Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone - Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wizard

I always bore a deeply seated hatred towards the Harry Potter novels. It was something about the idea of it: children shouldn't be heroes. Even as a kid, I realized this was rediculous. Of course, I only believed that after my own dreams of being a knight in shining armor were dashed. Incidentally, I got them back, embarassingly, around the first couple years of high school. As Vonnegut periodically said, "So it goes".

Foreseeably, this whole series reeked to me, in my ignorance, of, at best, pandering to the masses of children who loved the idea of being famous or magical, and at worst, Mary Sue fan-fiction.

That echo of the past came to mind when Hagrid mentions Harry's heritage:

"'But yeh must know about yer mom and dad,' he said. 'I mean, they're famous. You're famous.'" (Rowling 50)

It pissed me off. Even though I knew that Harry came from an unusual lineage, I don't like the text referencing that, or destiny, or another of the other stand-bys of fantasy lit that exist as a means of cheap literary exposition.

The quest narrative worked for myths, mainly because they didn't have to originally entertain us, they were the stories that we believed were true. Fantasy lit, and video games, have this nasty habit of trying to echo their forefathers, but only accomplish in sounding trite and uncreative.

I realized, eventually, that stories are rarely interesting when they are average people. They have to be average in the ironic sense. Often there are terribly average, crippling mediocre, in fact. If they even start to stand out, then they lose their credibility, because there is the expectation that they will become mighty and extraordinary. It is almost easier to start out in an adventure with some sort of destiny, because there is the expectation of trial and tribulation. If you're slightly above average, then you will constantly be held to a higher standard. I'm rambling.

To risk sounding vain, I am going to liken this to one of my current projects. The idea is for a fantasy comic with no spectacular heroes. While the one character is a veteran, he isn't particularly famous outside of his circle of influence. He isn't trying to save the world, and it is only through his eventual fame in being good at his job (dungeon clearing) that he begins seeing a bigger picture. At most points though, at first, there isn't a bigger picture. He isn't a reluctant anti-hero who initially refuses the quest, and chooses to instead build his riches. There simply is no quest, no great evil. The world as he knows it is repairing itself, and in the meantime, there are dungeons to be cleared, and treasures to be acquired. Of course, eventually he will have to become more spectacular as a result of experience, but is that too predictable?

I guess there is nothing new under the sun.