The long awaited midnight debut of the final installment of the Harry Potter movies has come and gone. For many, the seven books have all been read, several times over. Some went on a marathon movie watching adventure, viewing all seven consecutively before going to see the last one. An entire generation of kids has grown up with J.K. Rowling’s magical world an integral part of theirs.
It may be finished, but it’s not exactly over. It looks like the world of Potter, Dumbledore and Voldemort is here to stay. Just ask Professor Lana Whited, professor of English at Ferrum College. She is considered an expert on the books; “she has been widely quoted on the Harry Potter series and the work of J.K. Rowling, and she is teaching a summer enrichment course on Harry Potter to area 5th – 7th graders, according to Ferrum’s Director of Public Relations, John Carlin.
Whited has a lot to say about the books and their impact on lives and culture, but she gets right to the point with the question she says everyone is asking: “What happens now?” She put the question another way to students in her class just this week, asking them “Do you think your children will be reading Harry Potter?” Her favorite answer from one of the kids: “I plan to duct tape it to their eyeballs!”
Whited sounds a little like a youngster herself as she talks about the classroom “Sorting Hat,” Potions Class in the chem. lab, and she has a recipe for Butterbeer that she has been told by a student ranks up there with the Butterbeer down in Universal Studio’s Wizarding World. (Combine butterscotch syrup, butter, and cream soda or for a less sweet drink, use club soda.)
The final movie, which she saw “twice in a period of 24 hours,” once as an expert, and once as a mom, was “very well received,” according to Whited. She calls it “very intense and true to the books.” She was disappointed in one pivotal point near the end in which Harry believes he is about to die. In the book, this moment is more complex; when facing death, Harry says he is ready, and proceeds to think of a myriad of things about the world he will miss. In the movie version of that scene Harry simply says “I am ready to die,” which Whited says “seems heavy handed.”
Ferrum’s summer enrichment program, in its 22nd year, is an overnight week long camp that offers many classes and activities for kids in grades four through seven. Whited has been teaching the Harry Potter class for four years, with some kids taking it more than once. On the college level, the Rowling series “helped to define the arc of my professional career” said Whited, who authored the book “The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon.”
Amazon.com describes her work as “the first book-length analysis of J. K. Rowling’s work from a broad range of perspectives within literature, folklore, psychology, sociology, and popular culture.”
“The Potter books have had an enormous influence on popular culture,” added Whited; for example, “there are over 150 college Quidditch teams and now graduates are setting up recreational Quidditch—like Little League.”
How does that work? People “run around with broomsticks between their legs and there is one person dressed in gold that has to be caught.”
If none of this makes any sense, it might be time to become culturally updated; read the books, see a movie, or if you are a kid, sign up for Prof. Whited’s class.
For more information on Ferrum’s summer program, visit www.ferrum.edu/fcsec and visit www2.ferrum.edu/ivorytower to learn more about Whited’s book.
Ferrum College’s English program is proud to announce that Dr. Whited will also offer a college literature course this fall on the Harry Potter series and other works about fantasy and heroes.
Very impressive article!