Boy wizard casts spell over older Muggles, too

the HUB: Boy wizard casts spell over older Muggles, too

By Kathleen Lavey
Lansing State Journal

The Harry Potter bandwagon is loaded with kids.

But their parents, aunts, uncles and grown-up friends are coming along for the ride.

When J.K. Rowling's sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," goes on sale at midnight Friday, adults ranging from costumed twentysomethings to grandmas out for a fiction fix will line up for copies, too.

"I had to find out what all of the ruckus was about," said Marty Liphard of East Lansing. "Like everyone else, a spell was placed on me and I could not put it down."

More than 270 million Potter books are in print in 62 languages, and the first printing of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" includes 10.9 million copies.

Liphard, a former psychotherapist and a card-carrying member of the American Association of Retired Persons, learned about Harry Potter early on, when two friends asked for the first book for Christmas.

She created a Harry Potter fan site on the Web in 1999, then parlayed her love of things Potter into an Internet business, the Order of Merlin (www.orderofmerlin.com). She sells kids' toys, licensed products from the Warner Bros. movies, and unique things such as wands, custom- tailored robes for adults and a 38-page "wizard course" that offers magic history and trivia.

Jeff Guillaume, a 25-year-old Lansing man who runs the Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator Web site (www.hpana.com), discovered Harry Potter about five years ago, thanks to his younger sister.

His Web site and two others are sponsoring a Harry Potter book- release party in Chicago that is expected to draw 10,000 people. His site also is hosting a Harry Potter trip to England later this month; 250 people have signed up.

He thinks the book works on several levels.

"Different readers get different things out of it," Guillaume said. "Kids like the characters and the magic and the creatures. The reason adults like it, including myself, is the layers that are in it."

For example, Guillaume sees issues of race and class rising again and again as pure-blood wizards pit themselves against half-blood (half-human) wizards and "mudbloods" (wizards with human parents).

And that's just one aspect of the tale.

"This story has been going on for years now and germinated a lot of theories and discussions, and people love to participate in that," Guillaume said.

Liphard belongs to the Yahoo discussion group "Harry Potter for Grownups," which counts a membership of more than 17,000 people and fields 1,500 or more messages each month. Its biggest spike: 8,234 messages in July 2003, when "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was released.

"They are very intelligent people," Liphard said. "They discuss everything. I've learned a lot by listening in."

And she's looking forward to the group's conference, titled "The Witching Hour," slated for Oct. 6-10 in America's most famously spellbound town: Salem, Mass.

The conferences are a little different than your average "Star Trek" convention. People do dress up. They'll have a chance to play an earthbound version of quidditch, the quintessential wizard sport, and participate in other wizard-world fun.

But the heart of the conference is - cast us an anti- yawning spell, please - academic papers on various aspects of the novels and films.

Among them: "Harry Potter: Disability Fantasy," by Heather Lyda of the University of West Georgia, in which she analyzes the "handicapped" status of the Muggle world in relation to the wizard one; and "Mudblood, S.P.E.W., and a Fear of Flying: How Hermione Granger brought Third Wave Feminism to the Wizarding World" by Stacy Rue.

In one workshop, participants will use tarot cards to try to predict the events in the seventh and final Potter book.

For her part, Liphard, an Episcopalian, sees a variety of Christian images, beginning in the first book, which is Rowling's simplest and shortest.

"I thought, 'This isn't an ordinary children's book, there's something here,' " she said. She points out that Harry's mother, Lily, sacrifices herself to save her son. "You see lilies at Easter, and they're a mark of purity and sacrifice," she said.

Harry's nemesis, the evil Lord Voldemort, is referred to as "the dark lord."

"In Christian literature, the dark lord means death," Liphard said. "She's writing about the triumph of love over death."

Thematic threads aside, Guillaume is looking forward to getting on with a simply engrossing story.

"This is a tipping point," he said. "Voldemort is back, he's full force."

Fans speculate that the beloved Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore may die. They worry about the twists and turns.

And most of all, they want to know what happens to Harry.

"It's also a story of a kid who doesn't know what he's capable of, and we see him grow from year to year," Guillaume said. "It's a heartwarming story, an inspirational story, too."

Potter mania

At the stroke of midnight Friday, many local bookstores will start selling “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Scholastic, $29.99 list price, but most retailers are discounting it). Here’s a sampling of parties and Potter events:

• Williamston becomes wizard central Friday with activities beginning at
7 p.m. at McCormick Park. Events include a welcoming feast, a quidditch tournament, trivia games, Professor Sprout’s herbology class, and Hagrid’s care of magical creatures class. Families can follow a “Marauder’s Map” to participating Williamston businesses and places transformed into Harry Potter sites for the night. The event winds up at Tuesday Books, 137 W. Grand River Ave., for the midnight release. Call 655-9700.

• Schuler Books & Music will offer Potter parties at both of its local stores Friday. At the Eastwood Towne Center store, the party starts at 10 p.m. with Hogwarts-style classes for kids; costumes are strongly encouraged. At the Okemos store, kids will be invited to compete in a Triwizard Tournament and use a Marauder’s Map to navigate a series of challenges and activities. There will be face painting, puzzles, games and a performance by Jeff the Magician. The party also starts at 10 p.m.

• Barnes & Noble Booksellers’ two mid-Michigan locations will offer Harry Potter parties. “Midnight Magic” events begin at 9 p.m. in the East Lansing store, 333 E. Grand River Ave., and the Lansing Mall store.

• Bestsellers Bookstore, 360 S. Jefferson St. in Mason, will start its party at 9 p.m. Friday. Kids are encouraged to come in costume. They can play trivia games, watch a Potter movie, make wands and do other activities. Books go on sale when the courthouse clock strikes 12.

• Meijer stores celebrate Harry Potter beginning at 11 p.m. Friday. Events will include games, costume contests and scratch-and-win cards for a chance to win Potter prizes. There will be cake, punch and Harry Potter tattoos. Black-draped pallets of books will be unveiled at midnight.

• The Hope Borbas Okemos Library will celebrate the new book with a party for all ages at 11 a.m. Saturday. There will be Harry Potter games and prizes; the event is free. The library is at 4321 Okemos Road.

• The Foster branch of the Capital Area District Library will celebrate with a Potter party from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday. It’s at 200 N. Foster Ave.

• The South Lansing branch of the Capital Area District Library celebrates “Harry Potter Mania” at 2 p.m. Friday. It’s at 3500 S. Cedar St.