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By Angelo Cantera, Reporter
To the Filipino fans of Harry Potter, their favorite boy wizard has
definitely “grown up.” From being the protagonist of author J.K.
Rowling’s children’s novel about a young wizard’s road to
heroism, he has definitely evolved into a cultural icon whose story
was told through seven books and, so far, six film adaptations.
And as the latest of the six films, Harry Potter
and the Half Blood Prince, makes its worldwide debut, his followers
say that his magic still remains enchanting as ever. Apparently, it
is enough to inspire a number of them to don elaborate robes, carry
broomsticks and even discuss his story in the classroom.
“The story is popular because it has a
wellstructured narrative and a creative re-imagining of things
already familiar to us,” a Palanca winner and literary columnist,
Libay Cantor, told The Manila Times. “People are always after a
good story, no matter what genre they like.”
As an educator in De La Salle University (DLSU)-Manila,
Frances Sangil has been talking about Potter’s “magic” for
five years. And while she doesn’t train her students to use charms
or brew potions, the 34-year-old teacher has been educating them
through the spell Rowling cast upon the world with this best-selling
series.
“The literature department of DLSU-Manila has
a very strong cultural studies and popular culture track,” Sangil
told The Times. “We’ve been offering electives such as
speculative fiction, fantasy, crime fiction and gothic fiction,
among others. We want students to talk about the things that matter
to them and problematize contemporary literature. An elective on [Rowling]
was then inevitable.”
Handling about 40 enrollees every time the class
is offered, Sangil’s methods involve incorporating practices done
in the books. Like the students of Potter’s magic school, Hogwarts,
she sorts her students in different “houses”—a procedure of
grouping learners based on their characteristics—and she also
administers exams that she affectionately calls “OWL,” a term
based on the “ordinary wizarding level” exams that were given to
Potter and his school mates.
“I don’t teach them how to curse people or
make potions,” Sangil said. “I merely discuss the importance of
a very popular series that happens to be about magic.”
Saying that the series is “probably the
literary saga of this generation,” she also tells her class to
discuss what she thinks is Rowling’s greatest contribution to an
era where children spend most of their time in front of the computer
to surf the Internet and play online games.
“Through him [Harry Potter], she [Rowling] got
an entire generation of kids into reading again,” Sangil said.
The ‘Pinoy’ Harry Potter
Sangil is also a member of Hogwarts
Philippines—a community of Filipino Harry Potter fans that was
established in 2001. As an online group, it is a venue that allows
the series’ aficionados to meet and share their love for the
magical world created by Rowling. And while most of the interactions
among members happen online, they also do offline activities like
launch parties where they welcome Harry Potter books and films, by
donning costumes popularized by the novels and outreach activities
like book drives that benefit orphans.
Currently, the group has more than 1,000 members
all over the Philippines and around the world. And despite the
preconceived notion that Harry Potter was written for children, the
group also has a broad age bracket with members being as young as 13
and as old as 45.
“I’ve always been a fan of the series,”
34-year-old freelance artist and Hogwarts Philippines member Jovan
de Ocampo told The Times.
“I’ve always been a fan of the book since I
was in Grade 7. But I only became an active member of Hogwarts
Philippines after I enrolled in the class of Miss Sangil.”
23-year-old Kitkat Torres, also told The Times.
Accused of practicing witchcraft
Sangil and the other members of Hogwarts
Philippines, however, admit that despite all the mild mannered
enjoyment they’ve been having through the series, they have
encountered opposition and criticism. According to them, the cliché
of judging a book by its cover remains present, with some people
berating them for their taste in literature. Some even accuse them
of practicing witchcraft.
“In preparation for the film release of
Prisoner of Azkaban [the third Harry Potter book,] we had a story
telling session for kids.” Sangil said. “Suddenly, there was
this guy who said in a very condescending tone ‘So, that’s what
you teach kids nowadays.’ I already knew what he meant when he
said that, so I asked him if he has read the book and he said, ‘I
don’t have to read the book. Look at you, you’re dressed in
robes telling children about witchcraft.’ So I replied, ‘Sir,
look at the kids, they’re having fun, they’re reading books, is
that such a bad thing?’”
“I get the impression that sometimes, people
think we get together to brew potions and cast spells. We don’t do
that,” 22-year-old Rona Angeles said. “When we get together,
sometimes, we rarely even talk about Harry Potter.”
“What’s unfair is that whenever most people
judge Harry Potter, they would see a hundred page book and only see
the cover,” 22-year-old Francis Romero also told The Times.
Romero said that critics of Harry Potter books
don’t look beyond the magic of the boy wizard. In the process,
these people don’t see the positive values Potter’s books impart
to its readers.
The magic continues
As the sixth film adaptation of the Harry Potter
makes its world debut in theaters today and in the Philippines
Thursday, the fans of the boy wizard cannot help but share their
excitement even though most of them have already read all seven
books of the series.
Angeles said that somewhere along the line,
Harry Potter stopped becoming a children’s movie and the
characters became more human.
Now that the Harry Potter’s destiny has been
decided with the publishing of the seventh book, Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows, and the film franchise is set to end in 2011,
the boy wizard’s fans cannot help but accept that reality. But
still they remain optimistic that the series can become a classic.
“Star Wars survived, right? It survived
decades. Harry Potter can do that too. I’m not sure if it’s
going to be something like Lord of The Rings but I definitely think
that it will have a long shelf life,” de Ocampo said.
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