I’m not a fan of the film adaptations of the Hogwarts Saga but I am grateful for its existence, inevitable as it was (well, Salinger held out, perhaps just to demonstrate that authors need not always be prostitutes in this regard). The Warner Brothers blockbusters have forever changed and restricted our imaginative experience of the Wizarding World, not to mention our ability to experience their allegorical and mythic dimensions.
It is a traditional aphorism, however, that ‘Every front has a back and the bigger the front, the bigger the back.’ The back to the gargantuan front of the permanent and ineradicable diminution of the reading experience to be had in this written septology after immersion in the sensible images of the films is that they introduced the stories to millions of people who might otherwise never have opened one of the books.
These films, for example, are in large part responsible for the end of the ‘Potter Panic;’ you can tell an American not to read a book because it is spiritually dangerous and he will thank you as often as not, but don’t tell him he cannot watch a PG rated children’s movie. Seeing the movie convinced many of even the true believers that the Culture Warriors were nutters rather than prophets with respect to Harry Potter.
If you’re ‘into’ the movies — and I know many of our readers are — after watching the trailer, you can catch the series of short videos on YouTube about the making of Sorcerer’s Stone, the movie. Enjoy!
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