I'm Just Wild About Harry
So sometime last week I opened "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"1 and was introduced to Harry Potter, a little boy who, to his horror, was trapped in a Roald Dahl novel. It took me a little while to get past that, but I did, and by the end of the first book I had hit the toboggan. On Saturday I got the last three books out at once, so I could just grab them one after another, and this morning at 12:30 (baby was up, so was I), I finished.
They're wonderful! I should have done this years ago. Rowling has a great talent for puzzle construction and red herring placement and a keen eye for the adolescent mind. I liked how she made clear-went to some pains to show, in fact-that even the good guys had character flaws and annoying sides. The series is excellent.
Undoubtedly there are many people who would describe the books as escapist. Fantasy usually gets tagged with that. But they strike me as quite the opposite; they added tension to my life, not subtracted. I found my stress level rising and falling with Harry's, and it got worst as the series went on and the situation grew darker. I'm rather glad it's over.
Reading the books confirmed what I had long suspected: the 'magic' is the books has absolutely nothing in common with real-world occultism and my fundamentalist brethren have no idea what they're talking about. In fact, I was surprised at how few motifs from the real-world occult were present. There were the mention of the Philosopher's Stone (although no details), one reference to the Hanged Man tarot card, and two mentions of a Hand of Glory. Some of the herblore was taken from life, but that's not quite occult. Hardly anything else. Any tweener who goes to the local chapter of the Brotherhood of the Golden Dawn looking for their Patronus is going to be sorely disappointed.
As I said, I liked them, but I'm still not sure how this lovely little series of books became THE HARRY POTTER EXPERIENCE. Barry Hughart wrote some lovely little books too, but no one ever showed up at midnight waiting for the new one (more's the pity). I'll have to mull it over some.
1: I did not realize the Americanized version was "Sorcerer's Stone" until my wife pointed it out to me-after I was finished. Through the entire book, every single time I saw those words, my brain inserted 'Philosopher's Stone.' It's actually sort of worrisome.
They're wonderful! I should have done this years ago. Rowling has a great talent for puzzle construction and red herring placement and a keen eye for the adolescent mind. I liked how she made clear-went to some pains to show, in fact-that even the good guys had character flaws and annoying sides. The series is excellent.
Undoubtedly there are many people who would describe the books as escapist. Fantasy usually gets tagged with that. But they strike me as quite the opposite; they added tension to my life, not subtracted. I found my stress level rising and falling with Harry's, and it got worst as the series went on and the situation grew darker. I'm rather glad it's over.
Reading the books confirmed what I had long suspected: the 'magic' is the books has absolutely nothing in common with real-world occultism and my fundamentalist brethren have no idea what they're talking about. In fact, I was surprised at how few motifs from the real-world occult were present. There were the mention of the Philosopher's Stone (although no details), one reference to the Hanged Man tarot card, and two mentions of a Hand of Glory. Some of the herblore was taken from life, but that's not quite occult. Hardly anything else. Any tweener who goes to the local chapter of the Brotherhood of the Golden Dawn looking for their Patronus is going to be sorely disappointed.
As I said, I liked them, but I'm still not sure how this lovely little series of books became THE HARRY POTTER EXPERIENCE. Barry Hughart wrote some lovely little books too, but no one ever showed up at midnight waiting for the new one (more's the pity). I'll have to mull it over some.
1: I did not realize the Americanized version was "Sorcerer's Stone" until my wife pointed it out to me-after I was finished. Through the entire book, every single time I saw those words, my brain inserted 'Philosopher's Stone.' It's actually sort of worrisome.