Why do we get so het up about Harry Potter?

junediamanti june.diamanti at blueyonder.co.uk
Thu Jul 17 12:24:43 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 71149

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sueeeyqbong" <sue at s...> wrote:
Anyhow I 
> > I really do feel that people are taking the books way too 
seriously 
> sometimes, (myself included) and forget that we originally read 
them 
> for fun. And when people get so easily offended, participating in 
> this discussion group stops being fun. 

June: We read the books for fun, and post for fun, but because we 
love the books and care passionately about "our" characters (by which 
I mean our favourites) we get upset when people criticise.

> I am one 
> of those people who finds much to criticise in the books, and yet 
> loves reading them to bits, and enjoy them immensely. I probably 
> enjoy them so much because I don't expect them to live up to high 
> literary standards, and therefore I don't feel it a slur on my 
> judgement when someone else also finds them lacking. 

June: they are maybe not of the highest literary merit (though to me 
that is always going to be a matter of personal taste) but they are 
great stories - literature often loses track of the story element in 
reading, look at any number of high-brow modern novels.

I for one 
> though, am aware of feeling slightly self conscious at being a 
grown 
> up and yet loving to read children's books, and I definitely feel a 
> bit defensive/ feel like I need to justify myself.. in front of my 
> non HP reading friends. Does anyone else feel this way? 

June: In other words - "Come in, the Doctor will see you now".  I 
know.

I think that 
> this embarassment factor may be why a very few people get a bit 
> defensive when confronted with criticism of the books - AS Byatt's 
> recent opinions (which I thought really were unfair and cruel) 
> haven't helped this much, either, but I just wanted to
say

please 
> don't tar all of us HP criticisers with the same brush - some of us 
> may find flaws in the books but still can appreciate the immense 
> skill and appeal of JKR's work. And really enjoy participating n 
> this discussion group.
> ------
> I know that feeling a bit embarassed at reading HP is silly (I'm 
> anticipating getting responses telling me I've nothing to be 
> embarrassed about here), and honestly, I KNOW I haven't...know in 
my 
> head, at least. I just can't stop having a slightly embarrassed gut 
> feeling about it all. Does anyone else feel the same way?

June: For what it is worth, I used to be very embarrased about a lot 
of things.  A personal recollection:  when I was 13 I read Animal 
Farm and was absolutely slated by a bunch of thick trolls at school 
who thought from the title that it was a baby book.  I was utterly 
mortified.  But as you get older - you really care less about what 
people think.  No-one should have to defend their reading habits to 
anyone.  I am currently reading or perusing the following:  HP- O0P, 
Black House, Stephen King; Porno by Irvine Welsh and Sadly I was an 
Only Twin by Peter Cook (which caused me to laugh out loud on a train 
journey so often yesterday fellow passengers looked nervous); also 
reading in progress - I find I can only read a bit or so at a time 
because they are "heavy": The Divine Comedy (Dante) and Paradise Lost 
(Milton) - to support an ongoing theory I have that Dante mapped hell 
and Milton gave us its history.  OK this is perhaps a bit off topic 
but what I am trying to demonstrate is fairly catholic tastes in 
reading.  I like stories best.  Sometimes I want to be entertained, 
sometimes I want to exercise my brain.  Reading HP books in the 
company of a board like this gives an excuse to do both - what's 
wrong with that?

I say keep reading, comics, cereal packets anything - English 
teachers have an uphill struggle these days to get kids to do it and 
many say the HP series has really helped get the message across.  

June






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