Darkness of Later Books (was Sadness); Mysteries/Fantasy/Childrens Lit; Strengths & Weaknesses of SS & CoS; and more

[moongirlk]

No: HPFGUIDX 32448

Penny wrote some very interesting comments that brought together 
several of the current threads for me.  I'll just quote a couple of 
bits to jump off from.

Penny:
<<I enjoy the simple "feel good" endings of SS & CoS but revel in the 
complexity & sharper focus that JKR is bringing us with the later 
books.>>

I agree, it seems that as the characters grow, the story grows, as 
the characters become more mature, they have to deal with more mature 
problems, and the darkness all sort of fits into the fact that these 
books are so darned hard to categorize as children's or adults or 
other.  I honestly don't think JKR worries too much about a target 
audience – I think she's writing what is in her head clamoring to get 
out, and there's no room for conscious decision about marketing.  

The fact that she didn't realize she was writing fantasy shows 
clearly that she's not much worried about the target audience, and 
it's funny, because I'm with her - I never considered that I was 
reading fantasy (in reading HP) until someone referred to it in that 
way.  I've never put much thought into genres, and I initially 
thought of HP as children's lit, so I never thought much beyond that 
until someone brought it up.  

Which brings me to Penny's question:

<<For those who are subjectively inclined to view the HP books as 
childrens' books, I'd be curious to hear your reasons. Is it the age 
of the main characters (and if so, at what age would a later book 
cross the bridge into something other than childrens' lit for you)? 
Is it the fact that the books are marketed to children? Something 
else?>>

I've always loved children's literature, and initially, as the books 
were marketed in that way and I loved them in the same sort of way 
that I love good children's literature, I didn't think much beyond 
that.  At this point I don't think they can be classified so easily 
at all, but there are several reasons why it was easy for me to 
initially believe them to fit into that category, if that will help 
answer your question.  In no particular order, they are:

-The school theme

-The youth of the characters

-The somewhat `fairytale' quality (mistreated orphan's life is 
transformed by magic)

-The funny made-up, antiquated and/or alliterated names for places, 
people and things

-The general sense of magic and wonder

-The certainty that Good and Evil are distinct things that are at 
conflict and the Capital-Letter quality of the Good and the Evil in 
question.

-The existence of an authority figure who is actually good, smart, 
powerful and useful.

-The lack of cynicism that characterizes so much `grown up' fiction.  

-The idea of the little guy standing up for what's right and winning 
against the odds.  

This is just off the top of my head, and I realize that none of this 
is *necessarily* exclusive to children's lit, but it isn't easy to 
find such things (at least with such high-quality of storytelling as 
well) all together on your average grown-up fiction shelf.

I don't believe JKR aimed these books at children, but I do think 
that her writing style and the themes she is choosing to write about 
have a children's literature-type feel to them, in keeping with the 
magical, wonderful, awe-inspiring world she's created.  Maybe that's 
why I enjoy them so much – it takes me back to my youth without 
watering anything down, so that the level and the stakes of the story 
appeal to my (admittedly only somewhat) more grown-up mind.  

Strange how so many of us have a hard time putting our fingers on the 
appeal of these books that we spend so much time contemplating!

kimberly,
happily contemplating away