Stick disciplines: how Harry Potter's 45th birthday is celebrated in Russia
Harry Potter's birthday is traditionally celebrated on July 31, and he will turn 45 today. On the eve of the anniversary, fans of the book and films gathered in Moscow for a large-scale thematic quiz, where Izvestia also went. It turned out that Russian potteromaniacs are hundreds and thousands of people who write fan fiction, make amateur films, sew "canonical" costumes and spend hundreds of thousands of rubles on rare copies of their favorite book. Izvestia tells us how the Russian Harry Potter fandom works.
Potter's quizzes are tens of thousands of Russians
On the eve of the famous magician's birthday, 130 people, divided into 30 teams, put on their best costumes for the festive quiz, because cosplay, even if it is no longer very fashionable, is attached. They drew a "canonical" scar on his forehead and, armed with seven volumes of original history, gathered to find out who knows the main tale of the 21st century better.
A casual passerby could easily mistake the audience for the cast of a fantasy series who were distracted by their lunch break. Every second person is wearing a tie from one of the four faculties of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, black student robes, magic wands in their hands, and a symbol of the Deathly Hallows around their necks. There is a Sorting hat on the organizers' table, and a Triwizard Cup next to it.
"From the very beginning, I had a dream of making a magical place that gathers hundreds of magicians," Nikolai Morozov, founder of the Moscow quiz show Battery, told Izvestia. — And from the first game, we were met with success: there was often not enough space in the halls, I worked 24/7 in search of new ideas for the project. Since 2018, more than 10,000 offline people and thousands of online players have attended our events.
There are so many players that we had to introduce a division system: newcomers start with OWLS, take prizes, go to the TOAD, then to the Order of Merlin. OWL and TOAD are the acronyms for the final exams in Potterian. If for some people the love of the franchise is limited to reviewing eight films for the New Year, then others are much more serious. The teams with the talking names "Anti-Heaps", "Heirs of Hufflepuff", "Wood, I found you a wine!", "Vovan de Cake" not only know the films second by second, but also each of the chapters of all seven books line by line.
— I know of cases when it came to fights in "hot" games. Although in itself, an open display of aggression is uncharacteristic for a subculture. All confrontations are usually resolved "on paper" and in a stubborn intellectual struggle," said Morozov.
Dmitry Budnik, the founder of another popular quiz show, Smoothie, claims that every month Harry Potter games attract about 4 thousand people and the audience is only growing.
— Any fans are aggression. That's not to say that fans of "The Lord of the Rings" or "Star Wars" are any less aggressive. It's just that there are more of them coming to Harry Potter quizzes, and if an incorrect question is asked, they behave accordingly," Budnik told Izvestia.
Collecting Potter books is an expensive hobby
Bank employees, IT specialists, researchers, police officers, librarians, journalists, voice actors and even assistants to State Duma deputies appear at the same gaming table under the guise of the Dark Lord, Death Eaters, Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. For many, the fascination with Harry Potter has taken on a large scale.
— I met Potteriana in 2003. My grandmother gave me a videotape of the Philosopher's Stone," Alexey Safonov, captain of the Anti—Seizure team, told Izvestia. — I've already played quizzes with the team, we won prizes, but I still haven't read The Philosopher's Stone. But in 2022, from a business trip in Thailand, he brought the first part with an anniversary cover. And then he began to hunt for other translations. Over time, everything turned into a craze.
Currently, Alexey's collection includes more than 40 books with various branded covers from more than 25 countries. According to the collector, the most beautiful piece in the collection is MinaLima, created by two graphic designers Mirafora Mina and Eduardo Lima, who worked on creating props for the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films.
Many fans collect paraphernalia and books, but not everyone can afford particularly valuable items. Among them is Sergei Gusenkov, who became a fan of Harry Potter as a child, but began collecting books as an adult.
— The magical world was my safe and cozy refuge, where I could relax or take my mind off my problems. Of course, I've read books countless times, and I've learned movies almost by heart," the collector told Izvestia. — At some point, I discovered the channel of the American collector Peter Kennett, who managed to collect books in all languages of the world. I was very inspired and delighted by it.
The most expensive item in Sergey's collection is the so—called second adult edition of seven books from Bloomsbury. It was released in the UK from 2004 to 2015 in a minimalist design in dark tones. Such a set of books — in hardcover, with dust jackets and in a gift box without defects and flaws — costs from 50 thousand rubles.
According to Gusenkov, in Russia the most expensive edition is considered to be the special edition of the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" from the Rosman publishing house, published in 2000. A paperback book with an unsightly black cover and a large inscription "Not for sale" appears on various Internet sites for about 100 thousand rubles. The book was published in a small print run of 2 thousand copies and was intended for free distribution to critics, reviewers and participants of book fairs of those years.
Among the valuable lots is a set of seven books in black design from Rosman. Such books in perfect condition on a special cardboard stand can be sold from 100 thousand rubles.
— If we talk about foreign publications, then, of course, the first hardcover edition of the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" from Bloomsbury is considered the Holy Grail. The book was printed in only 500 copies (200 of which went to libraries), and not so long ago a copy in perfect condition went under the hammer for an unthinkable $ 471 thousand. If I used to think that I could sell the apartment and buy this book at auction, now I understand that this time is irretrievably gone," Gusenkov said.
Boris Kuznetsov, director of the Rosman publishing house, told Izvestia that the first Harry Potter books were selling with great difficulty.
— It was only in the second and even more so in the third book that "Harry Potter" began to become a legend. Naturally, the interest was influenced by the release of the film. It was then that it became a global, unique literary and media project," recalls Kuznetsov.
According to him, for many years "Harry Potter" was not only the best-selling book of the Rosman publishing house, but also the best-selling book in the whole world.
— We have published the seventh book in a one-time circulation of 2 million copies. I don't remember ever having such a circulation in the entire history of Rosman," Kuznetsov concluded.
There are more books, and it's not Rowling who's writing them.
When Harry Potter's "mom" J. K. Rowling announced that she would no longer write new books about the wizard, fans wrote them themselves. The fanfiction "Harry Potter and the methods of rational thinking", "The Story of the Marauders", "19 years later" have thousands of fans.
— When you first enter the world of fanfiction, you don't realize the scale. The community not only discusses theories and argues about pressing questions like "was Dumbledore really a kind man?", but also comes up with alternative universes and endings of the original text. My favorite topic is the relationship between Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger," said Rida Adzinova, who not only follows new fanfiction, but also translates it into Russian.
Among other things, potteromaniacs make their own films. On official fan resources, you can find the hour-long film "Black Snake, Stray Dog", and now there is a casting for the amateur series "Blackie", where the main characters will be the villains of the saga.
The magical world that once captivated readers continues to live and develop.: The HBO series, which will be released in 2027, will obviously give Harry Potter a new wave of popularity.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
