Literary value and fan interaction - please help with my research!

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 162691

klotjohan:
> I agree with everything you say. May I ask what your age is and 
when you
> started reading the books? Would you say that you as an adult get
> something else from the series than children could? 

zgirnius:
I am presently 37. I read my first HP book, Sorceror's Stone, maybe 4 
years ago? I'm not the right person to ask about whether kids get 
less out of the books than I do as an adult. At the age the series is 
targeted at (older kids, say 11+), I am pretty confident I would have 
gotten most everything, as I was reading anything from YA books 
to 'classics' to fantasy/SF from the adult section of the library, to 
spy novels.  (Perhaps I would have found Molly Weasley annoying and 
overprotective instead of sensible, but that's about it!) 

klotjohan:
> What I'm after here
> is the labeling of some literature as "children's literature", an
> abstract and uncertain classification that Zipes questions strongly
> since "children" is a social construct. C.S. Lewis resisted the 
> label of his Narnia books as "children's literature" and I 
> personally think that this categorisation may easily lead to 
> excluding other readers.

zgirnius:
Its classification as a children's series definitely delayed my 
trying it, both because it was not on the shelf where I normally shop 
for books, and because I assumed I would not like it. (I still 
occasionally walk through the fantasy/SF section of the bookstore and 
note with shock when I reach the R's that not a single book by 
Rowling is there! until I remember that she's in the children's 
section.)

I eventually talked myself into trying HP with the reasoning that 
some of the stuff I did love as a kid (like Tolkien, including the 
Hobbit, his 'kiddiest' book) I still love as an adult.

klotjohan:
> I feel that the books are well suited for children (though Zipes 
offers many intriguing arguments against this) but can and should be
> read by adults as well. I've met slightly resenting attitudes about 
> reading HP since "it's for children", as if this was detrimental to 
> the literary value.
> What are your views on this?

zgirnius:
I would agree the books are well-suited for children. I will be 
pitching them to mine, when they are old enough (the elder is 
persently 4), and I support my nephew's interest in the series, which 
I believe he started reading when he was 7. (He is now 10).

Personally, if an adult reader recommended a children's book, and I 
generally respected his/her opinions, I would try it. I don't agree 
they are necessarily less 'good'. 

klotjohan:
> but I think this question is
> intricately connected to the subject of "high" vs. "low" 
literature. One
> theory argues that complexity - among other things - renders a 
higher
> "value" to the text.

zgirnius:
I find genre to be a high/low culture issue as well. HP, in addition 
to being for children, is a fantasy, (in the sense that it contains 
in it magical creatures, wizards, etc.) and in the minds of people 
who care greatly about high/low culture, this makes them 
automatically suspect it is 'less'. (This annoys me most when it is 
Tolkien they look down on.)

klotjohan:
> Unfortunately I haven't had the time to look into this properly, 
but I'd
> like to hear your thoughts on this.

zgirnius:
I wonder if she looks at the results of the Wombat and that other 
test. (She had these two mutliple choice quizzes about her world on 
her website, which fans could fill out, and they were graded 
according to her instructions.)

klotjohan: 
> Good point about Cedric, though I guess Zipes feel that everything
> returns to normal at the end, and that the pattern from the earlier
> books is repeated. I agree with you in drawing some form of line 
between
> PoA and GoF since the latter results in a distinct difference in the
> status quo of the Potterverse. After the death of Cedric, all 
characters
> seemed much more mortal than before, at least to me. I guess this 
can be
> considered a good thing since it heightens the tension and 
excitement of
> the books.

zgirnius:
It also is the book in which Voldemort returns fully, in a physical 
body. When I read it, I saw it as an important turning point, and was 
actually shocked to find school going on as usual in OotP afterwards. 
I expected a 'war' atmosphere. (Silly me, I never considered that 
Fudge would continue to insist on his version of events).