[HPforGrownups] OOP: Really for Children?!

[Carol Bainbridge]

No: HPFGUIDX 63080

At 01:58 PM 6/24/2003 -0400, Nic wrote:

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>Maybe I am looking too much into it as an adult.  Maybe it will go over kids
>heads.  But didnt people find this disturbing?  I know someone else said
>something on this subject.  But I was just do disturbed after reading 
>this.  Harry
>and co. have really grown up, they are doing grown up things, thinking grown
>up things, and yet there are 8 year olds reading this.  Am I underestimating
>them or something?  But isnt it disturbing how Umbridge punishes 
>Harry?  Isnt it
>disturbing about James treatment of Snape?  Will kids understand all of the
>political undertones and the angst?  Surely its only going to get more grown
>up?  I dont know how much kids take in, I dont know how much of this book 
>they
>will appreiciate.  But its all so... adultish.. (yea I could of come up 
>with a
>better word).  And what about the death?  There was no blood (apart from
>Nevilles nose bleed... and can I mention blood when Harry was writing into 
>his
>hands with Umbridge again?!) but don't you think that the Veil may scare 
>children?
>  I thinkt eh fact that Harry could hear voices behind it is the most 
> chilling
>thing I have ever read, or even, ever thought of.
>What do you guys think?

I think adults constantly underestimate children and in doing so create 
more fearful moments than they would otherwise have.  We try to protect 
children from the horrors of life, but in doing so, we often make it worse 
for them, just as Dumbledore himself realizes he has done with Harry.  I'm 
sure that many of the younger readers will miss a great deal in the book, 
just as they surely missed much in the first 4.  I don't think most of them 
will understand the politics and they'll most likely not understand the 
underlying teen angst.  However, they will still understand good vs. evil, 
unfairness, cruelty, anger, kindness, loyalty, and all the other things 
that have been present in the books throughout.  I also don't think the 
veil will scare children at all. I could be wrong, but I don't think 
so.  There have been far scarier things, IMO, in many Disney movies!  And I 
don't think Harry's being able to hear voices behind it is any more 
chilling than his being able to see the Thestrals.  It is all more evidence 
of Harry's uniqueness, in spite of his pronounced "ordinariness."


Carol Bainbridge
(kaityf at jorsm.com)

http://www.lcag.org