Verified Document

Transmedia Characters Term Paper

¶ … Irresistible Rise of Harry Potter and the irresistible rise of capitalism Harry Potter is not merely the title of a children's book series: he is a phenomenon. Although the Harry Potter books are quintessentially 'British' in their setting (a boarding school) and language, they have become internationally popular and turned many non-readers into readers. Harry embodies the ideal childhood hero -- on one hand, he is an orphan, despised and somewhat socially awkward. Yet he is also marked with a special status from birth as a wizard with magical powers. There is a universal appeal to Harry, which explains why he has spawned so many profitable spin-offs, including his own theme park and film series.

However, the reasons for this attraction may not only lie in Harry. The book's showcasing of various cultural attractions such as shopping, succeeding in athletic competition, and...

"Retail therapy and sport, substituting for emotional contact -- no wonder so many childlike adults identify with him. And no wonder the Harry Potter industry provides the material goods for the identifiers: the generations are joined through an act of consumption" (Blake 87).
Ironically, although Harry is an everyman, a kind of blank slate with which all persons can identify, people feel more like Harry if they buy objects associated with his image and with the series. And even in the series itself Harry himself is fascinated by the comforts of 'retail therapy' as he must buy the trappings of wizardry, no matter how fantastic his natural abilities. This further underlines the wonderful ordinariness of magic for the reader or viewer -- it is something that can be bought, even as it simultaneously underlines Harry's special and gifted status.

However, it could be argued that the…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Transmedia Characters
Words: 2027 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

James Bond: A transmedia character "This was going to be bad news, dirty news, and he didn't want to hear it from one of the Section officers, or even from the Chief of Staff. This was to be murder. All right. Let M. bloody well say so." For viewers accustomed to the James Bond of cinema, reading The Living Daylights by Ian Fleming may come as something of a surprise. In contrast

Transmedia Characters
Words: 789 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

James Bond's penis" author Toby Miller writes that after the 1960s: "masculinity is no longer the exclusive prominence of men, either as spectators, consumers or agents of power. And Bond was an unlikely harbinger of this trend" (Miller 233). Bond, rather than being a 'sexist dinosaur' and relic of the Cold War era (as he was once called by Judi Dench's M) actually an innovator in terms of the

Transmedia Sherlock Holmes: Traversing Time
Words: 1581 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

123). Though he is speaking explicitly about detective work and Holmes' general mode of accomplishing things, there is a clear implication that Watson knows how to serve Holms' needs. Again, there is a clear appropriation of the characters of Watson and Holmes as servants to the fanfic writer that created this story, bringing to explicit culmination an area of their relationship that has been the cause of much speculation. No

Harry Potter As a Transmedia
Words: 784 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

Harry Potter grows up amongst the 'average' human being and he is uncommon. This is stressed as is too the mediocrity and triteness of this human called the ' * ' world. Rowling devotes pages to this and to the contrast of Harry Potter and his relations as well as society that he lives in. Grossman, on the other hand, merely slips in a paragraph alluding to Quentin's 'shitty'

Sherlock Holmes While Any Character
Words: 4486 Length: 14 Document Type: Term Paper

While all stories can be adapted and changed, with stories in the public domain being the most attractive choice, Holmes' death and resurrection make his character special because they serve to retcon (from retroactive continuity) his fictional narrative, a process that cannot be undone. Once Conan Doyle decided that earlier features of Holmes' story were open to interpretation and mutation, it meant that going forward, almost any feature of Holmes'

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Words: 1322 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

With this connotation, Rowling is showing how our lives and geniuses can take on new adventures after our deaths through texts. Quote 2 Blake "The community is not given; it is made by the abilities and activities of all its members -- by the incompetent Neville Longbottom as much as by heroic Harry. Harry Potter isn't just part of Hewison's museum culture; he is revolutionary, a symbolic figure of the past-in-future

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now