The Harry Potter Generation…

Can a Phenomenon Ever Die?

Last night I was surfing through the web in search of a harry potter forum. And I found the number one forum there is cosforums. But tagged along with it was an ominous message to anyone who entered. This site is going to be closed down. The reason – the harry potter phenomenon has died down. They may not have said so per se, but the meaning was evident. People are no longer logging on to the site like they used to. A site which registered a maximum of over 3000 visitors at a time now averages nearly a hundred, most of them non-members.

So my question is – Has the Harry Potter phenomenon died down? Or more exactly, CAN a phenomenon like Harry Potter die?

Way back in 1997 when JK Rowling published a book about a boy sorcerer named Harry Potter, and created the magical fortress called Hogwarts as his school, she might never have imagined that she was creating a parallel universe for millions of children worldwide. She might not have imagined millions of kids hanging on to every one of her words, kids following every move, every word, and every syllable  of every character in her book, of kids and parents waiting in line for hours on end for her book, of bookstores needing to reorder their stocks every now and then because you can’t keep this on the shelf. Harry Potter had become a phenomenon.

In a world where the TV and internet, video games and all were taking over, Harry Potter saved reading.

From The Philosopher’s Stone in 1997 to The Deathly Hallows in 2007, for ten whole years, Harry Potter ruled the literature world. And then like all good things, it too came to an end. And with the release of the last movie in 2011, JKR officially announced the End Of An Era. But make no mistake, for billions of kids around the world, for an entire generation, Harry Potter had become their life.

Now let me talk a little bit about myself.

I never knew about Harry Potter when it was released, I heard about it a lot later, when it became THE book to read. I first received a copy of The Goblet Of Fire from my mother’s friend. She said it was a great book and that I’d enjoy it. And ironically, I didn’t open it. I felt a boy riding on a broomstick being chased by a dragon was a lame book to read. I DIDN’T READ IT!!!

And then I heard more about it, and I decided to give it a try. The first book I read was the Prisoner of Azkaban. And I loved it. To the core. I bought all four books that had been published till then and read them all, vociferously, hungrily. I devoured them fast and almost too fast.

And then Order of the Phoenix was released. I got it for the first time from my library, and I read it and reread it may times before returning it the next week. But that wasn’t enough. I needed my own copy. And I bought it too. The Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows reached my bookshelf as soon as they were released.

And then I realized it. It was over.

It had been a huge part of my life for so many years, and I was not willing to let it end. I still read these books whenever I see them. Because it is my life. Harry and his world is part of my life, just like a lot of kids around the world.

And this is what I want to say to anyone who says that PotterMania is dead:

“Harry Potter will only truly be dead when none here are loyal to him”

And that is to say, NEVER!!!