The Goddess Shines on America

It takes a long time to read a book of 500,000 words, so when a series of book reviews are published in major newspapers, December has already opened its ice and snow door.

Needless to say, although the two books have the same name and there is no essential difference in the plot outline, Alice's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is of course the same as JK Rowling. treated differently.

It was a certain day in 1997. A single mother used a lot of scraps of paper to compose a magical novel for children with more than 100,000 words in a cafe. Although she received a strong response from the industry and brought herself a lot of income after launching the entire series one after another, at least she had to wait until the third book was officially published.

There is no other reason, not that Harry Potter is slow, but as a long-form magical series of literature, Rowling's first one or two are too thin. The amount of information is insufficient, so how can readers quickly feel the beautiful world of magical mothers?

But when it comes to Alice, it's completely different.

First of all, the most direct difference between her and Rowling was obvious from the beginning. A billionaire entrepreneur who is also a best-selling author. If such an influential celebrity writes a book, why not worry about the first batch of sales? When the number of her potential readers already far exceeds that of Rowling in the same period by a hundred times, the basic response speed has of course also increased year-on-year.

Furthermore, it is the most obvious thickness.

As early as a few months ago, Bantam Books had promoted Alice's long-form magical series plan, seven years and seven parts of children's themes, and the school is the main story setting, which is obvious, it happens to be A whole generation of bedtime books growing up.

Once you get one book, you don't have to worry about it for a year, and if you get seven books, you don't have to worry forever. Those parents whose children are the same age as "Harry Potter", how can they not look forward to this set of novels?

After such a month, Bantam sold a total of 700,000 copies across the country. After all, the price of this book is really not too expensive. Thirty dollars can buy 500,000 words. How many months of bedside stories can this tell my children? In other words, women and children earn the best money. Of the 700,000 sales, parents really accounted for a lot of it!

The readership base is extremely large, and the basic market demand is also very prosperous, so Alice easily broke the situation of JK-Rowling's "many books gradually arouse enthusiasm". Of course, after all, she also increased the length of the work by three times. It is not so much that the phenomenon is ahead of schedule, but the amount of information has reached the standard in advance.

A 500,000-word book of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" can naturally exert the influence of Rowling's first three books combined.

Therefore, it is no wonder that at the end of 1988 in just one month, the cultural pages of mainstream media such as the "New York Times" will be completely washed out by the comments on this novel.

"A new type of magic that breaks away from Tolkien's framework, a magical story that takes place in the city!"

"Rising stars of famous novels are rising, and an era of new magic has begun!"

"Seven books, seven school years, seven fantastic doors are gradually opened to a generation!"

"The perfect fusion of classical magic and modern society, the appropriate reflection of fantasy and reality!"

Almost like a blowout, the entire American fantasy literature world was blown out by this book. Even though the first batch of overseas editions had just landed in Canada, dozens of writers and critics in the field could no longer bear it. !

The development of fantasy literature in the European and American markets can be described as prosperous. Since Tolkien in the 1950s, not counting the birth of "The Chronicles of Narnia" at the same time, in the following three decades, at least a dozen writers have Write wonderfully similar stories.

From the six-part "Legend of Earthsea" in the 1960s, to the ten books of "Amber Chronicles" in the 1970s, to the recently published ultra-long series "Wheel of Time", all of them are like this. The most outstanding masterpieces in the past thirty years, and under their shadow, more stories of the same theme are also in the form of series, and a hundred flowers are constantly blooming.

But there is no doubt that they all have a distinctive feature-either they are directly derived from Tolkien's system, or they are all just constructing a brand new world out of thin air. Even though "Amber Chronicle" has a feeling of a multiverse worldview, it still belongs to the category of an overhead world.

Another typical feature is that—like Tolkien, how many authors are trying to create a sense of epic vastness. Most of the fantasy journeys of teenagers and the strong collision between justice and evil are like this.

As a result, "Harry Potter" is like a scorching hot stone thrown into a deep moor as smooth as a mirror.

