How we wish to be cited:
Norberg B. The Nobel Prize for Potter[culture]. Rondel 2004; 20. URL: http://www.rondellen.net

The Nobel Prize for Potter

Figure Front picture of the fifth book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Prologue The present culture contribution addressees existential problems of mankind ( cf 1-3). No author has mixed history, culture, folklore, tradition, psychology, mystery and fantasy with greater artistry than J. K. Rowling in the Potter books. The series represents the perfection of the heirloom from Edith Nesbith, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Like R. L. Stevenson in "Treasure Island" and Daniel Defoe in "Robinson Crusoe", there is also a spice of social criticism in the Potter saga – past, present, and future society. Between the lines of the saga, the contours of truth may be imagined.

The external adventures of Harry Potter are classical – an orphan boy with a miserable childhood in a foster home of relatives. At the age of eleven, Harry was "repotted" in a boarding school for a 7-year training towards a career within his own social network. The throng of characters and battles provide the necessary frame of the psychological development and research. Rowling has delved deep into the archetype of man, with numerous hints to human art and science. The internal adventure is the growth and maturation of the characters, each in her/his own context of family, friends, foes - and time.

The Potter books have become a key to folklore, tradition, history and social sciences for many children all over the world; this role is classical. Among great contemporaries, the cartoons by Goscinny are prominent, "Asterix" and "Lucky Luke". The function is honorable. Popular science is the third task of the universities. However, few universities have had an impact on the standard of general education comparable to the Potter books.

When Aristoteles had weighed and measured the phenomena liable to such an evaluation, "Physics", he approached more elusive phenomena, "Metaphysics". From the evaluation point of view, literature belongs to metaphysics. However, some aspects of literature are akin to communication, the interaction between sender and receivers around a core message. Both style and content should be analyzed warily. "Snuff is snuff, even in a golden tin, but roses in a cracked pot are roses, still".

Joke and saga provide shunts towards truths usually repressed and denied – the wastebasket belching with owl droppings, the empty ancestor portrait sniggering at a teenager rebel. The existential decision of aunt Petunia represents a climax of absurd logic. "The boy – the boy will have to stay, Vernon… If we throw him out, the neighbors will talk."

The Potter series provides a bridge between cultures, at the moot of man and literature. Mrs Rowling does not need the Nobel Prize of literature. The Nobel Prize needs Mrs. Rowling in order to prove its state as The Prize, an outstanding mark of quality and impact. "The market is always right".

The movies and the commercial gewgaws around the Potter books should not obscure that Mrs Rowling is a great writer, probably the greatest after Shakespeare. He, too, has been marketed and re-marketed by minor spirits. That is the fate and quest of great authors.

Previous papers on existential problems

1. Norberg B. The structure of existential crisis - "Shut up and drown like a man!" [culture]. Rondel 2004; 18. URL: http://www.rondellen.net/culture18_eng.htm
2. Hägglöf M. Capercaillie courting – an animal model of love [culture]. Rondel 2001; 8. URL: http://www.rondellen.net/culture08_eng.htm
3. Norberg B. Artificial aborigines – a threat to democracy and human rights [health]. Rondel 2004; 19. URL: http://www.rondellen.net/health19_eng.htm