Readers (was Re: JKR and "Think of the Children!"(was: Sending Voldie

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 162046

> >>Betsy HP:
> > <snip>
> > But here's the thing.  *Harry never cracks a book either*!!  For 
> > some reason that tickled me.  I picture Harry being all "stupid   
> > lump never reads," while he carefully avoides the crowded        
> > bookshelf himself. 
> > <bg> <SNIP>

> >>Potioncat:
> > I'm not sure if I've simply projected onto Harry. I don't think I 
> > can quote too much canon here, but I don't think you're entirely 
> > correct. <g> For some reason I seem to think Harry had read those 
> > books himself. Maybe I only think so because I would have.
> > <snip>

> >>Alla:
> I will quote some for you dear :)  
> "He had looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape 
> expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and 
> Fungi?" - ch.8 "The potions master"
> Oh, and of course we have that book that Snape confiscates from 
> Harry, when he is reading outside ( heee, cannot find that quote).
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Oh, I'm specifically talking about those books that have never been 
touched.  I imagine they're along the lines of "Kidnapped!" 
and "Treasure Island" and books of those ilk.  Strictly the sort of 
fiction someone would pick up for a young boy as a gift.  And as far 
as canon show us, Harry never touches them either.

Harry does read for information (it was a quidditch book that Snape 
most properly confiscated <g>), but he doesn't read fiction simply 
for the pleasure of reading.  None of JKR's characters do.  (Except 
for possibly Snape whose bookshelf may well include Muggle literature 
from his dad's side of the family.)

This isn't necessarily a bad thing.  It's a bit odd, because that's 
usually a quick and easy way for an author to get the reader on his 
or her protaganist's side, with the assumption that a reader will 
feel a kinship with another reader.  But something JKR has done (and 
should feel quite good about, I think) is to attract a lot of 
children who weren't readers themselves.  So maybe the thought was 
that they'd feel more of a kinship to a boy who *isn't* curling up 
with a good book as an escape from his dreadful family.

> >>Neri:
> > Heroes and Heroines of fiction books are generally not required to
> > demonstrate reading fiction on page, unless the specific work of
> > fiction has direct bearing on the plot.
> > <snip>

> >>Carol:
> I seem to recall David Copperfield, Jane Eyre, and the four heroines
> of "Little Women" all taking great pleasure in reading and/or being
> read to. (Jo March also wrote rather trashy, melodramatic novels,
> comparable to some of the fanfic we see these days.) Maybe the
> behavior of child heroes and heroines has changed since the        
> invention of television and movies, and especially of computers and 
> video games, but being in a novel certainly didn't excuse          
> nineteenth-century hereos and heroines from reading them.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Actually, I seem to recall that most if not all of the main 
characters in the books I read growing up were readers.  We weren't 
necessarily told what books they were reading, but the author would 
mention that they enjoyed that sort of activity.  (A recent book I've 
read "The Little Friend" by Donna Tartt even shows her protaganist 
getting very fierce about winning her local library's summer reading 
contest.)  So the trend has continued into this century, even with 
the video games (and the rock and/or roll music <beg>).

> >>Carol:
> It seems that people in the WW do read (though not much fiction...
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
IIRC JKR stated in an interview that there are no fiction authors in 
the WW.  (I believe she said something about having to write charms 
instruction books if she lived there.)  Yet another example of the 
bleakness of the WW.

(I snipped your thing about Snape not reading fiction because as 
Potioncat did with Harry, I totally project reader!Snape onto that 
character. I will not be denied! <g>)

Betsy Hp