The Horizon of Expectation and the Wizarding World, Part 3

Of course, in the wizarding world, pictures move, but now readers can experience even this through the Kindle in Motion version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. When readers open the ebook for the first time, they immediately see steam swirling up from the Hogwarts Express as Harry stands in awe, watching an owl flapping above him. As readers scroll through the book, they discover the cat version of Professor McGonagall twitching her tail as she reads a map; Hagrid revving up Sirius Black's motorcycle and flying across the night sky; Hogwarts letters slipping through the Dursleys' nailed up mail slot and flying around the room; Harry and Hagrid in a rocking rowboat with waves splashing around them and seagulls flapping above; and a Goblin examining a large ruby (ch. 1, 3, 5). Professor Dumbledore cocks his head affably in his portrait as he reaches into his bag of sherbet lemons, but Professor Snape is much more menacing as he glares out at readers who are quick to notice slithering snakes, misting potions, and bubbling jars behind him (ch. 6, 8).

Ghosts of all kinds dash before readers' eyes, making them as startled as the Hogwarts first-years, and the Sorting Hat moves as it speaks to Harry (ch. 7). Harry himself moves as he races the Slytherin Seeker to catch the Golden Snitch, and Draco shows off his own flying abilities as he swoops in to catch Neville's Remembrall (ch. 11, 9). In Harry's final adventure beneath the school, readers watch as he falls through the trapdoor (ch. 16). Then they see the flying keys darting across the page and finally Voldemort himself as he peaks out from beneath Quirrell's turban (ch. 16, 17). Indeed, the magic of technology meets the magical world to enable readers to expand their horizons once again and delve ever deeper into the story of Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts, becoming magical insiders who feel at home in the wizarding universe.

What happens, then, when readers finally return to the original American edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? Since their horizons of expectation have been greatly expanded, they view the familiar text in new and interesting ways, and they are now more deeply immersed in the wizarding world than ever before. British words may now repeat in their minds as they see “sneakers” and think “trainers” or read “off his rocker” and remember “barking.” Images, too, float through their minds as they read about Diagon Alley and remember Jim Kay's detailed drawings, recall Ron Weasley's slightly miffed expression, or envision Harry standing before the Mirror of Erised. Some of these images even move, just like real wizarding world pictures, and readers may well think of Snape's glare or Voldemort's red eyes appearing as Quirrell unwraps his turban. The original text, that first version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is no longer the same for readers. They now expect more, and they imagine more as they read. Their horizons of expectation have grown and changed as they encountered new versions of the text and moved from outsiders to insiders in the magical universe through words, images, and magical motion.

Works Cited

Boboltz, Sara. “Why 'Philosopher' Became 'Sorcerer' in the 'Harry Potter' Books.” Huffpost, 26 June 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-philosophers-stone-became-sorcerers-stone_us_ 59514346e4b05c37bb78466e.

Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, 1999.

Olson, Edward, et al. “Differences between British and US Versions of PS.” The Harry Potter Lexicon, 25 Aug. 2001, https://www.hp-lexicon.org/2001/08/25/differences-between-british-and-us- versions-of-ps/.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Illustrated by Jim Kay, Scholastic, 2015.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Illustrated by Jim Kay, Kindle in Motion edition, Scholastic, 2017.

The Horizon of Expectation and the Wizarding World, Part 2

Most American readers actually experience the novel's British incarnation for the first time in the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone released in 2015. Through Jim Kay's creative artwork, the magical world comes to life in full color, and readers' horizons expand as they see their favorite characters, envision events, and notice details in places and things as they may never have done before. Kay's illustrations, for example, present the mysterious and somewhat sensorily overwhelming Diagon Alley in vivid detail (60-63). Close examination of the drawings reveal Tangle & Noils wig shop right next door to the magical creature shop (complete with several escaped cats frolicking across the roof and upper stories of the crooked row house).

Just down the street, Bufo's offers “Batrachian Bargains!” in frogs and toads, but the umbrella store upstairs seems to have trouble holding onto its wares, for multiple (magical?) umbrellas float here and there above the stores of Diagon Alley. Readers discover that the bookstore Flourish & Blots features a dragon, a manuscript, and a quill pen as its emblem as well as heraldic symbols on its windows, owls on its roof, and Belcher's Bottled Beers in its basement. A few doors down, magical shoppers (and readers) discover the Galloglass mirror shop (not mentioned in the text) for all their needs in enchanted and haunted mirrors; Twinkle's Telescopes (also offering lunar ticks); and Pettichap's clothier (specializing in “Shirts for Squirts”). Diagon Alley with all its delightful and whimsical quirks comes to life before readers' eyes, as they encounter it afresh, and like as not, they will never picture this wizarding marketplace as they did before.

