Harry Potter, Books of Magic, Dungeons & Dragons, Lord of the Rings, creativity
Why is Harry Potter so popular? It’s not like J.K. Rowling wrote anything original. Combining different elements of the fantasy genre is nothing new; boy wizards are not new. Creating characters we care about? Uhmm..join the line of hundreds- if not thousands of characters- that we care about. She created an interesting timeless story? Again, join the line. It’s all marketing. R.L. Stine is a much more productive, varied, and quality children’s author. Rowling was at the right place and the right time. That’s the luck of the draw. That’s what makes life fun (albeit “unfair”).
The DailySkew’s Tony Vahl recently wrote a Books of Magic vs Harry Potter post, so I’d like to post about the fantasy genre and creativity:
Tony and I had a long phone conversation years ago about fantasy works and “borrowing”.
So let me just summarize here:
Most of the fantasy elements we have come to expect and accept (magic, monsters, princess, different setting, different races, kingdoms, etc.) all stem from age old fairy tales, folk tales, and fables. Toss in religion and mythology and you have a complete backbone and inspiration for such literary or creative works as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings, Conan, Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, Harry Potter, etc. It could be argued that the main fantasy prototypes began with the Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey, One Thousand and One Nights. The collected works of the Brothers Grimm were highly influential, and even the village life of Aesop’s tales were influential as well in terms of creating the genre. George MacDonald (goblin kings, magic, etc.) and Lewis Carroll predated Tolkien. Suffice to say many companies and artists made a MINT in modern times from this fantasy genre after the groundwork was already set.
For me, fantasy and sci-fi were the driving force behind my love for computer games, video games, and- more importantly- reading (along with comic books). I must have devoured more fantasy novels than any other genre. I would take a text game over a graphics game any day of the week.
The birth of Dungeons and Dragons (1974) was based miniature war games, which generally had a King Arthur medieval slant, Conan the Barbarian (heavily), the Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings (magic + monsters). Even that is too simplistic a statement, but it is generally true. The creators of D&D used statistics to create a battle system (based on the aforementioned war games, which was based upon chess, obviously) and used monsters, spells, and weapons from previous fantasy stories.
Unlike previous eras in American history, where recreational activity for youngsters included athletics and TV, we now had role playing games, video arcade, and conventions of unapologetic nerds who were fanatical about Star Trek, comic books, and other niches. Youngster drive trends and eventually are the mainstream.
To say D&D was huge in the 70’s and 80’s in an understatement. It inspired “computer geeks” to create text RPGs and MUDs in Unix. Not only did RPG imitators crop up all the time, but Apple and Commodore text adventure computer games was big business, too. Children’s fantasy books (mostly swords & sorcery) became widely available at all the bookstores, school book fairs, and libraries. D&D was the integral part to mainstream fantasy into other genres such as computers, video games, and movies.
TSR finally started pumping out their own AD&D computer games, and licensed them to Nintendo and Sega as well. Square’s Final Fantasy copied the Hit Point, Experience, and Level system from D&D, including the monsters that were already borrowed from Hobbit, which had already borrowed from mythology and folk lore.
Fast forward to 2009, and World of Warcraft (a 100% D&D rip) is still #1 and is still the #1 addictive online RPG. There are dozens of “imitators” and spin-offs- but as I’ve shown- in this genre everything seems public domain anyway.
So this takes us to full circle: because fantasy writers, artists, and “players” are so creative AND detailed, it’s very possible nothing is “new” anymore in the particular genre, and that only amalgamations can be created. What J.K Rowling did is no different than what Sega’s Phantasy Star did when it ripped Final Fantasy or what Tolkien did when he borrowed from folk tales. [For the record, I give him credit for being original with The Hobbit due to it's 1930's release date, but by the time Lord of the Rings was finally completed and published in the 1950's, the market was already flooded with fantasy books, such as The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser - sacrilegious I know.]
Look every writer and artist take bits and pieces, changes things, spins things, inject ideas from their own personal experiences, mixes it together and POOF! and idea is made, just like a magic spell. It is what it is.
And the bottom line is that all of this is fine; but let’s not just put J.K. Rowling on a pedestal or act like her work of art is something special (i.e. unique)- it’s not. And she didn’t direct the movies either, folks. It’s just ironic to me that she wrote the #1 book series of all time, and that millions and millions of people are fans of the Harry Potter character and his stories, when if fact, it’s derivative- to put it politely.
Similar Posts:
- Harry Potter vs Tim Hunter
- Review: Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
- Flatscreen LCD monitors
- Top 10 Casual Games
- Review: Bookworm Adventures
DailySkew RANDOM Posts:
- Antivirus Live Remove
- Green Lantern First Flight Review (Green Lantern animated)
- Public Enemies Review
- Presidential election results 2008: Obama wins
- Michelle Malkin and right wing Republicans
Old school D&D fan..actually have the first edition CHAINMAIL game…
Nothing to add but I do want to say that I thought D&D groups would die out when SSI/TSR starting making PC games, but thanks to online versions, the gaming experience is still alive.