Harry Potter Hype Begins - Midnight Reading Announced
Then buzz it up
May 17th, 2005 at 17:20 by Stuart Heritage
First, the good news. There are only two more days of Star Wars pre-hype to deal with. Two more days of listening to the deafening ridiculousness of idiots getting excited about a film in which they already know exactly what happens.
And now the bad news. When it’s finished, we’ll have to put up with months of relentless Harry Potter hype.
The worst thing about this Harry Potter onslaught - aside from the
fact that the only people who care even half a jot are children (they
don’t count) and puppy-faced flowery saps of adults who like to read
childrens books and pretend that the world is full of wizards and
special magic - is that the hype is two-fold this time.
First comes the book on July 16th, Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince (Books). Half blood? What’s the other half made of? Porridge?
The pre-publicity for the book is roughly of the same level as if Jesus descended from the heavens and announced a breakdancing reality TV show and a range of Crazy Lord ringtones. The biggest thrill is that Edinburgh Castle is to be turned into Hogwarts for the day.
At one minute past midnight on July 16th, J K Rowling will read parts of the new book to 50 children sent from newspapers around the world.
Then she will present each of the children with a signed copy of the
book, and there will be a child press conference featuring the kids and
Rowling.
Don’t be upset if you don’t qualify to go to the castle, there’ll be
a TV show all about it, and a simultaneous world-wide satellite webcast
of the event. Why? It’s not the moon-landing, a woman has written a
book about a speccy wizard. And that’s it.
On the launch day of the last Harry Potter book, hecklerspray
was taken aback by the huge number of people walking around like
zombies reading the books, oblivious to the real world. But this time
we’re prepared. An order has been placed for three kilometres of
tripwire. So look out, wizard-freaks!
And then, when the book has come out, we have to endure the campaign for the new film of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. Already, sneaky trailers
have been put out, and have been forensically dissected by geeks eager
to find out what happens. Even though they could find out by reading
the book.
The film doesn’t even get released until November, so we’re in for the long-haul, folks.
[story by Stuart Heritage]
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May 18th, 2005 at 12:39 am
just because you don’t like harry potter that doesn’t mean its bad. atleast harry potter fans can read and just to tell you children should count because they are the people who will rule the world and also i cant judge star wars fans but they sound like people who think everythink els sucks exept star wars. and im thinking your a star-wars-freak!!
you shouldn’t jugde people because you know your wrong!!!!
May 18th, 2005 at 2:45 am
You’re a mite funny Stuart, i’ll give you that.
But you have evidently never read any harry potter books, otherwise you would know what the other half of blood is made of.
May 18th, 2005 at 7:11 am
Hai Stuart, You sound like a over trodden mouse for some reason. Everybody knows what’s the story. But, the films present the story in a different way. Things that are imagined during the book reading will be different from the things that appear in the film. It’s the directors imagination or may be of few people who involved in film making. Harry Potter has got so much abstraction and subtlety in it. So, each reader will’ve his own imagination. It’ll be good to view the others view.
It’s plain that you’ve never read HP, because whoever read all the books won’t accept that HP series is not entirely for children, but for the late teens and even adults. Even the christians who are blaming the evil in HP have read the books and they know it’s not fully for children. Pity you didn’t read anything and still you talk like a hollow cauldron.
I wonder why you go wet under, when the HP hype goes on about. You must be a loser in the market, I suppose.
And don’t dare to ridicule the queen of imaginations that won the heart of millions of people all over the world. She deserves what she is getting. What would you like then to see on TV? I suppose you will be horny to see a hollywood actress on screen showing off what’s the bloody hell all the female humans got already. Or will you be interested in on a talk about research given by a scientist? Science will go useless until it proves what is god or what is magic which is the main goal of science exploring this world. What is that suspends this universe, is what the science afters all the way.
Or will you be interested in a business talk over the screen? Bloody folks that talk about business, is nothing but an idiot who spends all his wisdom on a silly-paper that helps to exchange earthly goods with our fellow creatures. “I saw this thing first and I brought up to here, so you’ve to give me some things that I’m interested in”. This is what business, money, shares, stakes are all about.
Will your life be satisfied with just this exchange schema(business) on earth. Is that all you got to do in this precious time of yours on this earth?
Reading books->Human mind processes->controls body->comforts soul within the body->reaches god eventually.
