Harry Potter News (Cut and pasted)

[Joywitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 1776

I just HAD to make some comments on Schafers book.  While it sounds 
like a mixture of interesting literary analysis and obvious 
observations, some of the excerpts were striking to me:

>Elizabeth D. Schafer, whose "Exploring Harry Potter" is the lead 
title in a new series called "Beacham's Sourcebooks for Teaching 
Young Adult Fiction." 
>
> Much as Schafer admires the Potter series, she, too, faults 
Rowling's tendency to cover well-trod ground. 
> 
> "It is derivative, and it is (full of) stereotyped cliches," 
Schafer said. 
> 
> In particular, she mentioned Rowling's continuing focus on obesity 
as a defining characteristic of Harry's disagreeable cousin Dudley. 
> 
> And, while social themes such as racism and fair treatment are an 
important element of the books -- Rowling worked for Amnesty 
International in college as a researcher on human rights in Africa -- 
her characterizations do tend to reinforce ethnic stereotypes, 
Schafer said. 
> 
> In "Goblet of Fire," for instance, Rowling describes the Bulgarian 
quidditch champ as surly and heavy-browed, and she portrays the 
French wizardry students as snobbish. 
> 

IMHO this is a very interesting observation, similar to the 
observation made in the New Yorker article on Harry Potter (sometime 
in July, great article), in which the author said something to the 
effect that s/he felt uncomfortable with some of JKRs 
characterizations:  Snape is too much like a Shakespearean Shylock-
type Jewish stereotype; and Quirrell seems like a gay stereotype.


> Schafer said she apparently is the first to notice that Harry's 
tenure at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry begins in 1991, 
which makes him an adult in present time. 
> 

The first to notice? Hardly.  IMHO, people with PhDs need to be 
slapped upside the head every now and then to remind them to be 
humble.  [If (oh no, wait, I mean when) I ever finish my 
dissertation, I swear I will never say anything that arrogant.]


> Seen through the prism of modern history, the Chamber of Secrets 
resembles the underground caverns where prisoners were forced to 
labor on German munitions during World War II. Salazar Slytherin's 
initials, S.S., suggest Nazi storm troopers, and the name Ravenclaw 
is similar to the name of the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. 
> 

Am I the only one who thinks that this is really pushing it?

--Joywitch