What did you like about Harry Potter?

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 183796

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hickengruendler" 
<hickengruendler at ...> wrote:
>
> I'm currently doing my exams at the university, and for my exam 
work at 
> home I chose the topic about the most popular children's books and 
why 
> grown ups like to read them as well.
> 
> So as a starting point, I would like to hear your reasons. What did 
you 
> like about Harry Potter and (as long as it doesn't become off-
topic) 
> other children literature? What does particularly interest you in 
the 
> series?
> 
> It would be a great help, if you could answer the questions.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Hickengruendler
>


Well, from the beginning, I liked very much that these books were 
about a world full of magic, surprises, and mayhem that you could get 
to from your own mundane existence if only you could see the right 
door on the Charing Cross Road.

It's because I like to think that in real life, we really can have a 
richer life, if only we manage to/try to see the way.

And the magical world of the books was still very much richer, so 
much more full of possibilities, even after it became very apparent 
that there were deep troubles there, as well.

In addition to all that, I always felt there was something hugely 
compelling to me; something personally resonant in Harry's story, 
through the first four books.  From OoP on, it has become apparent 
that JKR went in a different direction that did not speak to me so 
deeply, but some day I am going to read the first four again to see 
if I can reawaken the early magic.  I figure that will be a sort of 
path into my own personality that I will follow for my own pleasure.

Finally, I was always intrigued by all those little side stories that 
in the end seemed to come to nothing.  Now, this may be the height of 
presumptiousness, but I am convinced that these are mostly the fruit 
of JKR's subconscious mind, which she may have unwittingly let loose 
to play during scenes that she wrote for "color," whereas the scenes 
that mattered most to the plot were so much more tightly controlled.  
I can't help feeling it would have helped if she had let herself tap 
these subconscious veins, but in any case, they certainly fed our 
enjoyment of the books over the years, and I still appreciate that.

Annemehr