her younger sister Di - the games they played in the woods; wandering across the field along the river Wye. She heard her father's voice read Wind in the Willows. She scribbled some more in her notebook. By the time the train pulled up at London's King's Cross Station, unbeknownst to her then, she had scribbled the basic plot and characters of one of history's greatest publishing achievements anywhere in the world for adults or children's books. The year was 1990, the passenger on the train 24 year-old J. K. (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling - teacher. She disembarked her train and went on to have a life! She taught French for two years. Later she accepted a job in Portugal to teach English as a Second Language. Then came love and marriage to a Portuguese TV journalist, followed by heartbreak and divorce. She was back in Britain two years later, alone with an infant baby girl. She rented a tiny apartment in Edinburgh to be near her sister Di. This was the lowest point of her life. Jobless, penniless, with a baby to feed, all she had was a giant suitcase, full of notes and chapters about a bespectacled eleven year-old boy named Harry Potter who did not know he was a wizard. "I must achieve something!" she thought. She applied for public assistance and concentrated on finishing her manuscript.
Edinburgh was dark and dreary, the apartment cold and dismal. She would wheel her daughter to the warmest coffee shop and write, and write while her baby napped. She sent her finished work to publisher after publisher - it was promptly rejected. Perhaps she needed an agent! She looked up the listing and picked a name she liked - Christopher Little. Four days later he signed her on, three months later Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was a major best- seller in Great Britain. The generous advance for the American edition, re-titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was unheard of for a children's book. In no time 'Potter' climbed to the top of every best-seller list for both children and adult books, on both continents. The story of the orphan boy-wizard and his adventures caught the imagination of readers of all ages. Everyone, young and old cheered the little orphan boy who escapes the unbearable world of spiritual poverty and mental cruelty, of the home where he lived with his aunt and uncle - the Dursleys. He boards a train for Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft with its incredibly fantastic forbidden magic forests, fields and endless castle dungeons; its mysterious characters and dangerous intrigues. Since its first appearance in 1997, four books have already been published that have climbed to the top of every best seller list for both children and adults. Sales have now passed 100 million copies in 47 languages and 200 countries from Azerbaijan to Zanzibar. "Harry Potter just gets better every time". J. K. Rowling has not only achieved her life's ambition "to be a published author", but has entered the pages of history. She herself is an elusive and mysterious figure. She shuns publicity and lives somewhere in the mist and dark of an old Edinburgh castle with her daughter. She planned seven books in all, for the Potter series, allowing Harry to graduate from wizard school (age 11-17). She sits and writes, unleashing the terror of Voldemort, the Lord of Darkness, turning adventure after breath-taking adventure, more mysterious and more malevolent than anything normally found in any children's book. Readers lap it up, volume after volume. The incredible joy of parents worldwide is to see their children lured away from their senseless cartoons and sordid video games, and bury their heads in a book, and read for hours on end. "It's nothing short of a miracle" - as though Harry Potter cast a spell on them. Children of all ages await more irresistible thrillers of the fast paced cliffhangers and sweet sparkling childlike humour, that Miss Rowling churns out, not to mention the delicious names of people, places, foods and games. A word of warning. If you have not read the books, you are a "muggle" or a "non-wizard" - the new form of abuse in 'childrenese'.
Is there a film you say? Indeed there is - one whole year in the making at the cost of 150 million dollars shot on 7 sound-stages in Britain with an almost all-British cast. The selection of the right director by Warner Bros. for this gargantuan project, took many months and much competition before it landed in the lap of lucky Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire). Steven Spielberg, who was first offered the film, shied away because of all the hype and expectations, and preferred to do A. I. Artificial Intelligence instead. But "Spielly" has his eye on Volume III, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. "It is pure genius - much darker and more esoteric" he says. Imagine!
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter
The hunt for Harry Potter lasted 9 months and fell on Daniel Radcliffe. Rounding up the distinguished cast headed by Richard Harris as Hogwarts' headmaster - Professor Albus Dumbledore, and Maggie Smith as deputy headmistress Minerva Mcgonagall. Harris hesitated about making such a long commitment but a phone call from his 11 year-old granddaughter threatened "I will never speak to you again if you don't do Dumbledore". He signed for three more sequels.
Amid much pomp and circumstance, and unprecedented media-mania, the world premiere was held on November 4th at the Odeon Theatre, Leicester Square, London. General release is slated for November 16th in the UK and the US. The magic season has started. Work on the second book, Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber starts on November 20th, before the children grow too fast. The film is 142 minutes long. Can a child sit through that, when the average children's film does not exceed 80 minutes? Director Columbus thinks if a child can read 700 pages, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a child can well sit for 142 minutes watching Harry and friends outsmart the enemy.
The fascination with the Potter saga, while a global phenomenon, is really quite understandable. Every culture recognises the subterranean forces, implicit in the belief in magic. Every tradition, every fairy tale, every legend, every folklore introduces children to their special brand of underworld creatures, whether they be djinns, trolls, ghouls, sorcerers, ghosts or vampires. The names may differ from culture to culture, but they are all the same hybrid creatures that exist in all of us, in all our collective unconsciousness. Terrifying underground forces of evil, always making battle with the good, which triumphs nonetheless.
There will be more wholesome family fun to alleviate the heavy hearts this season, more mystery, more fantasy, more make-believe, more magical escapism. "Come dear children, let us away, down and away below". What better therapy for the young and the young at heart!
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