How Harry Potter Conquered the World

What are the secrets of J. K. Rowling's writing magic? A series of letters is coming.

Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

Our journey will continue with materials about the popularity of Harry Potter. From my point of view, this is a very good example to demonstrate some important egonomic subtleties.

This adventure promises to be very interesting / illustration by midjourney

Harry Potter is one of the most successful literary projects in human history, which has turned into the mega-popular multimedia universe. Today it is:

• more than 600 million books sold worldwide

• the fourth highest-grossing film series (with $9+ billion total gross)

• a recent video game with over $1 billion in sales already.

Apparently, the announced series from HBO will also become one of the most successful projects in the industry (at least with a high degree of probability). It seems that interest in the Wizarding World is still very high, even amid the relative failure of the Fantastic Beasts films and the noisy scandals around J.K. Rowling.

The Harry Potter books have an important place in world culture / coins of the Royal Mint in Great Britain dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Philosopher's Stone, photos from royalmint.com

By the way, speaking of scandals. We can see from discussions on the Internet that not all critics of J.K. Rowling are able to boycott the magical universe. They may strongly condemn the behavior of the writer and, nevertheless, continue to re-read her books, continue to re-watch films and play games based on these books.

This can be understood and justified, but the situation is interesting in any case. What is so magnetic in this story? What is this irresistible temptation?

I've always liked to think that there are objective factors that determine the amazing appeal of Harry Potter. Moreover, I suppose that these factors can not only be named and described, but also reproduced in new forms (if desired).

By exploring our attachments, we can get to know ourselves better. Given the worldwide popularity of Harry Potter, it can be assumed that the study of this story is, in a sense, the study of a significant part of human society.

I'm going to share my ideas in an upcoming series of letters. These materials can be useful and interesting for almost everyone, whether it be:

• neutral readers

• story makers (writers, screenwriters, etc.)

• readers who are not indifferent to Harry Potter (fans, haters, etc.)

By the way, we will not only talk about the infantile ego. Looking ahead, Harry Potter will be an introduction to another very interesting and important concept related to the themes of wealth and popularity.

In short, don't miss updates.