[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Censoring your kids' reading (was Self-Evaluation)

[Binx]

--- jenny_ravenclaw <meboriqua at aol.com> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com,  

> My kids will be allowed to read whatever they want,
> too... if/when I 
> have them.
> 
> --jenny from ravenclaw

Binx:

As children, my mother strongly discouraged my
brothers, sister and me from reading any
science-fiction or fantasy novels. Classics like
Little Women or The Secret Garden were acceptable
reading choices, as were verified school assignments
(no sneaking in a borrowed copy of The Lion, The Witch
and The Wardrobe and innocently trying to pass it off
as our required reading for the term). I suppose her
reasoning for this rule had to do with her opinion
that if one couldnt discuss ones reading in polite
conversation  say at a dinner party  then it had no
business entertaining ones thoughts at all.

This was just another of the many rules that governed
our house, along with edicts such as: never follow a
red cap down a darkened alleyway filled with potholes,
and never accept unsolicited directions from a
grindylow when detouring through the bog. 

Nevertheless, my mother encouraged us all in our
creativity. I believe she simply wanted us children to
have a sufficient grasp of reality before delving into
the realm of fantasy. There were also rumors making
the rounds concerning several certain known
troublemakers in the neighborhood said to be involved
in some suspicious Dungeons & Dragons role-playing
which our parents were adamantly set against our
participation and that may have had something to do
with it as well.

In any case, because I never read any fantasy books as
a child, I consequently had no desire to begin as I
matured. Yet still, I could not help but feel like I
was missing out on something.

My entire attitude toward books in the fantasy genre
changed, of course, when I happened to come in contact
with a younger girl in our office who would positively
go on and on at length about Harry Potter. She
suggested to everyone she would meet that they too
should read these stories about witches and wizards
and broomsticks and the like. At the time, Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire had just come out in
print, and the television news would constantly show
seemingly endless lines of people waiting anxiously to
purchase their own copy of the book. 

I naturally could not fathom what all the fuss was
about. As far as I was concerned, this Harry Potter
business was merely a fad and would soon pass into
obscurity  never to catch on in the same way as Star
Wars or the Indiana Jones adventures. Still, I
couldnt help but wonder if I wasnt being left out of
some of the conversations I would begin to drop in on.
I found that my friends and colleagues would
animatedly discuss a particular passage from one of
the Harry Potter novels they would read together. To
me, it seemed like so much fun watching them  from a
distance, of course  as they would carry on with: do
you remember when Professor so-and-so did this? or
How about when Hermione said that? who were all
these characters? I wondered. Where were all these
magical places they kept referring to?

I soon found that curiosity had gotten the better of
me. One day at the bookstore as I was perusing the
book stacks in search of a new cookbook I happened on
to a display of Harry Potter books in paperback. The
first thee novels quickly found their way into my bag,
and before I knew it I was sitting in my favorite easy
chair at home eagerly turning the pages of the
Sorcerers Stone. I was hooked by chapter three!

Once I had finished the first three books, I had to
practice all the self-control I possessed to wait
until the Goblet of Fire was published in paperback (I
wanted all my books to match, you see).

However, now that Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix is now coming out in print, I can no longer
exercise that kind of control. I drove four hours
round trip just to place my order for a copy. 

I love the books so much now that I want to share this
wonderful new world with everyone I know. I began with
my younger sister who still had the same strict
reading prejudices as our mother. As I would try and
try to tell her about the fantastic characters in the
Harry Potter books to no avail. She would pause
momentarily from her reading in Lord of the Rings;
look at me and with an air of superiority and reply,
I dont want to have anything to do with those Harry
Potter books. What, do I look like some kind of freak
to you? all spoken, of course, in perfect Elvish.

It was only after much trial and discussion that I was
able to convince her that I would read Lord of the
Rings if she would read the Sorcerers Stone. It ended
up being and easy deal to strike, because once she had
immersed herself in Harry Potters world she reacted
just as I have and cannot get enough of Harry and
Hogwarts and the whole marvelous experience!

Yeh can keep Frodo n is ruddy lot, she told me.
Im off te Hogwarts to be ead gamekeeper fer the wee
wizards n such. Blimey! Is that th time? Beaky ill
be needin is afternoon feedin!

Binx



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