Why do you like Harry Potter?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 85703

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "shanti_50130" <seuferer at n...> 
wrote:
> 
> To me, to compare Harry Potter to LOTR does no justice to either 
work,
> and allows me to illustrate why I like HP better.
> 
> Tolkein has vivid descriptions in his works.  But for my own taste,
> they are TOO vivid.  He describes the moss on the trees with a
> minuteness that removes all possiblilty of imagination.  I know what
> Treebeard looks like because Tolkein told me, down to every last 
twig
> and leaf.  And in the process of telling me, he uses big, ponderous,
> old-fashioned descriptive adjectives, phrases, and clauses that are
> sometimes difficult to read.  Of course, it adds somewhat to the
> flavor of the book--one feels as though one is reading an historical
> account of events.  But to me it makes it more dry and less 
enjoyable
> to read than HP.  
> 

Geoff:
Allow me to disagree with you. I have commented on more than one 
occasion that I draw parallels between LOTR and HP, not comparisons. 
(I can't quote message numbers because I am away from home at the 
momemnt and have the numbers on file 100 miles away and it will take 
me an age to try to track them through an archive search).

In LOTR, you /are/ in effect reading a historical account of events. 
The first three ages of Middle Earth have covered about 7000-7500 
years of ancient history and the beginning of the Fourth Age at the 
end of ROTK is still ancient history to us. Hence, characters speak 
in old ways, life styles are historical to us and it gives an 
ambience of antiquity to matters. After all, if we read the letters 
and documents of, say, the time of Elizabeth I, we would sense the 
same feel of distance and remoteness. One of the things which excited 
me (as a Maths fan mark you!) when I did GCE O-levels at 16 was that, 
in Latin, we were working with a book actually written by Julius 
Caesar himself.

HP is set at the end of the 20th century. Harry, in addition to his 
wizard studies, lives in a world of comprehensive schools, Tube 
trains, luggage trolleys at Kings Cross and visits to the Zoo. So, 
the writing reflects that. It is modern in style, snappy, brisk and 
easy to read - though it does keep a small army of enthusiasts busy 
in analysing the position of every full stop and semi-colon . <g>

We can surely read Shakespeare and H G Wells, Caesar and Isaac Asimov 
without having to choose between them, so why should we have to make 
choices between books like LOTR and HP? I like children's books 
(second childhood I believe) and some fantasy books and refuse to 
give up Tolkien, J K Rowling, C S Lewis or Alan Garner just to keep 
in with the norm.

Geoff