Return of the Kiddiefic debate...

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 29459

I've long since cashed in my chips on the scandalous "HP *is* children's literature" side of the fence, but...

David, quoting Penny:
> > But, do large numbers of adults read children's lit "just 
> > because"?  
> I certainly do.

So do I, despite heckling and sneering... the lovely clarity and plotting of children's books!  So many adult novels bog themselves down with all manner of baggage and clutter, presumably in the aim of being Literary or Realist or something.

David:
> The second reason is that I have some trouble organising my thoughts 
about what is and is not to be found in HP.  I think there are some 
major things missing, and some things in them, which bear on the 
debate.<

Well said, as always.  To the "alleged darkness" and simplistic good/bad dualism (which is slightly less monolithic than in much children's and indeed adults' lit, but basically intact), I'd add from my Narnian notes that by today's standards the handling of sex in the books is more children's lit style, not adult's lit.  Or maybe fairly conservative young adult fiction a la mid twentieth century (pure crushes, coy kissing, carefully non-explicit allusions like Fleur and Roger being "very busy").  We don't know where JKR will head with the last three books, of course, but she *has* said that it wouldn't be appropriate for Hermione to have a teenage pregnancy and suchlike, which to me says she will keep any shipping low-key.  I sometimes muse ruefully that these days contemporary adult fiction is barely considered plausible without heavy doses of sex in some fashion, and would be interested to speculate whether "adult" fiction necessarily needs the stuff, but that's an OT issue...

I have no problems with JKR's handling of this issue, mind you.  As I mentioned a few weeks ago, present-day children could be forgiven for thinking that sex is the be-all and end-all of life if they take their cues from the media.  What a depressingly limited world view.  I also note that many other people on this list are applauding this coyness as welcome in an oversexualised world, though for different reasons from me.  My objections are not on moral grounds, but on "balance" grounds: I favour the open, pragmatic, inform-and-educate approach to sex, but some representations of teenagers having other important things and interests in their lives besides Who Likes Who and Who's The Best Looking and Who's Lost Their Virginity and so on can only be a good thing.  Mind you, on a less humanistic, more ghoulish, obsessive social observer level, I keep intrigued tabs on what the media are up to, and find discussing it very interesting...

Tabouli.


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