Like magic, the vibrating broomstick of progress sweeps the Czech Republic. (Czech government likes celebrities).
posted by Pretty_Generic on Jul 14, 2004 - 1 comment

Wizard People, Dear Reader is a bizarre re-reading (or, if you're Tim Burton, a re-imagining) of Harry Potter and the philosophers stone (or sorcerers stone for our friends across the pond). Basically you download it, burn it to CD and play it while watching the DVD. A new art form, a childish gimmick or somewhere inbetween? Everybody will have a copy soon, so get busy with the download (courtesy of the ever vigilant Talking Tina at Sissyfight.com).
posted by ciderwoman on Jun 8, 2004 - 20 comments

Faery Lands Forlorn A.S. Byatt, author of Possession and other novels, looks at the phenomenon of adults reading the Harry Potter children's books: Ms. Rowling's magic world has no place for the numinous. It is written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip. Its values, and everything in it, are, as Gatsby said of his own world when the light had gone out of his dream, "only personal." Nobody is trying to save or destroy anything beyond Harry Potter and his friends and family.... Ms. Rowling, I think, speaks to an adult generation that hasn't known, and doesn't care about, mystery. They are inhabitants of urban jungles, not of the real wild. They don't have the skills to tell ersatz magic from the real thing, for as children they daily invested the ersatz with what imagination they had.
posted by Artifice_Eternity on Jul 7, 2003 - 105 comments

Potter anyone? Harry Potter fever has started.... Some individual or group of individuals managed to walk off with 7680 copies of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" Reuters has an article here mentioned that the books are worth about 130500 pounds. MSNBC is behind the times with their stolen article and are reporting ~$1.68 Million.
posted by meanie on Jun 17, 2003 - 22 comments

JK Rowling's expecting - twice over. A new baby's on the way and the new book's almost finished. Ain't life grand.
posted by zimbobzim on Sep 20, 2002 - 10 comments

Fake Harry Potter novel hits China. An anonymous Chinese author has decided JK Rowling is taking too long to write the fifth book - so has written a new adventure to satisfy the huge Potter market in the country, according to a report in The Times. Harry Potter And Leopard Walk Up To Dragon, on sale in Beijing street markets for about £1, is selling fast to the dismay of the publisher of the genuine Potter books in China.
posted by ncurley on Jul 6, 2002 - 14 comments

OK, this whole Harry Potter thing - while completely out of proportion to any real value in the books - has up till now been pointless but essentially harmless. But wasting a Hugo Award on this crap?! To quote (oh, I don't know, some Clinton-hating Republican): "Where's the outrage?!"
posted by m.polo on Sep 5, 2001 - 60 comments

Aw, for the love of Kee-rist, can't anyone quit screwing with stuff?

Columbus plans to shoot parallel versions of the first film -- one for the U.S. market and one for Britain. His plan is to shoot two or three alternate sequences for each film and to give the British film the first novel's original British title, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." The American film will be called, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

posted by baylink on Aug 24, 2000 - 12 comments

Heeeeeeeere's Harry!
posted by honkzilla on Aug 21, 2000 - 18 comments

Finally An honest review of Harry Potter.
posted by tj on Jul 21, 2000 - 2 comments

Page One of Harry Potter IV posted at the The Standard. Man, I hope this is a spoof.
posted by silusGROK on Jul 3, 2000 - 16 comments

Jeez, these people need to get a clue. Children should be encouraged to read anything they want, and as much as they please. So what if Harry Potter books have wizards and witches in them? Even kids can tell fact from fiction...when are the adults going to figure that out?
posted by mathowie on Oct 13, 1999 - 0 comments