[Opinion] Harry Potter`s Magic

`Little wizards` in Britain, U.S. and Australia were lining up in front of bookstores from late night on June 20 before the release of the fifth series of `Harry Potter` book titled `Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix` on June 21. On the first day of sales, 5 million copies sold out in the U.S. alone, and this country was no exception. Kyobo Bookstore sent copies via home delivery service to customers pre-booked the best-selling book, and 500 copies set for on-spot sales sold out in two days. Then, what is so special about the book about little wizards?

In the beginning, the fifth series smacks of a James Bond movie, in which the versatile spy was almost deprived of his license to kill. Staying at her aunt`s during summer vacation, unhappy Harry uses his magical power against the unkind aunt. Fifteen-year-old Harry is no more a little kid. There is no distinct line between the good and the evil like in a fairytale story. Harry has his first kiss and is torn between his mission to save the world and frustration he goes through as an adolescent boy. Harry grows up, finding truth about the secret of his family, going for revenge, getting betrayed and watching people he loved dying.

There are some reasons Harry Potter is loved so much by people across the world, regardless of their age, translated into 55 different languages in some 200 countries. Harry has wizard`s blood, but he is not a superman. He has to practice to do magic. His pride gets hurt and he feels jealousy sometimes. There are friends who are willing to help him. Harry is a man with some faults. He is a human. So readers can identify themselves with the boy. Harry is an orphan and her aunt is not kind to him. He is alone, but faces with his destiny and finds his power like a hero in a legend story. Child psychologist Bruno Bethlhime said that the character does magic of helping children grow up and healing wounds inside.

Joan K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter Series, also catches the spotlight with her Cinderella story. Nine years ago when she started to write the first series, she was a poor divorced mother who could not afford to pay for his baby`s milk. But now she is even richer than the queen, having earned $450 million with the best-selling series. Still she has such a tender heart to hint at the story of the coming series to children suffering from incurable disease so that they can have something to hold onto. She indeed does great magic for people living in this world – giving them pleasure to read books. She must deserve to be remembered one of great writers in history, given the fact that she makes multimedia-generation children stay up all night to get a copy of a book.

Kim Sun-deok, Editorial Writer, yuri@donga.com