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Local fans share their love for Harry Potter series ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.15.2007
For eager — and anxious — Harry Potter fans, the next week could be one of the longest in their lives.
In six days, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be unleashed worldwide.
It is the seventh and last book penned by author J.K. Rowling, bringing an end to a series that spawned a global phenomenon.
From getting youngsters hooked on reading, to inspiring a new wizarding rock genre, the young teen wizard has become a revered icon around the world.
Now the Harry Potter "fandom" — an international group of fans who host Web sites, write blogs or play "wizard rock" music — will soon bid adieu to a world of wizards, fantasy and escapism.
Join us as we look back at the series, examine its impact on the world and see what's next for local fans who've grown up with the beloved books.
As a 12-year-old, Andrea Pineda fell in love with a boy wizard named Harry Potter.
Ten years later, the 22-year-old Tucsonan still carries a literary torch for the fictional hero who rules not only the literary wizarding world of author J.K. Rowling but also the hearts and minds of others around the world including those in the Old Pueblo.
But like a tragic love affair or adolescent crush, the end is near and Harry Potter fans are feeling woe.
"I'm totally heartbroken it's ending," said Pineda, who along with millions of other eager fans is counting down to Friday's midnight release (12:01 a.m. Saturday) of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final installment in the Rowling series.
"I grew up with these books," said Pineda, who has read the English and Spanish versions more than once. "I guess it's a good send-off into adulthood."
The series, which started out as a children's book, quickly gained praise among teen and adult fans and morphed into a pop-culture phenomenon.
Audiences flocked to movie theaters Wednesday as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth film in the series, was released. Many caught the midnight shows at area theaters and came dressed as their favorite characters.
Through Thursday, the film had earned $62.6 million in the United States, according to Boxofficemojo.com, an online box-office tracker.
The first four Potter movies have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, and sales for the soundtracks top 1 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks the retail market.
Books six and seven in the series are scheduled for film adaptations as well.
The big event, though, is Saturday's release of "Deathly Hallows," when fans will find out how the celebrated book series will end.
Bookstores across Tucson are prepping for late-night parties Friday and are expecting large crowds.
"Right now it's getting crazy. We're seeing a fever pitch of things that we'll never see again," said Melissa Anelli, 27, a New York-based Web master of the fan Web site The Leaky Cauldron (leakynews.com), who is writing a book capturing the Harry Potter fan frenzy of 2007.
From teens sporting punk-mod fashion reminiscent of students who attend the fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to "wizard rock" bands playing at local venues, fans are expressing their love for all things Harry Potter.
"Tucson is definitely one of the top cities for Harry Potter fandom. Everyone's enthusiastic about the books," said Anelli, who is recording a series of podcasts before live audiences with fellow podcasters John Noe and Sue Upton, on the Leaky Web site's weekly Pottercast. "This summer's unique for this generation of fans, but also marks the end of an era."
Readers can't get enough of the series
Since the 1997 debut of the first novel, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the successful series has spawned a wide assortment of merchandise, video games and popular films.
The first six books have collectively sold more than 325 million copies and have been translated into more than 63 languages, making Rowling the first billionaire author, Reuters reported earlier this month.
Based on the number of books sold, the series blows "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown out of the water. That book sold more than 60.5 million copies in print and has been translated into 44 languages, according to Amazon.com.
Publishers announced this summer a record-breaking 12 million copies for the first print run of "Deathly Hallows" in the United States alone, and Amazon.com already has received 1.6 million advance orders.
"One of the reasons it's so popular is it hit on an emotional level, whether you're a kid or an adult," said Lisa Waite Bunker, a children's librarian at Tucson's Joel D. Valdez Main Library, who found that the series spawned a reading revolution at local schools.
"Harry Potter has resulted in a new generation of readers. The series has helped readers define their reading preferences, develop tastes for continuing series and for imagining worlds where young people are powerful yet are susceptible to strong forces," said Loriene Roy, president of the American Library Association and professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin.
"They've provided good reads for adults and for young readers, especially young boys. And they have been a boon for publishing as authors and publishers have created more titles for readers in the 7-18 age range," said Roy, who is also a University of Arizona alumna.
While teaching a lot about philosophy and tolerance of others, the books also had some heavy themes — from dealing with love and death to social commentary about repression among classes and even terrorism, Waite Bunker added.
"It was a smart series people latched onto," said Waite Bunker, who also edits the fan Web sites www.accio-quote.org, an archive of Rowling quotes, and www.hp-lexicon.org, which chronicles Harry Potter news and provides essays, an encyclopedia and readers guides.
"Demand is high. There's a lot of excitement with this book, more so than any other," said Steffannie Koeneman, a spokeswoman for the Pima County Public Library.
The library ordered 540 regular print versions of "Deathly Hallows," the largest book order in recent years, Koeneman said.
As of last week, 769 people had already requested to reserve those copies, Koeneman said.
Normal big orders for new books by popular authors such as Stephen King or John Grisham are usually about 250 to 300 books, she added. Besides the regular print books, the library has ordered 75 audio CDs, 21 large-print books and 10 audio cassettes of "Deathly Hallows."
