The Harry Potter Generation

One of the aspects of the Harry Potter phenomenon that has always struck me is that unlike any series of books or movies that I can think of, a certain generation of kids have grown up with this world and these characters, who have grown in something resembling real time, or at least real time in terms of each book representing a year in their lives. It is a remarkable accomplishment that nears its endgame on the written page, though one imagines that the world of Hogwarts has become the sort of instant classic that will endure for many generations.

In today's Boston Globe Matt Aucoin, a senior at Medfield High School in the suburbs of Boston, writes about "Growing Up With Harry."

The Potter books were more than entertainment; they formed an independent universe, peopled with characters to care for and worry about. In fact, Harry Potter has proven a much-needed constant in the lives of countless kids. I always had friends in elementary school with whom I could discuss and debate all things Potter, but I have also witnessed how Rowling's characters can provide companionship for lonely preteens.

I've always had the sense that Harry & Co. are going about their lives at the same time as we are, in a different plane at once unimaginably distant and accessible with the touch of a page. The time that elapses painfully between each new book is not merely however long it takes for Rowling to sculpt the next installment. These characters are living beings, and the agony of waiting is wondering what's happening to them now.

I'll admit to not yet reading the books -- that will be a project as soon as there is a box set -- but I am interested to know what happens to Harry and to his world and will not be avoiding spoilers in the hours, and likely minutes, after the book is released. I do, however, love the movies (and found the latest installment to be the darkest yet and, as Ron Weasley might say, "brilliant!") and wish that I had caught the zeitgeist of the books earlier. But the first ones were clearly aimed at children, and I was already too far behind once the series gained traction.

At least three times I have been in Ireland or the UK for releases of the books and so I feel that I've seen some of the phenomenon first-hand. I especially was able to get a sense of the way the founding generation of Harry Potter fans, as it were, experienced the Potter phenomenon. I was leading a group of high school kids to do various peace-oriented community work in Northern Ireland in 2000. The youngest were 14 and several were deeply immersed in the Harry Potter series. The newest book (the third, I believe) was on its way and these students were among the first in line at a bookshop in Cork. They read the books greedily within a day or so.

Aucoin continues:

I did not love Harry Potter the way I enjoyed other more transitory childhood pleasures. I loved Harry Potter the way I love literary masters like Shakespeare. Have my tastes shifted as I have matured? Absolutely. But this does not lessen the worth of my 10-year-old passion by one iota. Nor does it make me any less excited to wait in line with the rest when the seventh book is finally let loose to the world.

Today those young teens are college students, and I can imagine them feeling wistful as the last book finds its way to bookstores and almost assuredly into their hands. They have experienced this series in a more personal way than any generation of readers have experienced a literary world. I feel wistful for them too. But I also envy these Muggles who have grown from childhood to adulthood along with their heroes Harry and Ron and Hermione.