http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,621826,00.html
Harry Potter and the fight against global capitalism Emma Yates, Guardian Unlimited Books Wednesday December 19, 2001 An attack on the transformation of Harry Potter into a global commercial brand has emerged in the form of a 176-page novel parodying Hogwarts's favourite bespectacled wizard. Michael Gerber's Barry Trotter and the Unauthorised Parody follows the adventures of 22-year-old Barry Trotter through his 11th year at Hogwash School of Wizardry. The unlikely magician spends his days cavorting with attractive female fans, listening to rap-metal and doing as little work as possible. The book is a dig at Warner Bros' enormous marketing campaign for the recent blockbusting film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and what Gerber regards as their excessively zealous control of the Harry Potter brand. "I got really annoyed when I heard about Warner Bros shutting down kids' Potter websites," he said. "Their behaviour seemed mean-spirited and overbearing, not to mention silly. Potter fans have a very intense, personal relationship with the books, and I don't think that's something you can disregard, just because you've purchased the rights." A fan of JK Rowling's books himself, 32-year-old Gerber wanted to raise the concerns of many parents about the extent to which their children are being targeted by big corporations. "I think a lot of people are concerned about how these big companies market stuff to kids," he said. "I just tried to raise the issues in an entertaining way, with lots of fart jokes thrown in." And so the novel sees Barry - helped by his friends Ermine Cringer and Lon Measly - trying to stop a film version of his life being made by his ortal enemy, He-Who-Smells, the evil Lord Valumart and his legions of Marketors. Gerber hopes his book will follow in the tradition of the American magazine National Lampoon, which published a JRR Tolkien parody, Bored of the Rings, in 1969. "It's a lot gentler than Bored," Gerber commented. "Barry Trotter isn't aimed at children, but I suspect some kids will read it and I kept that in mind as I wrote." To sample a chapter of Barry Trotter, visit Michael Gerber's website. http://www.barrytrotter.com -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
