muninnhuginn | The Oriental Perspective

The opinion piece in the Japan Times gives another view of the HP phenomenon: Harry Potter and the perfect storm.

"Potteriad", eh? Who coined that, we wonder.

Google gives one link, but not for the same context, since it's used to name a work within a piece of HP fanfic. Google's news search lists the Japan Times article plus one from the Village Voice dated June 24th, making that an earlier appearance (yup, that's the review that includes the line "Rowling hasn't yet written an ungraceful sentence" with which we'd profoundly disagree: we've always felt that her writing style was one of things that didn't work). But that's only online sources.

We like it as a term: it's neater, when referring to the series of novels, than anything else. But, unintentionally I guess, it's faintly comical. Whilst the Iliad and the Aeniad have a certain gravitas, generally since the appearance of The Dunciad, the -iad suffix reeks of mock-heriosm and surely can only be used ironically. It seems not, however.