The magical world's characters also appear intensely real in Kay's illustrations. Draco Malfoy, for instance, stands in Madam Malkin's robe shop, hands raised and tape measure floating around him, as he stares at the reader with cold eyes and an unwelcoming (to say the least) expression (66). Rubeus Hagrid appears too big for his page, but his bright eyes and red nose shine out in the midst of his shaggy black beard and hair (39). His cravat features a skull and crossbones motif, and readers can just make out his metal buttons and (could it be?) a smiling monkey watch fob. Ron Weasley stares straight at readers, his brilliant red hair contrasting abruptly with a green jumper (160). His expression seems to be a cross between annoyance and sheepishness, for he has just been told off by Snape for nearly fighting with Draco Malfoy.

Kay depicts magical events just as vividly as he does magical places, objects, and people. As Harry stands before the Mirror of Erised, readers see a lonely boy in striped pajamas and a red robe leaning into the glass with his hands and forehead touching it as he tries to reach through (170). Only his reflection appears in the mirror, for only he can see his family staring back at him. The image appears on the far left side of the page, with the rest of the space taken up by a pile of dimly lit old chairs that accentuate the bleakness of the scene and Harry's experience. Again, readers who look closely at this and other illustrations will never again see the magical world in the same way; their imaginations cannot help but return to these fanciful images even when they read an unillustrated text.

The Horizon of Expectation and the Wizarding World, Part 1

American readers typically enter J.K. Rowling's magical universe through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the American edition of the novel that first appeared in the US in 1998. Avid readers, however, are not satisfied to limit themselves to this version alone, so they access other editions of the text and are drawn deeper and deeper into the wizarding world as they progress through the British version, into the illustrated edition, and through the Kindle-in-Motion adaptation.

As they progress, readers move from outsiders to insiders of the magical world as each edition expands their perspectives through unfamiliar words, creative illustrations, and images brought to life through motion. When they finally do return to the original American edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, they may discover that their horizons of expectation, what they anticipate from another reading, will have significantly changed due to their immersion in the various enhanced portrayals of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter universe.

Reception theory and reader response critics often speak of a reader's horizon of expectation. Some, following Hans Robert Jaus, use the term to refer to the reception of a text in a particular era (Bressler 72). Using this definition, Harry Potter scholars might examine how readers' horizons of expectation have changed over the past twenty years or how the films have affected interpretations of the texts. Others critics, like Wolfgang Iser, shift the meaning of horizon of expectation to describe a reader's predictions of what will happen in a text based on what has come before (73). In this case, scholars studying Harry Potter might look at the evolution of readers' horizons of expectation as they read through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time, noting perhaps that some readers easily follow Harry in suspecting Severus Snape of nefarious deeds while others are not quite so quick to fall for Rowling's red herrings. This essay, however, will expand Iser's definition to include multiple versions of the text and will examine how readers' horizons of expectation grow and change through their expanded experiences.

Readers' experiences certainly widen when they encounter the British version of the first Harry Potter novel: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Unfamiliar words and meanings abound, pulling readers deeper into Harry's world and into British culture. The encounter begins at the front cover when readers notice the book's original title. In preparation for the novel's US debut, publisher Arthur A. Levine questioned the British title and told Rowling that it needed more magic, so she suggested replacing “Philosopher's Stone” with “Sorcerer's Stone,” and a new title was born (Boboltz). The change, however, was not without sacrifice, for “Philosopher's Stone” carries with it a depth of history, indeed a whole magical and alchemical tradition, not present in “Sorcerer's Stone.” Readers discovering the original title for the first time are drawn into a world in which magic is associated with wisdom and challenged to expand their perhaps limited ideas of philosophy and the wonders of knowledge.

