Harry Potter and the End of an Era?

(This was written shortly after the publication of book 7, which I pre-ordered at Waterstones and waited 90 mins in a queue for on a cold night in Wilmslow, when I could have driven to Tesco and got it a pound cheaper, and been at home and in bed reading it inside twenty minutes!  However I had some great conversations in the queue with some complete strangers, and that did actually make it all worthwhile.)  Film no.6 is due out this summer - 15th July 2009 in the UK.

Like it, hate it, or not bothered by it - this summer marks one more step towards the end of an era. The last words in the school career of Harry Potter have been written, published and sold and the last two(actually, three) films will be made; and then that’s it. Harry will be no more. That’s not to say that he will necessarily be dead (there are no plot spoilers from the books in this piece) but to a generation of young people who have grown up with ’The Boy who lived’, he will be consigned to the past. There will be no new stories about Harry Potter. Thus this is the beginning of the end of an era.

Since the late 1990s the world has witnessed a story-telling and marketing phenomenon. A penniless author and single mum begins writing the story of a boy whose powerless and destitute childhood belies his true importance and significance. The story is already formed and finished in this mum’s head, but a publisher has yet to be found to carry this boy’s story to the world. Once these minor details are arranged the boy’s story of growing pains, belonging and emotional turmoil enthral a world crying out for good wholesome story-telling and an engaging read. By book 7 in the hero’s life, records have been broken and money raked in, the single mum is married and far from penniless, and a world is hooked on Harry.

So it seems that whether Harry Potter actually lives or dies(or both?), there will be a sense of bereavement that 10 years after it all began, the phenomenon of Harry Potter will be no more. A generation will have lost a friend, and all there will be for the speculators and gossip sites will be the endless round of ’what did it all mean’, ’what did we find so engaging’, and ’so what’s next?’. So what was it all about?

It seems to this writer that Harry Potter did his growing up while we did; he went through our emotional ups and downs; he survived in a world like ours that got ever bigger, blacker and more threatening. He negotiated personal, emotional and societal turmoil, and faced the ultimate threat to his life from day one. The title of chapter one(The Boy Who Lived) and the theme of book one(The Philosopher’s Stone -a tool for making the elixir of life) suggest that one of the main themes of the books is death and its consequences. (This is confirmed later on when the ultimate quest of Lord Voldemort is revealed to be his desire to overcome death itself. He makes do with second best as he divides his own soul through murder and the use of Horcruxes.)

Though book 7 may introduce us to new and powerful magic, it seems that from Dumbledore’s perspective, as in real life, there is no magic bullet for death. Death is the end, it is the one-way arch through which all must ultimately pass. It is the last final unknown, the one hard truth that the emotionally-growing Harry Potter must finally and ultimately face, one to one, alone. Harry faces our fears, the fears of a world where not even children are protected from these ultimate fears and realities.

So whether you agree with Harry Potter or not, it is a means to have a conversation with a generation that experiences a world like Harry’s - a world of turmoil, distress, joy, friendship, threat, trust, intrigue, failure, nightmare, belonging and death. A world of conflicting emotions, hopes and doubts - the real world of teenagers. In all of our Youth clubs and activities at St John’s Church, we encounter young people from this world. We know that this is what teenage life is like. So we aim to provide opportunities to talk about and work through these emotions and experiences - with the aim that He who is the only true solution to death is known - He who should always be named - Jesus Christ Himself.