Children's Literature -- Draco Thoughts

[Penny & Bryce]

No: HPFGUIDX 25205

Hi --

Herald Talia wrote:


>       As far as children's literature being about children, and adult
> literature being about adults - I hope I misunderstood that part of this
> conversation. Excuse me? I can think of a lot of adult literature about
> children. Think "The Little Prince." Also, think Toni Morrisson's "The
> Bluest Eye." The stark realism of that book is made so much more
> effective BECAUSE it is portrayed, and so vividly, through the eyes of a
> child. And that is NOT a book I would recommend to your average sixth
> grader, though that 's the age of the characters.

Someone did make the point that in their opinion the HP books are about 
children and told from the POV of children and hence must be childrens' 
literature.  Like Robyn, I disagree with this position.

Catherine reiterated a point I've made before -- I think that the HP 
books can be understood on different levels, and this seems to me to be 
a fairly significant reason why they *aren't* childrens' literature per 
se.  I read a fair bit of childrens' literature -- though not as much as 
some of you who are librarians or teachers.  But, I read enough to 
...er... "know it when I see it" as Justice Stevens said with regard to 
pornography.  And, maybe, this sort of literature with seeming universal 
appeal defies classification or definition in a similar manner.  :--)

Catherine asked if the books are more marketable as childrens' books 
because they fall into the fantasy genre.  That's a possibility.  I tend 
to think that the books were initially marketed to 9-12 yr olds because 
someone in Bloomsbury's marketing dept gave it a cursory glance (or read 
over a one-paragraph summary of the plot) and thought "Oh, it's about an 
11 year old kid who becomes a wizard ... okay, dokey ... that's juvenile 
fiction."  I'm not sure that JKR, who has always said she didn't write 
to a target audience of any sort, let alone kids of a certain age, was 
consulted at all when the marketing decisions were made.  Of course, PS 
wasn't really *marketed* at all in the beginning; I would imagine it 
wasn't until word-of-mouth sales took it onto the bestseller lists that 
marketing really came into play.

Back to Catherine's question -- I think it's likely that the 
sci-fi/fantasy books appeal to a limited segment of the reading public. 
They appeal to a very specific subset of readers in fact.  Fantasy 
childrens' lit, fairy tales, mythology and the like, OTOH, appeal to a 
broader segment of readers in the childrens' market.  These are my 
impressions anyway (used to work as a bookseller in retail many moons 
ago).

Lisa I. makes some really fantastic points.  You're absolutely right. 
This topic typically arises because someone says that JKR won't let the 
books go too dark because they're "just kid's books" after all.  And, 
you're perceptive that most of us who jump on this topic usually do skip 
to (b) -- they aren't "just" kid's books.  Fact is that it is important 
to stress that childrens' literature need not be devoid of dark, scary 
things and sexual content.  And, JKR said pointedly in several post-GoF 
interviews that she didn't intend to "tone it down" for younger readers.

DRACO -- Tillrules asserts that all the characters know how important 
Hagrid's job is to him (sorry, I upgraded my browser, and Netscape is no 
longer allowing me to cut & paste into emails -- gotta figure that out). 
  Anyway ... I would say that this is a stretch.  To say that all 
characters must know of the importance of the job to him is to impute a 
certain degree of perception, knowledge & sensitivity to all the 
characters that they can't possibly all possess.  Draco likely has no 
idea how important Hagrid's job is to him on a personal level, because 
Draco hasn't in all likelihood paid any attention to Hagrid or given any 
thought to how Hagrid might feel about anything.  Make sense?

You must consider perception & POV also.  So far, our perception of 
Draco is entirely colored by Harry's POV.

I'm following the Draco discussions with great interest.  Some of you 
are so cynical!  My goodness -- no hope for redemption for anyone who 
has been guilty of voicing racist sentiments?  I guess I hold a more 
optimistic view of society at large than that.

Penny

Penny (holding out hope that there's more to Draco than meets the eye)