[HPFGU-OTChatter] Too Old For Harry Potter?
Shaun Hately
drednort at alphalink.com.au
Tue Dec 24 23:20:44 UTC 2002
On 24 Dec 2002 at 12:14, Brian Cordova blessedbrian at ya wrote:
> As a childless, 43 year old HP fan, I found this message shared on
> another board of some interest. While reading, I did find myself
> smiling a number of times while not being able to shake the feeling
> that the author missed the point in several parts of their message.
>
> What are your feelings?
Well, obviousy, I don't agree with it - but besides anything else, I think he missed a
fourth group of readers - voracious readers, who read more than that his 'regular
readers:
"The third group are the Regular Readers, for whom Harry is sandwiched between
McEwan and Balzac, Roth and Dickens. This is the real baffler what on earth do
they get out of reading it? Why bother? But if they can rattle through it in a week
just to say they've been there like going to Longleat or the Eiffel Tower the worst
they're doing is encouraging others."
I typically read at least three novels a week - sometimes up to two a day. I'm often
stuck on public transport for close to four hours in a day, and I've always read very
fast. I read whatever I can get my hands on - non-fiction as well as fiction, I read the
classics, I read technopulp like Tom Clancy - one of my biggest problems is
*finding* stuff to read... let's see - what have I read this week?
Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwall (non-fiction? about Jack the Ripper)
Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy (mass market thriller)
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (humour)
Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch (sci-fi)
Blitzkrieg by Len Deighton (non-fiction - world war II)
The Diary of Jack the Ripper (non-fiction?)
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (mystery)
Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan (autobiography)
Boy by Roald Dahl (autobiography)
This has been a relatively heavy reading weel - the point is, I don't limit myself to
one style, one genre - I dip around and read anything that interests me - I think it's
*very* limiting to stick to one genre or style - and almost as limiting to *exclude* any
genre or style - or age range - simply because it doesn't fit your prejudices. A lot of
what I read is... well, pulps is I suppose the best word.
I started reading Harry Potter books because they came up in my work with gifted
kids - a lot of these kids were reading the books and finding a lot of parallels with
their lives and experiences being gifted. I didn't expect much of them -
Philosopher's Stone, I enjoyed, simply from a sense of nostalgia (I devoured Enid
Blyton's boarding school books when I was around 7 and the style reminded me of
memories of those times), Chamber of Secrets seemed a lot like a copy of PS -
once Prisoner came out, though, I started to find myself intrigued with the books -
because they were so much more than formulaic childrens books (while still being
formulaic children's books).
I started reading them because I felt I needed to in my work with gifted kids - I've
read a lot of books for that reason - Matilda, A Wrinkle in Time... besides Harry
Potter, only one other book I read for that reason has impacted me as much -
'Welcome to the Ark' by Stef Tolan (and she helped to hooked me for good by e-
mailing me personally (-8 something JKR has so far not done.)
I mean this guy's problem is simple IMHO:
"When I read a novel, I look to it to tell me some truths about human life the truths
that non-fiction cannot reach. These might be moral, sexual, political or
psychological truths and I expect my life to be enlarged, however slightly, by the
experience of reading something fictional."
I think he expects *WAY* too much from novels - how about just reading for
enjoyment. Books don't have to teach you truths about human life, they don't have
to enlarge your life. It's great if they do that for you (and incidentally, I think the HP
books are a lot more likely to do this than a vast amount of adult literature) but a
novel isn't a failure if all it does is entertain.
If this guy looks for enlightenment in every book he reads, or deems it of no value -
then frankly he needs to start looking elsewhere. If he is so starved of
enlightenment, he has to find it everytime he reads, then he should expand where
he is looking for it.
Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ) |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in
common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter
the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen
to be one of the facts that need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who:
The Face of Evil | Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia
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