More on Adult vs. Childrens' Literature; Appropriation of Characters by Fans

[Penny Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 38901

Hi all --

This is really not a case of me not knowing when to shut up.  <g>  I just
happened to read a great article in my local newspaper this morning touching
on this subject AND was reading the introductory material to the Annotated
Huckleberry Finn, which has some really insightful thoughts to add to the
mix of this debate.

First, here's a link to the news article I was reading --

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/books/news/1414774

It doesn't mention HP incidentally.  But the bit that grabbed my attention
especially was:

"We are very confident of a young audience," he said, "but adults can read
it with no sense of a shift in what they are reading. There's that gap in
the American canon." Maybe. Is Huckleberry Finn an adult novel that children
like or a children's novel that adults like?"

Yes, indeed.  So, as it happens, I was reading the intro to the Annotated
Huck Finn this afternoon, and I find a very interesting discussion on what
contemporary critics and fans of Huck Finn thought of its appeal to adults
and children in 1885 (and what Twain thought as well).  Here are some
excerpts from the discussion (er .. The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, edited
by Michael Patrick Hearn, published by W.W. Norton & Co., 2001):

*****************

"Another problem with Huckleberry Finn was that, as Louisa May Alcott
indicated, it was generally marketed, reviewed, and read as just another
boy's book.  The publishers encouraged this perception by advertising it as
uniform with Tom Sawyer, but even that novel, Twain told Howells, "is *not*
a boy's book, at all.  It will only be read by adults.  It is only for
adults."

"Half-heartedly, Twain gave in to his advisors. .....  In his preface, Twain
wrote: "Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys
and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account,
for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they
once were themselves."

"Not everyone saw it as a children's book.  The San Francisco Chronicle
suggested in its March 1885 review 'that upon nine boys out of ten much of
the humor, as well as the pathos, would be lost. ...."

********************

So, we have an author who intended his work to be for adults but who gets
persuaded that it should be marketed for children instead.  Now, JKR wasn't
perhaps as strongly sold on the notion that her books were only for adults
as Twain ... but she pretty clearly didn't start out with the idea that she
was writing children's literature.  It makes sense to me that she may have
perceived that she stood a better chance of getting it published if she
tried to sell it as a children's book.  She had to describe some sort of
audience in her cover letter after all, and the first book has as its main
character a 10/11 yr old boy.

I think in 100 years, the classification of HP may end up being as much in
debate as Huck Finn and other works are.

APPROPRIATION OF A CHARACTER BY THE FANS --

So, still from the Annotated Huck Finn is this very interesting tidbit for
those fanfic writers and those of us who aren't so sure we want to know
every last bit of what happens to Harry *after* Hogwarts (assuming he
lives):

Twain was considering a sequel to Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn.  Rudyard Kipling
interviewed him in 1889, and Twain described to Kipling his proposed plan to
write a sequel to Tom Sawyer that would depict two alternate courses of
Tom's future.  "In one I would make him rise to great honor and go to
Congress, and in the other I should hang him.  Then the friends and enemies
of the book could take their choice. ...... But Kipling protested this
double-barreled scheme, insisting that Tom Sawyer "isn't your property
anymore.  He belongs to us."

Very interesting question, that last bit.  As I think I've said before, I
think I'd prefer to see JKR leave some of it a bit open-ended, even if she
does an epilogue.  Then again, knowing what her vision for the characters'
futures holds its own appeal.  I wonder if she will stick to the plan to do
an epilogue over the next 5 yrs as she completes the series, and if so, how
detailed & comprehensive it might be?  I also wonder whether the fans'
preferences in this regard will change & shift as the 7th volume draws
closer.

Penny