Customer Reviews

The Irresistible Rise of Harry Potter

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

First of all, I only rated this one star because I can't rate it none. Secondly, I'm glad I bought this second hand because its about 1/4 inch thick.

Thirdly, this is not a good book. Like the previous reviewer stated, Blake seems to be trying to answer why Harry Potter is so popular, but he never really does. He provides a whole bunch of statistics like The Labour Party came into power in the same year Harry was published. So what? This isn't enough. (Not to mention that Fudge has often been called a parody of Tony Blair). He cites a lot of coincidences and contemporaneous events, but doesn't do much with them. Many of his arguments are very thin. He uses the example of Harry relaxing by playing Qudditch in a scene from Book Four to argue that in the books "Retail therapy and sport substitute for emotional contact." Clearly this guy has no clue what he's talking about. One wonders if it is not Blake who has the problem with emotional contact--obviously, he could not emotionally connect with the books.

Which brings up the main reason why this book is so bad--Blake never took the time to read the books thoroughly and analyze them thoroughly. I got the impression he had casually read through them maybe one time. He never analyzes them beyond a casual recital of the plot. The books are used as mere examples of his thin social and political theories, with a cold, Professor Binns-like indifference.

His attitude is insensitive, condescending, cynical, and patronizing, to the point that one wonders why in the world he wrote this book at all? I can only think it was to try and cash in on the phenomenon. Why, for example, is the lettering on the spine exactly like the "magical" lettering of the American versions?

I would advise you NOT to waste your money. Its only 116 SMALL pages with LARGE print.

I would recommend The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter instead. That is full of interesting ideas and its well worth the price.

i've read this book twice, and, while much of the social and cultural facts, discussions and conclusions are interesting--even fascinating--i cannot say that the author has determined why harry potter has become so internationally popular, and so popular across social levels.

nevertheless, i did find it worth reading twice. on the other hand, i think it also proves that it is not possible to analyze the reasons for a cultural phenomenon.

I have just begun this book, and my rating is preliminary based on what I've seen so far. Although I look forward to reading it, on the very first page is a bit of misinformation. Blake states that "the books . . . have been translated into forty-seven languages; only the Bible has been translated into more." Actually, the second most translated book--in English, at any rate, and probably in any other language--is John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Isabel Hofmeyr (The Portable Bunyan) reports 80 translations into African languages alone. It has been translated into all the European languages, so that there is there is a translation not only in Dutch but also in Flemish, not only in Russian but also in Lithuanian, Estonian, Serbian, Czech, and Bulgarian. There's just been a new Bulgarian translation, in fact. The Harry Potter books are being translated into key languages, but there is a translation of Pilgrim's Progress in both Armeno-Turkish and Greco-Turkish, as well Armenian and Syriac. Pilgrim's Progress would appear to have been translated into all the major 14 languages of India as well, and so forth. It is also the second most published book after the Bible. Ac cording to bibliographer F.M. Harrison, it had gone into 1,300 editions and reprints, not counting pirated editions, abridgements, abbreviations, adaptations, dramatizations, imitations of or selections from the text, and Harrison was reporting in 1941. Even now, there are as many hits for the full text of Pilgrim's Progress for sale on Amazon as there are for, say, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The eleven first editions of Pilgrim's Progress--those published during Bunyan's lifetime--are unspeakably valuable. Lucy Maude Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables, even wrote a book featuring the value of an early edition of Pilgrim's Progress.

This author along with all the other HP critics overthink the Harry Potter phenomenom. What is going on inthe county has a minimal effect on what fiction people read, especially for grade schoolers.
People liek the idea that there is a world nobody knows about. It's not going to be complex literature because its aimed toward younger readers. JK Rowling has a good plot and a gift for writing.

Andrew Blake argues here that the Harry Potter phenomenon is a response to the decline of British power and of the publishing industry. Blake sees Harry as a symbol of "retrolution," a nostalgic view of the past transplanted into the present.

As to the reasons for Harry's popularity, I don't find Blake's thesis wildly convincing. As I see it, the Potter books are well written and exciting. I find it a relief myself to read about Harry's magical problems rather than the all-too-real ones I face every day. Other than that, the main force I see operating in Harry's success is the one no one can sensibly explain: the power of fad.

On the other hand, Blake is correct that Britain's power has declined. I suppose it's possible that Harry Potter may relate to this in some way. Unfortunately, Blake doesn't take this analysis very far. I think retrolution may well be an unavoidable part of the future in all the developed countries. Although Blake doesn't mention this, Britain's past dominance in the world depended largely on the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution in turn came about because fossil fuels were harnessed to do work. Britain's decline began when her coal supplies began to run out. The North Sea oil was a shot in the arm for Britain, but it appears that also is coming to an end. Hubbert's oil peak is likely to cause widespread disruption in developed countries in the next few years. Britain certainly will not be spared these problems. One result will be a general shift back to a slower, more local style of life--in other words, retrolution. For more on this, see Kunstler's book "The Long Emergency."The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

Isn't the Harry Potter a book series for children? Isn't it a fantasy series? It's just harmless fun, so leave it alone. Once again a puritanical conservative decides what's best for others and is upset because some people enjoy something he doesn't. Let it go already.

This is an excellent and subtle, but unfortunately too brief (hence four stars), overview of the Harry Potter craze. The main question Blake seeks to answer is: why now? Why and how did the Harry Potter series become so popular and why now? He situates the books in historical context--easier said than done. There was much going on in English culture and education that contributed to the books' success. Beginning in the mid-90s, Blake looks less at the books' possible past textual sources and spends more time exploring the books' contemporary cultural sources. I'm currently teaching a university course with _Azkaban_ as a text and may assign readings from Blake's book as secondary reading, both as overview of what came before and as an example of how to read carefully and respect a text and its attendant complications.

I would rate this as a tie for the most interesting book on this phenomenon of those I have read so far. This book looks at the cultural and political timing that seems to have made Harry the irresistible darling of the literacy efforts in the UK and since in many respects those things are duplicated in the US, voila, Harry is irresistible there also.