'Harry Potter' Debuts in Russia
M O S C O W, Dec. 21, 2000 -- Harry Potter’s wizardry has happened so often it almost seems old hat: A book goes on sale in another country to much hype, drawing dedicated fans and selling like magic.
The books have vanished fast in Russia as well. But it’s stillearly to talk of “Pottermania” — former President Boris Yeltsin’s memoir is disappearing twice as fast.
‘Quite Popular for Foreign Book’
An official translated edition of the first book in the series,Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, finally hitbookstores Dec. 7.
The release was none too soon for 11-year-old Harry’s hard-coreRussian fans. Thirsting for a Russian translation of the J.K.Rowling books that have topped Western best seller lists, theystarted a Russian web site dedicated to the boy and his magicpowers, and translated fragments themselves.
“There’s something about the books that makes people a littlecrazy,” said Natalya Chuprova, research director for theMoscow-based Moskva bookstore chain. “It’s quite popular,especially for a foreign book.”
Echoes in Russian Tradition?
Critics differ on why Russians like Harry, who fights evil with spells and flying brooms. Some say his popularity reflects a fascination with Western culture, though Russia’s obsession with all things Western has waned considerably since the early 1990s.
Others say Rowling’s books echo Russia’s rich tradition offantasy literature, but with a lighter, more wholesome theme.
The books have been published and released in nearly 40countries and in nearly as many languages. But the mania seenelsewhere has not been attained in Russia.
Most Russians have never heard of Harry, especially inhard-to-reach provinces. Even in Moscow, advertising and mediacoverage of the book release were minimal.
Many buyers had heard of Harry Potter through the Internet,which reaches just a fraction of Russian homes. Others encounterhim for the first time in the bookstore.
Larisa, who would not give her last name, was enticed by thecolorful display in Moskva’s flagship store across from Moscow’sCity Hall, and decided to buy the book for her 8-year-old son.
“I’m looking for something different,” she said, waiting toturn over $1.70 for the book in a line of wool- and fur-bundledshoppers Wednesday.
The price was slightly higher than average for the genre, butwell below Western prices and the $11 for the English-languageversion available in Moscow.
Witchcraft Debate Won’t Translate
The Potter phenomenon has riled some pious readers in the UnitedStates, deriding it as promoting witchcraft.
The Rosmen publishing house, which won the rights for theRussian translation, is hoping to avoid such controversy.
“The ideas are universal. The boy is fighting evil, for thesake of good,” said Anya Dudkina, Rosmen’s marketing manager.Besides, she added, Russian culture is rich with superstitionstolerated by the Orthodox Church, the country’s leading religion.
Newspaper critics have called the book “fantasy light,”comparing it to the darker, more grown-up tales that flourished inRussia for the past century, from the interplanetary adventures ofthe Strugatsky brothers to Mikhail Bulgakov’s mystical “Master andMargarita.”
More than 1,000 copies sold in Moskva’s biggest store over itsfirst 12 days of sales, Chuprova said. That’s well above the 50sales a month considered a decent run, but half the rate ofYeltsin’s Presidential Marathon.
Some critics complain that translator I.V. Oransky failed tocapture the whimsy and double meaning of Rowling’s names. Instead,he transliterated them directly, confronting Russian readers with ajumble of foreign-sounding letters.
“The problem is the terrifying poverty of Oransky’s language,”Lev Danilkin wrote in the Vedomosti newspaper Tuesday. “Instead ofa very good fairy tale it ended up an amusing, implausible storyfrom the life of British teenagers.”