May 18th, 2005 at 9:26 am
You people are terrifying.
May 18th, 2005 at 9:48 am
Harry Potter is the best book written in my time that’s to say that I am a teen (and I DO count thankyou very much)! You have based your whole message on criticising the Harry Potter books, which you haven’t even read and if that does not already show limited intelligence then I’m not sure what does. I would actually like to challenge you into reading these books in which you despise and at the end (if you ever get there) you should think about what you have said. Harry Potter has inspired children around the world to read and it does not need uninformed people like you stating worthless opinions!
May 18th, 2005 at 10:43 am
Stuart, you really sound like someone who has never read any of the Harry Potter books. I was ready to stop reading this article after the first paragraph, but I was curious as to whether or not you had anything worthwhile to say. Unfortunately you didn’t.
Here’s a clue for you, Stuart: Go and buy the Harry Potter series and read it. You’ll get what the mania is about.
May 18th, 2005 at 11:16 am
I’ve never read HP and I’m convinced it is a book that kids should read, rather than adults, on the Tube. Adults should know better.
May 18th, 2005 at 11:16 am
Never been to a Celine Dion concert but I can tell you now that it would SUCK.
May 18th, 2005 at 6:13 pm
I suppose actually reading the books would be completley out of the questions, eh Stuart? These are not just childrens books.
The first three books, yes I would let my children read. The fourth book.. most likely not.. I don’t think most children’s books contain people cutting off their hands for their “masters”, turning their father’s into bones and burrying him, or stuffing proffesors into trunks for a whole school year to open it and find him food deprived and that half his hair has fallen/been ripped out. Not to mention the death of one of the students by Voldemort and in the end Harry has to bring his dead body back and hand him over to his parents. And also the spirits of other’s killed by Voldemort flowing out of the tip of his wand while he’s trying to kill Harry… And this is just where the darkness begins. JK Rowling has said that the 6th and 7th books are going to be “blood baths” They’re going to get darker and darker and more characters are going to be killed off.
Definitley not something a child should read. Obviously not a children’s book.
Please don’t judge something you so obviously know nothing about.
May 18th, 2005 at 7:16 pm
Hi Stuart
Before I start I would like to confirm that I am defiantly not a puppy faced flowery sap of an adult or a Star Wars fan and do not class myself as a wizard freak. Indeed reading your article made me sarcastically chuckle in places and I felt I should respond. Perhaps you are a closet Harry Potter fan whose lost his caldron or maybe a few trigs short of a broom or maybe a bit peeved that a woman writing about a speccy wizard has made so much cash.
I think Harry Potter is great and enjoy reading it and indeed look forward to closing myself off from the stress of everyday life to sit in a darkened room in front of my log burning fire sipping a glass of wine/Champaign reading the latest instalment, to see what Mr. speccy wizard his red haired best friend not forgetting the most intelligent witch of her age are getting up to and what has happens to Voldy. So forgive us pottie adults who will all be waiting patiently and enjoying the hype, I will be going out to get my copy at midnight so their (sticking tong out).
Lucy (Aberdeen)
May 19th, 2005 at 11:05 am
“Puppy faced flowery saps of adults”?
Excuse me taking umbrage, but I am a retired teacher who taught Maths and Computing in London for 32 years and have worked in boys’ clubs within churches for even longer.
I think I have a pretty good handle on the real world and read the HP books because they are cracking good books in themselves and there is a lot of sound Christian teaching to be found in them - an improvement on the “kitchen sink” drama often turned out byt he media as a reflection of the society we live in.
Porlock, West Somerset UK
May 19th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
I agree with some of the points you make, particularly the relentless onslaught of hype. Do you think there will be a repeat of the ultimate headline grabber from last time? A 100milion dollar lawsuit supposedly threatened by the publishers against a NY newspaper for daring to print excerpts from the book before the release date? That made my blood boil at the time, but the tv news all fell for it around the world. And what happened to the lawsuit? I assume the newspaper didn’t have such reserves to pay up without a fight? Or maybe it all just drifted away into never never land, and helped with the whole marketing onslaught. I feel sorry for parents who get nagged into handing over huge sums to the JK Rowling Early Retirement Fund.
