[HPforGrownups] Re: Minerva the Cat

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 18006

Meredith Wilson wrote:
> 
> Speaking of ties into the outside world...
> Has anyone read the Redwall books by Brian Jacques?  I decided to give them
> a try so I could try to read something not Harry-related for once, and I
> have a few comments.  First of all, These books are critically acclaimed and
> said to be 'good for children.'  I would agree with that, but I want to know
> how HP gets a bad rap for being violent, or using drugs, etc. and this book
> doesn't.  So far, half-way through the first book, several people have been
> killed without remorse by a 'bad guy' (who happens to be a rat) who is happy
> to kill anyone who stands in his way, even those close to him.  The same bad
> guy's been healed using potions (made up by a vixen).  I don't see how this
> is any better than HP, and in fact is much more graphic and violent.  Hmm.

Ah, but they don't use =magic!=  :)

I've read a few of the Redwall books, too; my elder son loves
them (as well as HP), so I got roped into reading two or three
aloud to him and his brother.  I don't have any serious
objections to them except that they all have the same plot. 
That, and the fact that while biology appears to be destiny (all
rats, stoats, weasels, ferrets, foxes are apparently Bad), it's
not really logically consistent (if some mustelids are Bad, why
are others, such as otters and badgers, Good?), and the animal
characters are portrayed too humanly for me to feel right about
such predestination anyway.  It gives me the same twitchy feeling
(to drag this back on topic) that I get from "All Slytherins Are
Evil" (which JKR as author has NOT said, I should note).
 
> The other thing I found interesting is the bad rat has a henchman named
> Wormtail who lost his hand. Any ideas?

Probably just a coincidence.


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>