The Impact of Rick Riordan on American Culture
Rick Riordan once said “writing is like a sport, it’s like athletics- if you don’t practice, you don’t get any better.” In a fan-crazed Harry Potter era, the 2000’s consisted of an “Urban Fantasy” phase. In the article “2000s: Print Culture,” Reed Wilson (et. al.) explains it as a genre “juxtaposing our own modern urban world with elements of the fantastic” (2012). The young adult population was craving a new series to latch onto and obsess over. Rick Riordan, being an English teacher and a great lover of Greek mythology, saw this shift timely. In the same article Wilson also claims that “based on the stories he read to his son in the early 1990s, his Percy Jackson novels fit in perfectly with the market created by Harry Potter” (2012). With having great knowledge of folk-tale Greek mythology, Riordan created one of his …show more content…
Riordan (n,d) explains that “young readers especially like to escape reality and slip into a fantasy world.” Riordan has created multiple fantasy worlds where kids can not only be creative but have the opportunity to learn something while reading his books. His novels greatly expanded the urban fantasy genre as the Harry Potter series came into existence and peeked a new interest in many pupils. Although the idea of Greek mythology is already pre-existing in American culture, the Percy Jackson series gives the myths an identity in a simplified version friendly to anyone. In the interview with Scholastic Book Club, Riordan explains that “coming up with ways to modernize the characters and events is a snap” (n.d). The series goes on to be an award winning movie title as they bring the characters to life in the motion picture Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Ultimately his books that go on to become movies are influential in American Culture for
Rick Riordan once said “writing is like a sport, it’s like athletics- if you don’t practice, you don’t get any better.” In a fan-crazed Harry Potter era, the 2000’s consisted of an “Urban Fantasy” phase. In the article “2000s: Print Culture,” Reed Wilson (et. al.) explains it as a genre “juxtaposing our own modern urban world with elements of the fantastic” (2012). The young adult population was craving a new series to latch onto and obsess over. Rick Riordan, being an English teacher and a great lover of Greek mythology, saw this shift timely. In the same article Wilson also claims that “based on the stories he read to his son in the early 1990s, his Percy Jackson novels fit in perfectly with the market created by Harry Potter” (2012). With having great knowledge of folk-tale Greek mythology, Riordan created one of his …show more content…
Riordan (n,d) explains that “young readers especially like to escape reality and slip into a fantasy world.” Riordan has created multiple fantasy worlds where kids can not only be creative but have the opportunity to learn something while reading his books. His novels greatly expanded the urban fantasy genre as the Harry Potter series came into existence and peeked a new interest in many pupils. Although the idea of Greek mythology is already pre-existing in American culture, the Percy Jackson series gives the myths an identity in a simplified version friendly to anyone. In the interview with Scholastic Book Club, Riordan explains that “coming up with ways to modernize the characters and events is a snap” (n.d). The series goes on to be an award winning movie title as they bring the characters to life in the motion picture Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Ultimately his books that go on to become movies are influential in American Culture for