Enrichment continues as readers come across other unexpected British words and usages for everyday items, activities, and expressions. Hogwarts students wear “trainers” (rather than “sneakers”) and “jumpers” (“sweaters”) while they carry around their “set books” (“course books”) and “revision timetables” (“study schedules”) and look for the “packet of crisps” (“bag of chips”) that Peeves swiped from them. Professor Dumbledore enjoys “sherbet lemons” (“lemon drops”). The Dursleys use a “cooker” rather than a “stove” and British “sellotape” (which actually corresponds much better with the magical spellotape) rather than American “scotch tape.” Other characters go “holidaying” rather than “vacationing”, play “football” and “rounders” instead of “soccer” and “baseball,” take “a tea of” something delicious rather than make “a meal of” it, and probably do not enjoy “queuing” or “lining up.” Ron announces that a person is “mad” and “barking' when he is “crazy” and “off his rocker,” and Hermione “came top of the year” (“had the best grades”) because, of course, she memorized all her set books “off by heart” (Olson, et al.). 

American readers who encounter these British expressions may be rather bewildered at first, but they soon discover that they are looking at the everyday world in new ways (yes, revision is a good way to study since one must look at material again, and rounders does indeed accurately describe baseball). Normal objects often taken for granted are not quite so ordinary any longer. Readers' horizons broaden as they immerse themselves in a strange new world not only magical but also British.

A Fascinating Blend: The Familiar and the Fantastic in The Hobbit and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Part 3

As these two themes of home and meals have shown, Tolkien and Lewis both have a talent for combining the familiar and the fantastic in their secondary worlds, but they are not exactly alike in their storytelling choices, and therein lie some points of contrast between the two authors. First, the framework of their tales is different. Lewis begins The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in the primary world. The Pevansie children are non-magical human beings who happen, seemingly by accident, to enter a magical, secondary world.

Tolkien, on the other hand, sets The Hobbit firmly in the secondary world from the beginning. The fantastic, therefore, is part of Bilbo's normal world in a way that it could never be for the Pevansie children. Bilbo, although he may not like to think about it too often, lives in a world of Dwarves, Elves, and wizards. The Pevansies do not, so their encounters with the fantastic stand out in even sharper relief than Bilbo's, and readers share their astonishment.

Further, Lewis, significantly more than Tolkien, focuses on his characters' responses to the fantastic elements of the new world in which they find themselves. Although Bilbo is often surprised, frightened, horrified, and/or perplexed by the strangeness he encounters, he is never really skeptical or unbelieving. The Pevansies, on the other hand, exhibit a larger range of responses. Peter and Susan, for instance, do not believe Lucy's account of Narnia. They think she is merely joking or making up a story for play (121). When Lucy refuses to recant her tale and insists that she has visited Narnia a second time, Peter and Susan become more concerned, wondering if their younger sister is turning into a liar or even going crazy (130).

Edmund's reaction is different. He sneers at Lucy's story and spitefully taunts her (121). Even after he has actually visited Narnia himself, he selfishly denies the truth and claims that Lucy made up the whole thing, hurting his sister deeply in the process (129). When all the children finally enter Narnia, Peter and Susan are quick to apologize to Lucy, but Edmund remains sulky, distrustful, and untruthful (134-135). While readers can certainly identify with Bilbo's responses to his adventures, they are likely to relate even better to those of the Pevansie children as they examine their own ideas about the fantastic as well as the reactions of the people around them.

The question remains, then, as to why Tolkien and Lewis blend the familiar and the fantastic. The familiar, of course, draws readers into a story and gives them a sense of belonging and ease. They begin to feel at home in the secondary world, like they, too, might enjoy a satisfying supper with the characters. A fantasy story, however, is designed to do much more than make readers comfortable. As Lewis indicates in “On Stories,” the best tales present an “idea of otherness,” an “abiding strangeness,” a particular atmosphere or essence that draws readers out of themselves and into the secondary world (13, 12). Fantastic elements contribute to and develop that sense of strange wonder.

Tolkien agrees. Fantasy, he explains in “On Fairy-stories,” offers an “arresting strangeness” that, when raised to the heights of Art with its “inner consistency of reality,” becomes Sub-creation, the purest and most powerful form of story (60). Sub-creation with all its fantastic elements, Tolkien continues, allows readers to experience recovery, escape, and consolation. By entering into the fantastic, readers recover a renewed vision of the wonder and beauty of the primary world, escape their doldrums and fears, and discover the consolation, the joy, of a truly happy ending (67, 73, 75).

Indeed, in The Hobbit and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Tolkien and Lewis invite readers to do just that. By blending the familiar with the fantastic, even with contrasting storytelling choices, the two authors draw their readers into their secondary worlds but also draw them out of themselves and their commonplace attitudes that they may engage with the primary world in new and meaningful ways.