[HPforGrownups] Re: Defend OOTP against my horribly Muggle mind!

[Jesta Hijinx]

No: HPFGUIDX 76947



>Greetings!  I'm coming out of lurk mode to make just one little
>contribution to this conversation.
>
>Wiley said:
>"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."
>
>My reply:
>Actually, I know of at least one university English course already
>that
>is specifically devoted to Harry Potter.  Dr. Philip Nel, author of
>"J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels:  A Reader's Guide," teaches a
>course called "Harry Potter's Library" at Kansas State University.
>In
>addition to all the Harry texts, they also read works by Philip
>Pullman, E. Nesbit, Roald Dahl, and C.S. Lewis, among others.
>
>Oh, how I would love to take that course!  :)
>
>--Anne
>
It's likely to, going forward, if for no other reason than it is truly an 
amazing *literacy* (note slightly different word choice than *literary*) 
phenomenon and has many people, especially young people, reading.  I have 
found that people strike up conversations with me on public transit - people 
of all ages and races - if they see me reading an HP book.

And I'd like to make a recommendation that people bag the word 'pretentious' 
from their vocabulary - it's simply a bit much to make assumptions about 
other people's motives in that way.  In the particular case of HP (but for 
almost anything, really) the series and some of the themes and memes in it 
strike powerful resonating chords in some of the readers; using your mind to 
actually pursue, develop, talk about and write about these themes is quite 
*healthy* in a literal sense.  I won't stray so far off topic as to list any 
of the numerous URLs showing quite definitive research linking active mental 
pursuits - reading, composing written material, even crossword puzzles - as 
more mentally stimulating long term than passive entertainments like 
watching TV or video games, but I suspect most of you know they are out 
there.  I'd also like to recommend that one not be so quick to urge passive 
and non-interactive absorption of *anything* - for the same reasons.  You 
might say it's sort of a faddish American "anti-pretension" to not use your 
mind to critique anything...but I don't buy it for personal and for 
health-related reasons, and for the latter at least, there's ample data to 
support my position.

It's wonderful that HP has people reading, writing fanfics and songs, 
examining why something they read makes them feel a certain way, and 
*thinking*.  A mind is a terrible thing to waste.  :-)

Jesta Hijinx

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