Hogwarts Generation

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Over the weekend, I did some thinking about what really made the difference between me and others in my age bracket. I realized that there is a common theme that stretches across almost the entire next generation that has transformed their thought, culture, and values. People refer to my generation as Generation X; I think the next generation, which begins basically in 1980, is best referred to as the Hogwarts Generation.

JK Rowling's first novel was published in the United States in 1998. At the time, I was in my second year of college and in circumstances where I had only a landline phone, DSL dorm internet, and no television. I read things, but they were primarily things I was forced to read for class, and so I did very little recreational reading. During the summer of 1998, I left home in America for service as a missionary in Europe, where my access to media was even more restricted. When I returned, my parents were listening to Harry Potter Part IV on tape in the car, but I was lost. All of the hype transpired in my absentia, and I was not caught up in it like everyone else.

Rowling's work reached a broad cross section of almost an entire generation. If you were eleven years old when Rowling's first novel hit shelves, you are Harry's contemporary and about 24 years old today. I spoke with a woman I know who confirmed that her eight year old child was also into the novel series. What this means is that for the better part of a generation, Rowling's books have dominated the literary culture in which these children have been raised. When I was young, the books I read were the Hardy Boys, which are basically in the same literature class as the Hogwarts world, although they were shorter in individual length.

The Hogwarts generation has some interesting characteristics. They have grown up believing or at least wishing they can wave a magic wand and change the world. They grew up thinking that problems can be solved in two hours. They believe in commited and romantic relationships at a young age (remember that Harry's first kiss is when he is 14). They believe that their lives, like their novels and the actions of the characters in them, will be easy and will easily transform their lives for good. They learned that you can be a hero and a whiner at the same time, that pouting and brooding makes you a hero and gets you the girl. They learned that some things are normal and acceptable that were once thought taboo. They have been taught that adults will meddle with the plotlines and that children, who are the stars of the novels, are the protagonists, even though most of them don't know what protagonist means.

Some older people like the books, but we had other influences besides that. The Hogwarts world has dominated literature, film, and now even the amusement park world for the last 14 years, and there are people growing up who have never lived in a world without Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived threatens to make sure that some of our young people never do. They live in a fantasy world, and the literature of the age has reinforced the concept of virtual and fantasy as preferrable to reality.

I am good enough a scientist to admit that this is not an exhaustive analysis. It may be that they will notice, albeit subconsciously, the good thematic elements of the novels as they mature. What worries me is that the youth mirror the surface elements in their lives now, and that those things have guided their values because we have failed to guide them to the fundamental substance of the themes presented in the books they love. With this post I express only my concerns about what appears to be the major influence of Hogwarts on the rising generation, and it also accounts for disparity of values and interests between myself and people only a handful of years my junior.

So if you're wondering what makes the difference, I believe Hogwarts has greatly influenced the rising generation. I have hope that they will see in it the powerful principles it teaches, but since they didn't notice it in other literature, I won't hold my breathe. At least they have read these books, and if it goes through their hands, it might go through their minds. If you're a member of or fan of the Hogwarts generation, ignore the filler materials and structural elements that Rowling used to set the stage and instead look for the lasting truths in those books and apply those things.