[HPforGrownups] Re: Reactions? excerpt from the LA times interview/Ot/Peter Pan

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 4729

voicelady at mymailstation.com wrote:

> On Thu, 26 October 2000, "Susan McGee" wrote (re: Peter Pan):
>
> > So I read the book for the first time as an adult, and was very disturbed. It's a book that is very pessimistic and negative about people.
>
> Susan,
>
> Have you ever read any of the Mary Poppins books?  I expected them all to be light and breezy - you know, just like the Disney-fied version, but after reading the books, I was soooo disappointed.  I really disliked the woman.  Sure, she was a mysterious, magical character, but not really very nice...

Yaay! I'm not abnormal! It's just wonderful to hear other people speaking my heresy, that so many of these "children's classics" are bummers. I think whoever wrote that JKR protests too much vis-a-vis Peter Pan comparisons are way off. JKR's books are about the slow ascent and realization of maturity,
even during childhood, and Peter Pan is about halting that process to maturity. And I, too, was disappointed in the Poppins books. I am often fond of stern-on-the-surface characters, but I found the literary Poppins entirely lacking in redeeming charm. Perhaps I'm not subtle enough.

--Amanda the heretic