Ooof, I’m actually somewhat dreading this post because there is so much to that could be covered! With the amount of sales the Harry Potter series in all its forms has seen, as well as the fact that it continues to be published, in many forms and languages, 24 years after its initial release, Harry Potter is clearly iconic. Heck, one of the work study students I hired this year included being a fan of the series on her resume and now I’m considering adding my own Hogwarts house {Gryffindor} to my LinkedIn profile.
As many positives as can be drawn from this popular and enjoyable series, icons aren’t beloved by everyone. Sometimes the things that make something popular are because it sparks controversy. I have given a lot of attention to the good things in Harry Potter: what we can learn about teaching, life, and human history; J.K. Rowling’s rags to riches story; fan fiction; and sales revenue. I think it’s time to get a little bit darker and also look at how Harry Potter is an icon that some people just love to hate.
As of February 8, 2001, the Harry Potter series was topping ALA’s list of challenged and banned books. PUblisher’s weekly also reports that books in the series first entered the banned books ranks in 1999; so just shortly after their US debut (Maughan, 2001). Challenged books are ones that receive "a formal written complaint filed with a library or school about a book's content or appropriateness" (Maughan, 2001, fifth paragraph). The numbers surrounding challenged books are never quite accurate because the ALA estimates that only about 25% of challenges are actually reported (Maughan, 2001). Keep in mind that a challenge does not mean that a book is actually removed from the shelves; sometimes they are and sometimes they aren’t, that decision is often left up to a library director or other governing board.
And, if that formal written complaint doesn’t get the job done and you really hate the book, you can always burn it…
Book burning is just one form of libricide which is the intentional destruction of books and libraries (Lamb, 2021). For many people, the idea of book burning conjure up images of Nazis, and they were certainly infamous for the their book burning but the purposeful destruction of knowledge has a long history. It’s a form of oppression, attempting to remove items of cultural importance that share knowledge of a people or society or empower free thinking in an oppressive state. In Burning Books, Haig A. Bosmajian discusses the magic and power thought by civilizations dating back to ancient times to be inherent in written knowledge (Bosmajian, 2006). When describing why groups such as the Nazis burn books, Bosmajian says “the allure, the magic and power of the public fiery ritual is is much more gratifying to the book burner who is interested in displaying the utter destruction of the book and author…Even a child is attracted to the flame, aware that something fearful and dangerous, something enticing is taking place with finality” (Bosmajian, 2006, p. 24). Bosmajian (2006) goes on to explain that many cultures saw fire as the best way to destroy evil and if you really feel a book is evil, drawing the connection to needing to burn it is not that difficult to do.
"It was supposed to be a local church gathering of about 500 parishioners to usher in the new year…But when congregants ceremonially fueled a bonfire with copies of Harry Potter and other books, the December 30, 2001, event drew a far greater response” (Ishizuka, 2002, first paragraph).
If you think book burning is a thing of the past, it’s not. In 2003 Blaise Cronin reported two other book fires at churches that included books from the Harry Potter series, one fire also included The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and the other included Disney movies (Cronin, 2003). Book Riot does a weekly round of book censorship and as recent as November 12 reported a Virginia school board suggested burning books, though Harry Potter was not on the list (Book Riot). Why is the Harry Potter series so often subjected to censorship, banning, or worse? Commonly reported reasons are that it teaches witchcraft and spells, that it’s antifamily, and that it teaches children that lying and revenge are OK (Cannon and Cataldo, 2001).
As awful as book burning is and as much as these reports likely make you cringe, it’s not all bad. Interestingly, Cronin suggests that book burning actually helps to fight censorship. “The irony is that firebrands throughout history have probably done much more in the long run against censorship than for their own causes” (Cronin, 2003, Fires Fight Censorship). Fires cause outrage amongst those who disagree and help solidify anti-censorship sentiment (Cronin, 2003). And there’s probably also something to that old adage that any attention is good attention. A public fire makes the thing you are trying to destroy more interesting which in turn is likely to increase sales and readership.
Image of a Pride flag hanging outside a house.
But wait there’s more!
True to form with the Harry Potter series, this book as a cultural icon is not all doom and gloom. Rowling gave us an iconic gay character in the Hogwarts headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Rowling famously didn’t admit Dumbledore was gay until after the books were published; which, of course, sparked its own controversy {the late admission, not the gay part…well, also the gay part} (interview transcript is preserved on LeakyCauldron.org). Some readers rejoiced, some felt like it was too little too late, some felt like it was yet another reason to burn the books, and some said ‘who cares?’ But this does matter. Dumbledore was a belovéd character; I spent a week disbelieving and mourning his death in real life when I first finished The Half-Blood Prince. The fact that fans learned he was gay after they finished the books means that they loved, trusted, and mourned this character as a human; they normalized him in their own way and enjoyed reading about him. The inclusion of queer characters has been on the rise in the last decade plus but at the time of this admission, there weren’t many role models out there (Harris, 2007). Or the ones that did exist were stereotypically gay waving hands awkwardly and eyeing anything male that moved. In Dumbledore Rowling gave the world an iconic character who could [mostly] competently run a large organization, teach, care for and look out for others, and was the most powerful person in his world all while being gay. Dumbledore’s sexual orientation isn’t his defining characteristic, it’s just one part of who he is and that matters.
Citations
Bosmajian, H. (2006). Burning books. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Cannon, A., & Cataldo, A. L. (2001). Muggles vs. the wizards. U.S. News & World Report, 130(20), 28.
Cronin, B. (2003). Burned Any Good Books Lately? Library Journal, 128(3), 48.
Harris, M. (2007, October 30). Dumbledore’s outing: Why it matters. EW.Com. https://ew.com/article/2007/10/30/dumbledores-outing-why-it-matters/
Ishizuka, K. (2002). Harry Potter Book Burning Draws Fire. School Library Journal, 48(2), 27.
*Some citations for web resources are linked directly in the post (in blue).