Byatt's attack on us (not long anymore)

[bluesqueak]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tim Regan" <timregan at m...> 
wrote:

> But there is something lame about the Harry Potter books (though I 
> love them to pieces), and I like the Byatt review for trying to 
> tease that out. I've several adult friends who are well read, who 
> enjoy good children's fiction, but who read them and just didn't 
get 
> it. Like Pullman <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-
> OTChatter/message/12664>, I think that JKR has "the quality of 
> making children want to read on without any effort at all" and it 
> works on me too, but does the potterverse feel philosophically 
> coherent, does the evil in it feel fully three-dimensional?
> 

I think that's something that will only truly be answered when we 
get Book 7 in our hands. Because Rowling is aging the writing style 
with each book, as Harry ages, and so we'll only see the final adult 
version of the Potterverse with that book.

But in the meantime: yes, the evil is fully three-dimensional. And 
pervasive. It's becoming more and more apparent with each book that 
Voldemort, the traditional Evil Overlord is actually a symbol; a 
concentrated version of everything that is wrong with the society 
Harry was born into.

This is a world where Fudge nearly ruins a child's life because that 
kid's defended himself, where deals are done with criminals for 
information. Where the law is changed by decree, where people of 
mixed race or other races are seen as subhuman. Where genocide is 
being practiced on the Giants, and no-one seems to care.Where even 
the nice people are prejudiced, and see corruption as a normal part 
of life. 


I think A.S. Byatt has a very common fault; she confuses simplicity 
with stupidity and originality with profundity. If a book is plain 
in style, it's not a complex book. If it uses plot elements found 
elsewhere, it must be full of cliches (we will quietly ignore the 
works of William Shakespeare, whose collection of plays contains 
precisely one original plot [grin]).

And she has another common fault: the deeper things can only be 
found in the light of the stars, which (so this lament usually goes) 
have been hidden by the suburban street lights. We must go back to 
an earlier, mistier time...

To people who think this way there is no magic in the modern world. 
There are no moments when you pause in wonder to think that the 
words on this screen are being transmitted across the world at the 
speed of light. One never gets caught by the sheer beauty of a power 
station silhouetted against the sky. The fireworks in the sky are 
just gunpowder with added chemicals; they couldn't possibly be a 
wizard signalling a friend...

And because they can't see the magic in the mundane, they can't see 
the mundane in the magic. Rowling's magicians, unlike the Wizards of 
Terry Pratchett, have made magic into an everyday, workmanlike, 
*mundane* reality. Pratchett's magicians use magic to fight beings 
from the Dungeon Dimensions, or to have a chat with Death (IN 
CAPITALS). Rowling's magicians use it to make the tea. Cooper's Will 
learns his magic in one day, from a wonderous book, then goes out to 
battle cosmic forces of good and evil. Rowling's Harry has to learn 
his magic at school, with seven years of hard study. Then he goes 
out to battle a racist lunatic who the readers *know* could exist in 
the real world.

Which is more human? Which is more realistic? Be honest. We tamed 
the very lightning - and what do we use it for? To make the tea. A 
child in our world could learn to fly among the clouds - but not 
without getting good exam results first. We fight battles of good 
versus evil - against leaders who preach genocide.

We have a most amazing talent for making the wonderful and the 
mysterious into the mundane and the obvious. 

But A.S. Byatt would have 'fantasy' stick to the style of Bronte 
rather than the style of Jane Austen, would rather it lived on the 
romantic open moor than in the small confined society.

Well, I've got news for you, Ms. Byatt. Fantasy lives in both. ;-)

Pip!Squeak