One Last Thing About Children's Literature

[L. Inman]

No: HPFGUIDX 25237

Hello again --

I thought I'd got it all out of my system, but I haven't.

I know I said that it's okay if JKR makes her children's stories 
dark, and that people who argue that they won't be dark because 
they're just kids' books are mistaken...but there's another thing to 
be said.

I have a friend who can't finish Dorothy Dunnett's CHECKMATE because 
she was so harrowed by what Dunnett did to Philippa Somerville.  My 
friend felt that Dunnett betrayed her by seemingly portraying 
Philippa as the character who always lands on her feet in the midst 
of horrible circumstances, only to pull the rug out from under her in 
the last book.  Now, you won't find anyone in the world to argue that 
the Lymond Chronicles are children's books; nor is there any doubt 
that those books are some of the DARKEST you can find, as far as 
people dying, going crazy, bed-hopping, torturing, betraying, and 
wondering if they can bear to live.  And yet my friend had the 
problem.  

Therefore I have nothing but sympathy for anyone who says that they 
feel the integrity of the Harry Potter story-arc won't (by its own 
virtue) bear too great extremes of pain, sorrow, temptation, and 
torture.  There's a wry, gentle humor JKR uses that seems to defuse 
even the worst scenarios -- a tragicomic touch that (like Dunnett's) 
causes hope to spring eternal in the reader's breast.  To some, it 
would probably be a disappointment on the order of betrayal if REALLY 
Bad Things happened to Harry and his nearest and dearest.  

The whole thing's complicated, however, by the fact that these books 
*are* children's books -- that is, children read them, have 
appropriated them, and are the central market for them.  People 
worry: because they're afraid of handing a Dunnett-like series to 
young people and saying here, read this.  I mean, if *I* was a parent 
I'd do some serious thinking it over.  And even for my own sake, I'd 
worry about the impending darkness of the next books.  The only thing 
to reiterate is that you can't escape from Books With Bad Things 
Happening by reading children's literature, and these worries about 
the story's integrity being compromised by dark stuff has more to do 
with the story's integrity rather than its genre.

Well, I think that about does it.  I'm headed off to bed.

Lisa I.