Re: I thought her trick was...green_knightJuly 14 2009, 10:16:41 UTC
That's part of it. It picks readers up somewhere they understand (though, honestly, the Dursleys need more suspension of disbelief for adult readers than Hogwarts ever did; but they're how small children _feel_ about mean parents/siblings/relatives, so there's a certain emotional truth in it.
What he's writing is nothing new at all, and it applies to adults as well - something new-but-understandable/familiar-but-fresh. And kids, like adults, like protagonists who act - in kids books, that often means moving the parent figures out of the story, because a story in which the adults solve the problems doesn't appeal to kids, just as a story where the amateur sleuth leaves things to the police to sort out doesn't work, either.
One thing he doesn't talk about is that Rowling got the quirky details in HP right. That's part of what was such fun in DWJ books, but Rowling got it down perfectly - the clock that shows the whereabouts of the household, the staircases that lead somewhere else on Wednesday, the talking portraits and Sir Cadogan...
And adults - see Terry Pratchett - love that kind of thing just as much.
For their first assignment, my students have to write a short story from the viewpoint of a child. One of the commonest faults I see is that they have the child just standing there passively and relating what's happening around him or her. That doesn't work for either adult or child.
But Rowling does get the balance between new and old, scary and comforting. I think one of the reasons DWJ will never be as popular is that there are seriously disconcerting things happening, especially relating to identity.
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One thing he doesn't talk about is that Rowling got the quirky details in HP right. That's part of what was such fun in DWJ books, but Rowling got it down perfectly - the clock that shows the whereabouts of the household, the staircases that lead somewhere else on Wednesday, the talking portraits and Sir Cadogan...
And adults - see Terry Pratchett - love that kind of thing just as much.
Reply
For their first assignment, my students have to write a short story from the viewpoint of a child. One of the commonest faults I see is that they have the child just standing there passively and relating what's happening around him or her. That doesn't work for either adult or child.
But Rowling does get the balance between new and old, scary and comforting. I think one of the reasons DWJ will never be as popular is that there are seriously disconcerting things happening, especially relating to identity.
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