30 Days of Harry Potter (Day 18 - Victoria Schwab)

Today we the amazing, Victoria Schwab, who's debut novel will come out in August of 2011.

Let's give it up for Victoria!

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"On the Possibility of Magic"


That simple strain of music starts, and my heart flutters. I spend months and months waiting, aching a little each time the previews come on, counting down the weeks and then days by the growing excitement around me.

The movies are not the books.

They have been pared down, and not always in the best ways. The sixth movie, for example, excavated most of the central plot of the books: the Half-Blood Prince.

And yet.

The movies, in my opinion, are more like tributes to the books. They show facets, recreate scenes, paint pictures of the characters we have come to love. But in a select few ways, they are stronger, simply by the nature of the medium. The visuals are so incredible, from the smallest touches to the grandest scenes.

But the most spectacular success of the films is the portrayal of magic. Magic has never looked so…real. And that is what makes me wait, makes me bounce when the trailers are revealed, makes me sit in the theaters again and again, surrounded by others who don’t just get to disappear into a far-off world. The magic comes to us.

My favorite concept as both a writer and a reader has always been magical realism. In writing, it’s an aesthetic style in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere. But in the Harry Potter movies, it’s a visual style. Not simply because we see snippets of London, or even the coexistence of muggles with witches and warlocks. The smoke that surrounds and creates Voldemort’s followers, the curses and spells the student’s practices, even the Marauder’s Map…in the movies the magic itself is seamless. The consideration that the filmmakers have put into the production quality is beyond admirable.

The books may transport us into Harry’s world. But the movies bring it into ours.
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Thank you so much, Victoria! You did an amazing job.

You can find out more informationa about Victor and her debut novel over at her WEBSITE and BLOG.

Until tomorrow everyone,