I was a huge Potterhead back in the day (well…I still am, just not as obsessed). I know the books are great and all, I know how addictive her writing style is, that she can create such vivid and engaging characters and places, and the stories keep you hungry for more…but IMO that still does not completely explain the insane hype that generated. I don’t think there has ever been this level of mania and craze for a book – a children’s/YA book for that matter. So I am wondering, what are some of the factor that led to the hype? I’ve heard things like the rise in Internet (and internet fandom), JKR’s rags-to-riches story, etc all contributed. So for those who have been there, what was the mania like at that point, and what factors (aside from the quality of the books themselves) that lead to it?
I can somehow understand purebloods, but I don’t understand how muggleborns are so disinterested in learning magic. You are accepted to a wizardry school just after learning there is magic, and you spend your whole time there sitting in your common room gossiping while drinking pumpkin juice, really?
In reality we don’t really see much of what goes on outside of the trio, and we know Hermione sure as shit wasn’t just sitting around gossiping and sipping pumpkin juice.
Snape’s not a great example, but he was spending his free time (at least part of it) developing better ways to brew potions and inventing spells.
From what we know of Lily she was pretty similar to Hermione in that she was really engaged with all the magic stuff.
Maybe the good students just weren’t the interesting ones because, no matter how cool the magic, doing it in the confines of the classroom or workshopping new spells in their free time doesn’t sell the action and the drama.
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iiWiHgtQekWNnmE6Q/if-you-demand-magic-magic-won-t-help
The wonder probably wore off after the first year.
One can think of it by analogy to STEM subjects.
Lots of people love jet planes and robots and rockets and fancy chemical reactions.
Lots fewer people love figuring out why their computational fluid dynamics simulation doesn’t converge, how to program a visual learning system to tell a ripe apple from an unripe one, how thick the combustion chamber wall needs to be, or fucking titration.
Similarly, there’s probably lots of people who love the idea of magic and even the practical parts of it, but writing essays about the uses of dragon blood, not so much.
I’m sorry but, I have never been as excited about ML as I am at the thought of being capable of literal magic. You give me Harry Potter world magic, a wand, and a room of requirement and I’ll be damned if anyone sees me for years.