Taking it seriously

[Lady Macbeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 101934

Wanda  Said:
My problem is, I can't take this even one-onehundredth as seriously
as other people do.  I just don't buy Harry Potter as a 20th century
Young Werther - a boy of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.  Where
other people are earnestly discussing his life with the Dursleys as
a case for Social Services intervention, I see it as a satirical
riot.  He lives in a closet!  Under the stairs!  With all the
spiders!  It's all so over-the-top, it's funny, like "Willy Wonka
and the Chocolate Factory" - all the grandparents bedridden for 20
years, sleeping in the same bed, and everyone living on cabbage
water.  It's a satire on sentimental, pathetic-waif stories
like "The Old Curiosity Shop", with poor, persecuted Little Nell.
It's great that Rowling can combine this with adventure and
suspense, but comedy is never very far away, and I think that comedy
is really what she does best. This is why I felt Book 5 was such a
failure; I suddenly found Rowling was expecting me to take all this
stuff seriously, and I just couldn't switch my view of Hogwarts from
St. Custard's to Lowood School.  Maybe this was always her intention-
to start us off with a lighthearted story and gradually turn it
into a searing drama, but if it is, I think she's misjudged her
abilities.  She really doesn't have what it takes to write a very
deep, serious book, whereas she can write humour and satire as well
as anyone and better than most.

 Lady Macbeth replied:
See, I'm just the opposite.  There are far too many cases (at least in the
United States, I don't know about Britain) of children being treated just as
Harry is for me to take it as satire.  There was a little girl in the news
recently who died at the hands of her birth mother - she was found dead in
the hallway of her apartment.  It's just that it's such everyday news
anymore that most Americans read/see it on the news, say "Oh, isn't that
sad," and then go on to the sports section.

I've gone to school with kids who wore the same ill-fitting clothes for a
week because their parents didn't give a damn about them.  Unwanted children
really DO get dumped with abuse, neglect and less-than-adequate needs for
survival.

That's why Book 5 was so SPECTACULAR to me - it seemed to me that Rowling
was finally delving INTO the story of this boy, instead of just skimming
over the highlights of his life.

-Lady Macbeth





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