NY Times (Penny Rants again)

[Milz]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pennylin" <pennylin at s...> 
wrote:
> Hi all --
> 
> Feeling more coherent, I decided to check out some of the reviews 
of OoP.
> The official NY Times OoP review is quite nice actually.  It's 
positive, but
> not glowing, and overall a very fair assessment.  However, the Book 
Review
> Editor, Charles McGrath, apparently feels the need to justify his 
decision
> to create that silly Children's Bookseller List and remove all the 
HP books
> from the main bestseller list once again.  He wrote a piece for 
yesterday's
> Times, and in it he not only completely blasts Rowling's writing 
style and
> talents but insults all of us, the adult fans.  The link is here:
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine/22CLOSE.html?
adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=105
> 6391218-hfP/l4PUCkwrnBgX9D2evQ
> 
> You do have to register to access NY Times articles but it is 
free.  I will
> hope that Heidi won't have a fit though if I invoke fair use just 
to give
> you some snippets from the overall article.
> 
> " we received bundles of letters from outraged adults. They had 
read and
> thoroughly enjoyed the Potter novels, these readers said, so how 
could we
> ghettoize them as mere children's books? Weren't the Potter books 
far
> superior to a lot of the stuff that regularly makes its way onto 
the fiction
> list? Well, they had a point there. On the other hand, the 
outlandish claims
> that were frequently made for Potter made you wonder whether some 
of these
> people had ever read anything else."
> 
> "Eventually maybe even free enough to pick up another, more 
challenging kind
> of book."
> 
> I plan to write a letter to the editor.  Again.  I was definitely 
one of the
> outraged adults who sent them a letter 3 yrs ago.
> 
> Penny
> (who considers herself reasonably well-read and really doesn't need 
this
> sanctimonious twit to hurl insults at her reading habits just 
because his
> assine decision is bound to come into question as people realize 
that the
> series is not so easily classified as kiddie lit as he 
thought ...........)

Penny, in your letter, you might want to enlighten Mr. McGrath with 
this quote:

"Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys 
and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that 
account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind 
adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and 
thought and talked and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged 
in."

Since "children's" literature is below Mr. McGrath, I doubt he would 
know the above was written by a Mr. Samuel Clemmons and is taken from 
the preface of that largely insignificant "children's" book _The 
Adventures of Tom Sawyer_.
 
~Milz---who prefers The Wall Street Journal.