Harvard versus Hogwarts

Despite the eerie resemblance of Hogwarts’ dining hall to Annenberg, Harvard is hardly a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Here we cheer on the football team, not quiddich players–and Larry Summers is no Albus Dumbledore. Cheesy comparisons aside, after seeing the just-released Harry Potter movie, Melissa A. Eccleston ’04 “got the vibe that the whole storyline was very Harvardish.” Recalling scenes such as when Harry and friends leave home to go to school and features such as “houses” featuring masters and common rooms, she characterizes Hogwarts as “Harvard plus magic.”

It is understandable, then, that Harry Potter has found quite a following here at Harvard. In the past week, many students have taken a break from their normal study routines to head out and enjoy the new movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Tim B. Lautz ’02, a Harry Potter enthusiast who saw the movie at 9:30 a.m. on opening day and has since viewed it a second time, opines, “the movie did as good a job adapting the material as possible, although the books cannot be matched. There is just a lot of stuff that you are unable to put on a movie screen.” Meghan M. Brown ’05 raves, “It pretty much followed the book, but I liked it a lot. It was fun and silly, but it has a good message.”

The childish nature of the Harry Potter series appears to be a strong pull. Lautz comments, “It provides a good escape from the reality of school work.” Brown concurs, since “it was only the second movie I’ve seen [while at Harvard].” Many workaholics seeking to opt out of the daily grind for a few hours named Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as their distraction of choice in recent weeks. Lautz himself “skipped three classes to see the movie, so it was a fabulous break.” Myung! H. Joh ’02, who also saw the movie the day it came out, thinks that the attraction is that “it’s a big event that people are looking forward to.”

While Harry Potter’s content is aimed at kids, both the movie and the book hit home with Harvard students nostalgic for more carefree days. Eccleston said the movie encouraged “total fantasy,” avoiding banality with captivating special effects in the movie and gripping writing in the books.

But while Potter-mania is sweeping the Harvard campus, don’t expect to bump into anyone running around with a lightning scar for now—Harry Potter is only 11 years old in the movie and 15 in the books so far, so it will be a few years before Potter: The College Years is unleashed. Furthermore, students will have to content themselves with Folkore and Mythology 107b: “Witchcraft,” taught by Professor Stephen A. Mitchell, since Harvard will not be offering classes on Defense Against the Dark Arts. Unfortunately, midterms still take more work than waving a magic wand.