Defend OOTP against my horribly Muggle mind!

[Wiley Willowsbough]

No: HPFGUIDX 76416

*sigh*

I have to side with the people who feel criticizing the series is a 
bit pretentious.  For cripe's sake, people...this is young adult 
literature, not Joyce or Tolkein or Hemmingway.  I don't ever expect 
Rowling to be brought up in a university literature course.

But as a teacher of pre-teens, I have seen the true "garbage" that 
has come in and out of vogue over the years that these kids have 
eaten up as "literature"...the Goosebumps series, the Animorphs 
series, the Mary-Kate and Ashley series.  All disposable reading, not 
much better than reading a comic book.  And the repetition you find 
in some of these series is ridiculous, as they set up the plotlines 
exactly the same way in each book (Animorphs the biggest culprit).

Yes, we're adults, and we see things in an adult way.  Sometimes, as 
I lurk, I question how much we have dissected this canon, and the 
arguments (and some quite passionate) that take place over it.  But 
agreed...who would collectively argue and dissect and cherish a true 
piece of adult literature like this, except those who truly read and 
enjoy 700 page novels written for adults.

For many of these kids (and I would guess quite a high number of 
adults), this is a first foray into metaphors and "flowerly 
language".  If it were written at a level of Joyce or Hemmingway, no 
one would have ever read it.  But, darn it, it is good literature for 
what is young adult literature, and young adults and kids read it.  
It's deep and meaningful, full of characters and concepts and 
settings beyong what most people have read.  Furthermore, most people 
who have read it once, have read it again, and find subsequent 
readings often more rewarding than the first-read.

I don't want to sound like I'm admonishing anyone, but I think if 
we're going to start nitpicking beyond flints and such, and people 
are going to be posting saying this book series so many of us have 
loved is literary garbage, then perhaps some people should start up a 
seperate group.

Wiley