Appearance on a panel TOMORROW (Saturday)

[Peg Kerr]

I'm appearing on a panel at our local library tomorrow (Saturday)
(Southdale Library, 7001 York Ave., Edina, Minnesota at 1:30 p.m.), and
the topic of the panel is "From Hobbits to Harry Potter."  If I had been
organized about this, I would have sent this announcement out much
earlier (sorry).

I'm sending this to HPFGU-OTChatter, and to the moderators of
HPFGU-Announcements (moderators, please post this to the latter group if
appropriate).

For those of you in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, feel free to drop on
by, and come up and introduce yourself to me afterwards.

I'm posting here the comments and questions the moderator of the panel,
David Lenander, sent to all the panelists to think about, to prepare us
for the panel tomorrow, to give you an idea of what our discussion will
be about (my notes are in brackets). If you see anything here that
you're burning to have me touch upon, let me know.  Or if you want to
send me an email tonight with something for me to think about concerning
these questions, drop me a line.

Cheers,
Peg

>>>
[From: David Lenander]
The panel is advertised for 1:30 at the Southdale Public Library as
"From Hobbits to Harry Potter"  about Children's Fantasy.  There was a
small notice in the calendar in the St. Paul paper today.  The panelists

include Laura Krentz [a local children's librarian], Peg Kerr [me!],
Caroline Stevermer [local fantasy writer.  Harry Potter fans looking for
something else to read might be very interested in her College of Magic
series.] and Claire Lenander, an 11-year old reader of fantasy and a
member of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Committee (and my daughter).  We
thought Pam Dean [another local fantasy writer] was going to be on the
panel at the last minute, but she cannot (Claire was a bit of a stand-in
for Pam).  We'll have some booklists to distribute.

I'd had the good intention of writing about the panel tomorrow with some

thoughts on the topic for your consideration.  here are some random
thoughts of last night, questions to  think about.  I really don't think

you need a lot of preparation, and if (for instance) you want to say
nothing at all about Harry Potter or Tolkien, and want to talk just
about your own work, or about the fantasy books you loved as a child,
that'll be fine.  But in case this might somehow be helpful:

Questions for the panel:  From Hobbits to Harry Potter

The panel title implies that The Hobbit, along with The Lord of the
Rings, is a significant milestone in Childrens Fantasy.  Is that so?
In its day the book was very well-received, acclaimed by many reviewers,

almost at once as a classic to fit on the shelf with Alice in Wonderland

and The Wind in the Willows and At the Back of the North Wind.  But
certainly most of the reviewers themselves couldnt have been so clear
that it really would have the lasting power of those books (in fact the
latter today is little read). More recent scholarship has underlined how

much Tolkien drew upon the example of such a book as The Marvelous Land
of Snergs, and his debt to The Cauldron of Story, as he termed it in his

magisterial essay, "On Fairy Stories," was perhaps greater than any of
these other writers.  Of course the book does stand out with those
books, and with such other contemporaries as Lawsons Rabbit Hill as
enduring classics, while Snergs, for example, is all but forgotten.
Its lasted for fifty years, and in the last half of its existence has
been far more popular than in the first half.  Why?

Is the Hobbit a precurser of Harry Potter?  How is it different?

What (other) books has The Hobbit (or LOTR) influenced or impacted?

What trends in past childrens fantasy feed into the composition of the
Harry Potter booksdid The Hobbit participate in those at all?

What books are like these?

What childrens fantasy are unlike these?

In writing your own stories, how do you look at Tolkien and/or The
Hobbit (together or separately), inspiration, bad example, blueprint for

writing, something to avoid or get out from under?  What non-Tolkin
sources do you look to?  Is Harry Potter inspiration or caution?

Why do so many adults read both of these sets of books, but not, for
example, read Voigts Kingdom books, or Diana Wynne Jones fantasies, or

Tamora Pierces, or E. Nesbits, for that matter.  How would you compare

these or perhaps others such as Wrightsons Australian series, including

the Wirrun trilogy,  or Kara Dalkeys Little Sister books, which adults
dont read.

What about Philip Pullman?  Roald Dahl?  Margaret Mahy?  Jane Yolen?
Susan Cooper? Robin McKinley and Patricia McKilliphave they left
childrens books behind?  John Bellairs?  Lloyd Alexander?

--

David Lenander
e-mail: d-lena at umn.edu web-page:
http://umn.edu/~d-lena/OnceUponATime.html