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20143360041

IDE470 Fantastic Literature and Harry Potter

Lec. M.Galip ZORBA

Getting Used to the Fantasy World

As the author of Harry Potter’s series, J.K. Rowling created a new fantasy world

which is even very different from ours, but she mostly adapted some elements from reality to

a fantastic realm. It means that it never shows only realistic features, but these fantastic

elements are just turned from the familiar into unfamiliar things by her. We are getting used to

these unfamiliar things while reading the whole series. When they are thought as possible as

deeply, it never seems that they are so far away from making sense. Especially, J.K. Rowling

might not want to hold his fantasy perception in some objects or entities by using them

completely different. As a new beginning from this perspective, Harry Potter and the

Philosopher’s Stone by Joanne Kathleen Rowling is the first literary work of the series that

reflects the reality beyond the fantasy world by connecting familiar with unfamiliar things. In

this context, this paper aims to point out this connection by depending on J.K. Rowling’s

perception of fantasy in her first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Firstly, it is true that the author Rowling created a very different second world in

fantasy, but she tried to adapt familiar things into unfamiliar things by linking a connection up

for the readers. For example, Owls are only seen as an animal in our world, but this animal

was handled with a different perception in the book: “You must come and stay this summer’

said Ron, ‘both of you – I’ll send you an owl”(Rowling 248). It is easy to see in this quotation

that owl was used as a communication system even if they are only animals. In this context,

Owl is a familiar entity in our world, but Rowling used it as a telephone, it is an unfamiliar

situation.
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Moreover, the money unit is used in a different manner in Rowling’s first book. From

the beginning of the mankind to now, if we take the money as a coin and value them in order

of precious, Gold is the most prized unit, the Silver is the second and the Bronze is the third

one. These 3 units of money are familiar. However, Rowling used a different usage for money

unit. As a website citation: “The wizarding currency of Great Britain consists of three

different coins; in decreasing order of value, they are; Galleon, Sickle and Knut. They are

gold, silver, and bronze, respectively”(Harrypotter.fandom.com). It is barely hard to hear

these money units in our world. But in the book, it is possible.

Secondly, the other unfamiliar thing is a kind of clothes, the cloak. A cloak is only a

part of the costume in our world. We are used to it like that and utilize from it for the theatre.

As it was stated in the book: “People in cloaks. Mr. Dursley couldn’t bear people who dressed

in funny clothes. --- It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was

wearing a violet cloak. --- Dumbledore was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the

ground, ….” (Rowling 4-5-6). The word cloak was used as a comic object and even it elvishly

reflects the perception of the fantasy world. Sometimes, it is used as the most important part

in the name of ‘invisibility’. Wearing a cloak is also such as routine life for students in

Hogwarts. By considering these effects, cloak comes up to the use of an unfamiliar object.

Furthermore, deformation is another important part of an exotic situation. It is the

animal coming to our minds when we say the word ‘cat’. But in the book, this animal was

used as a camouflage for hiding a person such as Minerva McGonagall: “ …. Toward number

four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn’t look at it, but after a moment he

spoke to it. ‘Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall.’ ….. ‘How did you know it was

me?’ she asked. ‘My dear Professor, I’ve never seen a cat sit so stiffly.’ ” (Rowling 6-7). As it
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is seen in this quotation, being an animal for a woman to be hidden is not an ordinary

situation. It is an unusual and unfamiliar condition. But the humankind only knows these

events in fables.

On the other hand, as a type of sport, football is one of the most famous game in the

world. Rowling includes a kind of sport called Quidditch in her book. First of all, if we

compare these two sports, both of them have defenders (the Keeper in Quidditch, the Goal-

keeper in football), strikers (the Chaser in Quidditch, forwards in football), midfield (the

Beaters in Quidditch, the Mid-fielder in football and a finisher (the Seeker in Quidditch, the

Secret Striker in football). Even if a football team has 11 players, the Quidditch team has 7

players, but there are some similarities in terms of player positions in the field. Each game

aims to score a goal by throwing the ball into a specific shape. For this reason, Quidditch can

be considered as an unfamiliar sport type taking from reality. “Seekers were usually the

smallest and fastest players, and that more serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to

them” (Rowling 144).

Thirdly, as a data communication system, newspaper is also used in a different form. It

is called “The Daily Prophet” in the book. As it is stated in the website: “There is only one

wizarding in Britain, discounting such small circulation publications such as The Quibbler.

The Daily Prophet, whose headquarters are in Diagon Alley, is delivered by owl on a daily

basis to nearly every wizarding household in Britain” (Pottermore.com). The pictures in this

newspaper are jet-propelled or moving objects. Rowlings might want to show pass beyond

reality in the form of an object. Besides, Diagon Alley was used as a marketplace. That’s why

she attended to turn again familiar things into unfamiliar.

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Finally, Rowling created a new bank in a fantasy world called ‘Gringotts’. Normally,

people are working in banks. And customer’s case, which they keep their money, is

completely made up of some elements such as gold, iron or they use some bank accounts.

However, the customer’s vaults in the book have some numbers such as 713 on them and they

are not such as box, but like protected rooms into which they have to go by following ‘a

narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches’. In addition to this, normal employees in

Gringotts are not humankind, they are Goblins: “ ‘Morning,’ said Hagrid to a free goblin.

‘We’ve come to take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter’s safe’ ” (Rowling 57). It is very

apparent to see that the banking system is not a familiar one and the author uses some

different entities, objects, numbers in order to turn them into unfamiliar things.

To sum up, Joanne Kathleen Rowling sometimes used realistic features in order to turn

familiar things into unfamiliar things. Coming from a deformation of cat as a woman,

recreating a new sport by making a connection with another sport called football, changing

both communication (messaging) and a data communication system, applying a brand-new

banking system with distinctive qualities, popularizing an unsual dressing style, implementing

a redesigned money unit are the main features that provide to pass beyond reality. Thanks to

these whole qualities, Rowling managed to create a fantasy world and she accomplished to

adapt usual concepts for starting with a clean world by turning them into unfamiliar things.
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Work-cited

Contributors to Wikimedia. “Fictional Sport.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 1 Apr.

2019,www.wikizero.biz/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dp

a2kvUXVpZGRpdGNo.

“Gringotts Wizarding Bank | Warner Bros. Studio Tour London.” Gringotts Wizarding Bank |

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/gringotts.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Scholastic, 1999. Print.

“The Daily Prophet.” Pottermore, www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-daily-

prophet.

“Wizarding Currency.” Harry Potter Wiki, harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Wizarding_

currency.