I do like the fact that she has got so many people reading - although I doubt they’re reading for the right reasons, in many cases. I know plenty of friends who bought the last HP book in the early hours of the morning for their kids, who in turn ditched it after a few chapters. Having the book was more important than reading the book, and whoever got it earliest ‘won’.
The hype takes the shine off things for me.
May 19th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
Several years ago, I probably would have agreed with you…until I read the books. And since I have attended on of the fan fiction conferences (not last year’s unfortunately) I can also tell you that there were no flowery faced people there. I was a group a very intelligent down to earth adults, and some teenagers. First off, Harry Potter is not for little children. Those of you who think it is should take the time to read something for the pure enjoyment of it. I’m from the DC area, and trust me, none of the children I know that have the book have tossed it to the side after a few chapters. It has managed to get a lot of childrens faces out of television and using their minds for a change. How can you mock a god given talent, or is it that you hate the talent isn’t yours? Certainly this article doesn’t show me anything spectacular.
May 22nd, 2005 at 4:10 pm
harry potter is an amazing book. it has everything a book should have.
May 22nd, 2005 at 4:16 pm
harry potter is the best book in the world.
it is the best birthday gift anyone can have.the book is totaly different from the movie. it is better to read the book than seeing the picture.
May 29th, 2005 at 10:59 pm
And yet I see more frightening people…
I like Harry Potter. I’ve read some of the books and watched some of the films, and I’ve enjoyed them. They haven’t changed my life, but I’ve passed an enjoyable few hours in Hogwarts land.
However, with all this art-wank drivel I’m hearing from you people (Science, God and magic…what?) I’m not surprised Stuart Heritage thinks what he does about the phenomena. If you’re told something is so amazing for so long, you just want to move on and find something new.
May 31st, 2005 at 1:27 am
I actually think posting here is a waste of time because you probably wont change your mind about Harry Potter BUT WHEN YOU INSULTED Harry Potter,MADE THAT COMMENT ABOUT Jesus, think fans(children, teens) dont count and adults are “Puppy faced flowery saps of adults”?
WHAT THE HECK????
Do u even noe how offensive you are????
Think b4 you write something…….
AND Half -Blood means Half Wizard and Half-muggle(WHICH IS A NON MAGICAL PERSON)…It is not porridge…If u were trying to make a joke when u wrote that…IT WASN’T EVEN FUNNY …..AT ALLL!!!
U CANT CHANGE MY MIND AND ALL THE FANS OF HARRY POTTER AND I CANT CHANGE UR MIND….SO LET’S RESPECT EACH OTHERS OPINIONS….
AND TO ALL THE ADULTS WHO ARE ALSO FANS OF HP WHO THINK THAT HP IS NOT A KIDS BOOK…WELL I THINK IT’S EVERYONE’S BOOK NOT JUST ADULTS OR KIDS….BCUZ I’M 13 AND I READ IT…AND MY TEACHER’S AN ADULT AND SHE READS IT!!!
May 31st, 2005 at 9:06 am
to the fans of HP
dont WASTE your time reading the remarks of mr. Pig brain [stuart]!!!
May 31st, 2005 at 9:11 am
EVERY ONE DONT SEND YOUR REMARKS BECAUSE YOUR EMAIL Add. R USED FOR SENDING U ADVTISEMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 5th, 2005 at 9:41 am
Is Dumbledore is going to die in this book?
Dont Know………..
I will die waiting for July to come!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 9th, 2005 at 9:39 am
Three phrases should be among the most common in our daily usage. They are: Thank you, I am grateful and I appreciate.
January 1st, 2006 at 11:13 pm
It seems like Suart here likes to critisize others which is a sign that he’s got lots of faults to deal with himself so he takes it out on someone else. Or perhaps he’s jealous of Rowling’s success (he might have written a book once and got rejected by publishers several times). Or maybe he’s just so darn negative that black suddenly seems like a bright color. Well yeah, that’s what you get when you get pissed on by others your entire life. And with reason it seems.
Themes such as murder, death, hatred, war, betrayel, jealousy and rebellion don’t seem to sweet, innocent and childlike, as anyone who has actually read the books knows.
Although I too think that this is all a bit too much and I think Rowlings books aren’t THAT great, I can enjoy the novels like any other human being with the fundamental capability to define a border between entertainment and work and between reality and fantasy.
That said, get into therapy.
Being asocial has been recognised as a psychological illness these days.
My best regards,
PJ