Other forms of entertainment
A slew of local summer Harry Potter events — craft-making parties for wizard accessories, movie nights, scavenger hunts and concerts — has helped make the wait for "Deathly Hallows" a bit more tolerable for eager fans.
Dressed in their Hogwarts best — school uniforms consisting of black skirts, white shirts, ties and wands — Rose Williamson, 19, and Brittany Vaughn, 18, were among 100 people, mostly teens and adults, who attended a Pottercast event in June at the Borders bookstore at Park Place mall.
The teens were there to hear a Harry Potter podcast, a book discussion, spout complicated theories about how the series would end and participate in "wizard duels" with other audience members who cast spells at one another.
"We've always been into costuming, but we're both theater geeks," said Williamson, who scouted local thrift stores with a friend to find a blue and bronze uniform resembling those worn by students in the Ravenclaw House.
After identifying with the personality traits of a Slytherin, Vaughn changed her entire wardrobe to match the colors of the Slytherin House, which are black, dark green and silver.
"Right now I'm making knickknacks for my bedroom," said Vaughn, whose bedroom resembles a Slytherin dorm room with a four-poster bed, bedding, a Slytherin House banner and other handmade paraphernalia.
Later that evening the teens joined more than 300 people who packed themselves inside the Joel D. Valdez Main Library to hear "Harry and the Potters," a "wizard rock" band from Norwood, Mass.
Paul DeGeorge, 28, and brother Joe DeGeorge, 19, played various self-written and punk-themed songs based on Harry Potter characters, with titles that included "Save Ginny Weasley" and "Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!"
The group is on a summer tour with stops in 34 states at more than 65 cities, including performances in Tucson and Phoenix.
They are among at least 100 known wizard rock bands from around the country who play all sorts of music, from folk to hip-hop to metal, who write songs based on Harry Potter characters.
Other wizard rock bands include the Whomping Willows, a nod to a magical tree that attacks people, and the Rhode Island-based Draco and the Malfoys, who perform songs about Harry's jealous rival.
Like other wizard rock bands, the DeGeorge brothers dress like their featured character, in this instance, Harry, wearing geek glasses, ties, blue jeans and sneakers.
The concert — which looked like any indie, alternative rock show — drew toddlers, teens and adults from surrounding towns, including Nogales, Sierra Vista, Oro Valley and Marana.
"These guys rock. I think it's awesome the band is here," said Nick Douglas, 23, who bought CDs and T-shirts at the show. "Once the books are gone, the music will remain."
A world of their own
With such demand and fanfare, Harry Potter fans are drawing comparisons to "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" aficionados who have created a world of their own.
"I think it is similar to 'Star Trek' in that it takes place in a richly imagined world that invites fans to immerse themselves in every aspect," said Jennifer Heddle, an editor at Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster that is publishing Anelli and has released more than 100 "Star Trek"-related titles. "I think it's even closer to 'Star Wars' because it's also a very mythic story that appeals to a broad audience that crosses all age and gender lines."
That imagined world has ruled much of the Internet for the past seven years.
"Around 2000, message boards, mailing lists, blogs were starting to form into the community hubs we have now," said Anelli of mugglenet. Between 2000 and 2003 the Potter galaxy then exploded from a publishing phenomenon to a cultural phenomenon.
Web master Emerson Spartz of the Leaky Cauldron Web sites, said the 2001 release of the first Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," also catapulted fanfare.
"So the fans, who were desperately awaiting word on the fifth book . . . obsessed together on the Internet, writing their own fan fiction, having huge discussions picking every last piece of the canon apart and finding whatever way possible to make the wait tolerable."
What's next for fans?
With less than a week to go until the book's release, many are asking what's next for fans and for the series.
"I think we'll always have Harry Potter conventions-conferences, and the appeal won't end once it's off the 'new releases' shelf," Anelli said. "The mania will never be this intense again, but this series will have life in the real world for a very long time."
"For the Harry Potter generation, there are a lot of memories associated with the books. It was the one book young people remember staying up all night to read," said Roy, who thinks the series will entice future generations after book seven is released. "Harry Potter is still unique and it will stay on reading lists for other readers to discover and enjoy."
Besides the books, fans can look forward to the movie franchise, with Warner Bros. planning to film "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and "Deathly Hallows" with the original cast.
Fans Vaughn and Williamson said they'll continue to love the series and plan to get jobs at a planned Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, Fla., scheduled to open by 2010. The 20-acre park, called "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," is a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and Universal Orlando Resort.
Even as the series ends, "I'll still be pretty hard-core about the Slytherin House," Vaughn said.
Mammoth resident Michael Fode has been intrigued with the magical and bewitching world of Harry Potter since second grade. Now the 14-year-old counts the series as one of his biggest influences in overcoming challenges throughout his life.
Using the books as an escape, Fode said, he identifies with Harry Potter, a character who overcame challenges throughout his life.
"Harry Potter was a rebel and an outsider," Fode said. "People judged him before knowing him. But he always marched to his own drum. He doesn't care what others think. It's what I do, too."
Though he is sad about the series ending, Fode said he will continue to be a fan.
"I guess there's nothing else to do but to start re-reading them again," he said.
● Contact reporter Levi J. Long at 573-4179 or llong@azstarnet.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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