[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Aliteracy - something that doesn't apply to any of us...

[Amber]

--- Caius Marcius <coriolan at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> In just a little less than a year, parents will be able to do the 
> same thing with Harry Potter - that is pop a crummy movie into the 
> VCR rather than read the story aloud.  

<sigh> Even though I am looking forward to the movie with much relish,
I see your point. I think its wonderful when classic stories are
brought to the movie screen, but not wonderful when they become
substitutes for the actual stories themselves. 

> I've sometimes wondered if Harry Potter is print-culture's last 
> hurrah - the final time that a work of such merit will achieve 
> sufficient popularity *on its own* (without tie-ins to other media) 
> to a degree that its phrases and characters enter into common 
> discourse. Think of all the references you've seen to HP in comic 
> strips, TV shows, news articles, etc.  It's never surprising to hear 
> such references to movies, TV shows, pop groups, etc. - but how many 
> other books written in the last decade have achieved such currency?

Oh, geez, I hope its not the last hurrah. There are so many good books
out there, so many underrated, so many AUTHORS underrated. I'd be
horribly disappointed if our culture decided to slowly phase out books.
I don't think that will happen because this generation of readers will
hopefully pass on their love of books to the next generation, but you
never know. 

On a different note, my mom thinks the reason that HP has acheived the
popularity that it did is because it got boys to read and featured a
likable male protagonist. It first drew in a male reading audience
which led others to take notice of it, leading to adults reading it
seriously. Of course she hasn't read the books herself (the children
she teaches can't read well enough to understand HP), so her opinion
isn't the best. Sometimes I do wonder why HP is so revered when there
are other books out there as good as it, including other children's
books. Anyone ever read "Bridge to Terabithia"? "The Phantom
Tollbooth"? "The Neverending Story"? I could go on and on and on.

Whoops, wandered off-topic there. But what is everyone's opinion; why
have the HP books grown to such heights when other good books haven't?
I'm curious to see what others think.

~Amber


=====
"toil, toil, toil, toil, toil,
TOIL!
the world is NOT made of money;
it's made of plants, roots, trees,
breaths of air, lizards darting in the leaves..."

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