[HPforGrownups] Re: Hmmm. What's your favorite *now*?

[Laura Lynn Walsh]

No: HPFGUIDX 183011


On 2008, May 24, , at 09:21, Lynda Cordova wrote:

> Oryomai:
> It's all the exposition that's the issue. My friends who start now
> are people who have heard about the series before -- they're not
> expecting a list of things that Harry needs at Hogwarts. Exposition
> is vital to a book, but it can be hard to get through.
> ---------------------------------
> Lynda:
> Gotcha. Although my first thought in reading your answer was "of  
> course a
> kid going off to school needs stuff! Clothing, books, supplies."
> Lynda

Actually, I love precisely that part.  It is the combination of
something so very normal with something that is totally
weird that really got me.  Here was a kid, getting ready to
go off to school, just like any other kid about "my" age (from
a kid's perspective) - only HIS list of things needed didn't
include a pack of #2 pencils, notebooks, erasers, and two
boxes of tissues for the class supply.  He gets to get cauldrons,
wizards robes, and a MAGIC WAND.  I think this is part of
what really appeals to people about the whole series.  It
is that the magical world exists right alongside our "real"
world and it seems so plausible.  It is what got so many
kids really wishing that they, too, would get a letter from
Hogwarts on their 11th birthday.

Many books of fantasy or science fiction for kids start out
with the kid falling through a trap door into another land,
era, universe, etc.  This one starts out right "here" and
now, doing ordinary things in a decidedly unordinary way.

Laura
-- 
Laura Lynn Walsh    lwalsh at acsalaska.net
http://llwcontemplations.blogspot.com



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