VICKIE'S WRITING BASE OF OPERATIONS > CURRENT PROJECT - NON-FICTION EXPLORATION INTO WHY THE HARRY POTTER NOVEL SERIES APPEALS TO ADULT READERS
IF YOU ARE A PUBLISHER OR AGENT INTERESTED IN THIS PROJECT, PLEASE CONTACT ME AT vickieholt@cox.net TO ARRANGE FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE. THANK YOU!
I am currently working on a non-fiction book that may explain many reasons why the Harry Potter novel series appeals so much to an adult readership. Within the text, I focus not only on the adult level content of the stories (such as emotion, psychology fould language and more), but on the advanced reading level methods Rowling uses to write (multiple plots, advanced vocabulary and more). All together, 14 aspects are investigate for each of the six novels released thus far.
Currently, I have a notes document that is nearly 300 pages long. I am working on my final re-write of the project, and nearly completed the "Sorcer's Stone" chapter. I expect the final manuscript to be completed and ready for marketing by the end of summer.
Here is the Prologue for this book:
Harry Potter is one of the largest children’s entertainment icons on the planet today. Between the books, the films and a multi-million dollar merchandising machine, J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard has made his way into billions of homes. Kids everywhere love Harry and his friends. They flock in droves to the children’s sections of their local bookstores whenever a new volume hits the shelves. They prowl the isles of toy stores looking for action figures and games, and they queue up in line at theaters for each new film. But if you were to look carefully, you’d notice more adults than ever before lurking through the children’s areas of those bookstores. Certainly you would find the usual parents keeping watch over their eager children, but a great many adults are now there for themselves, stealing into the brightly lit and gaily painted sections to grab the latest volumes of their new favorite novel series. This is a phenomenon that hasn’t been seen since the adult attraction to such high-profile stories as “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Hobbit”, and “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. Shortly after the release of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on a joint conference of the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations. The Harry Potter series was one of the top topics of conversation, and it was noted then that nearly 30 percent of the four Potter books at that point had been bought for readers 35 and older. One could imagine that this percentage would’ve been much higher if readers aged 18-34 had been included. It’s very possible that nearly half or more of the readership of this series are neither children nor young teens. But why? What is so appealing to an adult reader in a story about a child wizard attending a fantastical wizarding school and having fantasy adventures? The answer is a simple one. The Harry Potter novels were not written in the manner of a children’s series. The idea is very much the same as watching Looney Toons cartoons as an adult. You remember having watched them as a child, and you recall how silly and fun they were. But when you watched those same cartoons as an adult, a whole new level of entertainment was revealed. Suddenly, you noticed all the adult humor, intellectual references, sexual innuendo, guns, liquor, smoking and violence. At this point, you either became appalled with the content of those early cartoons, or you embraced it and enjoyed them all anew for the adult entertainment factors that were obviously intended. This was because early cartoons were not made for children. They were made to appear as the short features that would bide an audience’s time between the feature films at the movie theatre. They were not originally created for Saturday morning viewing by the youngsters in the household. But that doesn’t mean children didn’t enjoy those cartoons. As a child, you laughed at the funny faces and the sight gags. And so it is with the Harry Potter series. Younger readers enjoy the magic, the fantasy and Harry’s wondrous adventures. They think Quidditch is cool and they adore Dobby. They fear giant spiders and thrill at the thought of riding on Buckbeak. But the Harry Potter series is far more than magic and monsters. It’s an extremely sophisticated and meticulously structured mix of adult-level writing and hard-hitting mature concepts. Because this series is so universally perceived as a children’s fantasy adventure, however, many adult Potter fans may feel a bit foolish for loving it so much. And no wonder. It’s veritably saturated in fairy dust. Adult readers may not be aware that they could be responding to the higher-level content beneath the sparkle. Hopefully, after reading this study, you will feel justified in your fandom. Just as the with those old cartoons, allow me to dust away the fairy sprinkles and reveal the adult humor, intellectual references, sexual innuendo, guns, liquor, smoking and violence – and then some.
I am currently working on a non-fiction book that may explain many reasons why the Harry Potter novel series appeals so much to an adult readership. Within the text, I focus not only on the adult level content of the stories (such as emotion, psychology fould language and more), but on the advanced reading level methods Rowling uses to write (multiple plots, advanced vocabulary and more). All together, 14 aspects are investigate for each of the six novels released thus far.
Currently, I have a notes document that is nearly 300 pages long. I am working on my final re-write of the project, and nearly completed the "Sorcer's Stone" chapter. I expect the final manuscript to be completed and ready for marketing by the end of summer.
Here is the Prologue for this book:
Harry Potter is one of the largest children’s entertainment icons on the planet today. Between the books, the films and a multi-million dollar merchandising machine, J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard has made his way into billions of homes. Kids everywhere love Harry and his friends. They flock in droves to the children’s sections of their local bookstores whenever a new volume hits the shelves. They prowl the isles of toy stores looking for action figures and games, and they queue up in line at theaters for each new film.
But if you were to look carefully, you’d notice more adults than ever before lurking through the children’s areas of those bookstores. Certainly you would find the usual parents keeping watch over their eager children, but a great many adults are now there for themselves, stealing into the brightly lit and gaily painted sections to grab the latest volumes of their new favorite novel series. This is a phenomenon that hasn’t been seen since the adult attraction to such high-profile stories as “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Hobbit”, and “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”.
Shortly after the release of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on a joint conference of the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations. The Harry Potter series was one of the top topics of conversation, and it was noted then that nearly 30 percent of the four Potter books at that point had been bought for readers 35 and older. One could imagine that this percentage would’ve been much higher if readers aged 18-34 had been included. It’s very possible that nearly half or more of the readership of this series are neither children nor young teens.
But why? What is so appealing to an adult reader in a story about a child wizard attending a fantastical wizarding school and having fantasy adventures? The answer is a simple one. The Harry Potter novels were not written in the manner of a children’s series.
The idea is very much the same as watching Looney Toons cartoons as an adult. You remember having watched them as a child, and you recall how silly and fun they were. But when you watched those same cartoons as an adult, a whole new level of entertainment was revealed. Suddenly, you noticed all the adult humor, intellectual references, sexual innuendo, guns, liquor, smoking and violence. At this point, you either became appalled with the content of those early cartoons, or you embraced it and enjoyed them all anew for the adult entertainment factors that were obviously intended. This was because early cartoons were not made for children. They were made to appear as the short features that would bide an audience’s time between the feature films at the movie theatre. They were not originally created for Saturday morning viewing by the youngsters in the household.
But that doesn’t mean children didn’t enjoy those cartoons. As a child, you laughed at the funny faces and the sight gags. And so it is with the Harry Potter series. Younger readers enjoy the magic, the fantasy and Harry’s wondrous adventures. They think Quidditch is cool and they adore Dobby. They fear giant spiders and thrill at the thought of riding on Buckbeak.
But the Harry Potter series is far more than magic and monsters. It’s an extremely sophisticated and meticulously structured mix of adult-level writing and hard-hitting mature concepts. Because this series is so universally perceived as a children’s fantasy adventure, however, many adult Potter fans may feel a bit foolish for loving it so much. And no wonder. It’s veritably saturated in fairy dust. Adult readers may not be aware that they could be responding to the higher-level content beneath the sparkle. Hopefully, after reading this study, you will feel justified in your fandom. Just as the with those old cartoons, allow me to dust away the fairy sprinkles and reveal the adult humor, intellectual references, sexual innuendo, guns, liquor, smoking and violence – and then some.