Harry Potter Sparks New Magic

Having remained on the NY Times Best Seller List since its publication, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is still attracting attention.

By:Miriam Bocarsly
      J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is still drawing attention.
      The American author, Nancy Stouffer, claims that Rowling stole many ideas from her 1980’s series about a young boy named Larry Potter. However, Rowling claims that she never heard of the author or her books before. Subsequently, Scholastic Books and Time Warner filed a lawsuit against Stouffer.
      In 1997 Rowling published the first of four novels about a wizard boy named Harry Potter and his adventures in a mystic world and Harry Potter was an instant hit in Britain and the States.
      Yet, Stouffer alleges that Rowling is not an imaginative artist but, a copy-writing thief. Stouffer claims publishing rights to many ideas found in Rowling’s novels.
      Stouffer says she first used the term Muggle, (non-magical humans in Potter’s world) in her published novel, The Legend of Rah and the Muggles! The term Muggle is in no way unique to either author, but, as previously stated by the March 27 Washington Post in Muggles Versus Wizard was, the word was originally used in the 13th century to mean tail.
      There are many other similarities between the two novels. For example, both books use the name Potter. Web site, www.realmuggles.com, lists over 40 similarities between the two novels.
      There are also many differences in the plots.
      In her first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Potter discovers that he is a wizard with a terrifying past and a promising future. Having been raised in a horrible Muggle (human) family, the young boy knows only the darkness of his closet-bedroom and the taunting abuse of his spoiled cousin.
      At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, young Potter lives in an imaginative world of talking portraits, ghosts and dragons. However, starring on his schools Quidditch team (a game of balls and broomsticks) is the least of Potter’s challenges. The young boy has a destiny waiting for him, and many challenges to encounter.
      Rowling’s work is in no way predictable: she writes for child in every reader and adds unanticipated twists in her plot that capture the imagination.
      ‘"The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," Harry recited.’ Rowling wrote demonstrating her individual writing style.
      The author’s unique use of language is not only fascinating but also boundlessly creative. Rowling combines inventive "Dr. Seuss" language with the adventure and the creative magic of Roald Dahl.
      As the Harry Potter film is scheduled to be open in November, the heated debate between Stouffer and Rowling continues. However, to date, Rowling holds the publishing rights to the Muggle world.