[HPFGU-OTChatter] ...but Is It Literature?

[Sean Dwyer]

On Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 04:24:57AM +1100, Tabouli wrote:
> Now this reminds me of a plaguing question... What Is This Thing Called
> Literature??  What makes one book a trashy airport novel and another a
> respected classic, worthy of winning serious awards? Particularly
> interesting in the context of HP fandom, because HP has been classified into
> both (oooo, that glorious quote about "Is Britain a Harry Potter nation or a
> Beowulf nation?"!  Beautiful, just priceless).
[snip snip]

An apt quote, really, since Tolkien was responsible for revitalizing Beowulf
as important literature, and is wildly hated by the same literary
establishment like JKR even today :) He too placed more importance on
story-telling than the critics, who indeed seem more unhappy with a story if
it doesn't cover the great "themes" (apparently myth isnt themic enough) they
are currently in love with.

I never had a classical education, so I suppose I'm safe from all that :) All
the "greats" I read, I read because I was merely interested in the history of
literature rather than a need to identify with them, as seems the case with
the Critics. (If you haven't read it already, Tolkien's essay 'The Monsters
and the Critics' on Beowulf is a great analysis of story-telling and the
problems it poses for the literati :)

Give it a century or so, and JKR and Tolkien will be right up there with all
the other greats, if only as a socio-historical examination of the
20th-century novel as didactic social comment (tongue firmly in cheek)!

In my mind, literature (not Literature) is what people take to their hearts,
not some essay designed to maintain tenure.

Sean (making it up as he goes along)

-- 
Sean Dwyer <ewe2 at can.org.au>
Web: http://www.geocities.com/ewe2_au/