The vast majority of commentators have a common view, that is, Alice has perfectly integrated the magical atmosphere into modern society, and her "map" based on the UK has really given this magic a sense of history and rationality. sex. Obviously it's just a school adventure story for children, but many senior industry professionals have recognized many messages at the worldview level with their sophisticated eyesight!

"Can magic and science fiction be compatible? The magic power of a mage is a new type of energy similar to electric energy. The powerful brain waves are transformed into spiritual power to affect the movement of microscopic particles. The magical basic course "Magic Theory" will let us self The noble 'Muggle' has seen the true power!"

"It's strange why we didn't realize it in the past. Think about it carefully, hovering spells and flying spells are indeed anti-gravity technologies in the field of science. Is magic really just another level of high technology? Magical wands, okay With a single 'Wingardium Leviosa', young Ron unleashes the powers of a Star Trek man!"

"The door to a new type of magic is completely opened. The scientific literacy of freshmen far exceeds that of Nobel Prize winners. Wizards will eventually rule modern society!"

There is no doubt that too many critics have found "Harry Potter" the most outstanding feature. It's not even that it inserts a strange world into the real world, but that Alice, as an entrepreneur in the technological world, has successfully integrated the magical setting and real science perfectly!

"There is no sense of disobedience at all. An eleven-year-old boy is incapable of questioning the teachings of wizards, and the teaching of the school is even more emphatic, perfectly integrating the history of the development of the magic system into the history of modern science and technology. What is magic? Magic is an elite high-tech based on the development of superhuman beings!"

"Should this be classified as a magical theme, or a science fiction genre? I can't help but wonder. Alice spent an entire chapter describing Harry's first "Theory of Magic" class, and it also made me, a critic who has read a lot of poetry books, Baptized by new education. The magic stone with controllable radioactivity can achieve the effect of turning stones into gold by changing the structure of elementary particles. This really makes me imagine that among the generation who grew up watching this series of seven parts , how many brilliant scientists will be born?"

To be fair, although Americans are deeply influenced by British culture, the number of readers in the fantasy category is limited after all. This is not the UK after all. Compared with the genre that is sure to be prosperous like "Star Trek", the loyal readers of fantasy novels are at best tens of millions. It sold 700,000 copies in a month, but there are still too many people who have never read it.

But this is good, when a large number of book reviews describe it in this way, it is not surprising that there is a blowout reprint phenomenon.

Magic is perfectly explained by science! ?

It is reasonable to say that Europeans may feel a little disgusted, but this is exactly what hits the hearts of almost all Americans!

Christmas Eve is the time for every family to do their final shopping for the big meal, but this time on the streets of the city, it is rare to see long queues in front of supermarkets. On the contrary, how many people ran to the door of the bookstore, even with big bags and small scrolls in their hands, even if the team turned to the other side along the street and around the corner, people still enjoyed it!

"I have a hunch that if my son really reads the seven parts of "Harry Potter", he will definitely become a scientist in the future!"

"I read it through my sister-in-law. It's really wonderful. You know, I'm a serious physicist. I don't usually read any fantasy novels? You saw it too, and now I'm here to buy it too!"

"Tell me, how did Alice Wang's head grow? I also read that chapter of "Magic Theory" through a colleague. You are a physicist, right? How do you think it is feasible?"

If you want to say which part is the most fascinating in the whole "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", I believe no one will say it is the last "Double-Face Man". "Magic Theory" is the theory of magic. It really deserves to be a campus novel. The author actually taught the readers through the teacher...and such a wonderful course!

"I just want to know how Alice came up with it." The physicist lined up in the queue and said, "The theoretical part is completely fine, as long as you are indeed a wizard... Don't laugh, I'm serious. What do you think?" Ah, before Faraday, who would have thought of the practical application of electrical energy? If we say that these wizards also have a kind of strange biological energy in their bodies, combined with the powerful brain waves that can perceive the fluctuations of fundamental particles, they can invent a so-called spell And magic, isn't it a matter of course?"

It's nothing more than a word to wake up the dreamer. The physicist answered questions for the customers in the queue, but why wasn't he himself influenced by Alice?

Furthermore, how many scientists have bought a magical novel after seeing various news reviews, and have been affected?