Posted on 07/13/2005 12:49:13 AM PDT by dsc
Have you ever heard of Harold Bloom? No, of course, not. He is a professor at Yale and arguably the most distinguished American literary critic living today. So, if you won't listen to me, maybe you'll hear what old Harold has to say about Harry Potter in this July 11, 2000 article from the Wall Street Journal entitled "Can 35 Million Book Buyers Be Wrong? Yes." (I love that title. I love Harold Bloom!)
The article is definitely worth reading in its entirety (Bloom is always a pleasure to read), but let me share just a little of it:
I have just concluded the 300 pages of the first book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," purportedly the best of the lot. Though the book is not well written, that is not in itself a crucial liability. It is much better to see the movie, "The Wizard of Oz," than to read the book upon which it was based, but even the book possessed an authentic imaginative vision. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" does not, so that one needs to look elsewhere for the book's (and its sequels') remarkable success. Such speculation should follow an account of how and why Harry Potter asks to be read.The ultimate model for Harry Potter is "Tom Brown's School Days" by Thomas Hughes, published in 1857. The book depicts the Rugby School presided over by the formidable Thomas Arnold, remembered now primarily as the father of Matthew Arnold, the Victorian critic-poet. But Hughes' book, still quite readable, was realism, not fantasy. Rowling has taken "Tom Brown's School Days" and re-seen it in the magical mirror of Tolkein. The resultant blend of a schoolboy ethos with a liberation from the constraints of reality-testing may read oddly to me, but is exactly what millions of children and their parents desire and welcome at this time. (emphasis added).
Not to brag (too much), but my man Harold goes on to point out precisely what I have been saying on this thread:
One can reasonably doubt that "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is going to prove a classic of children's literature, but Rowling, whatever the aesthetic weaknesses of her work, is at least a millennial index to our popular culture. So huge an audience gives her importance akin to rock stars, movie idols, TV anchors, and successful politicians. Her prose style, heavy on cliche, makes no demands upon her readers. In an arbitrarily chosen single page--page 4--of the first Harry Potter book, I count seven cliches, all of the "stretch his legs" variety.How to read"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"? Why, very quickly, to begin with, perhaps also to make an end. Why read it? Presumably, if you cannot be persuaded to read anything better, Rowling will have to do. is there any redeeming education use to Rowling? Is there any to Stephen King?
Does this answer your question, my young friend?
May I leave you with a parting thought from the wonderful Ursula Le Guin's comments in the UK Guardian last year in re: the Harry Potter:
Good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited. (emphasis added)
Actually, it does neither. Pfui on the idiot who wrote this.
I am becoming convinced that all the nail-biting old bitty fretters who believe the above-stated bilge have never bothered to read any of the books. Why read them, right? Put enough of them in a pile and grab a torch. Sheesh.
Where did you find this info?
I must have missed something. Did someone threaten to torch these books?
I wish; Rowlings' publicist is making a lot more money than I currently am.
Adults and children alike absorb values through the subtle suggestions hidden in entertainment.
Yeah, sure they do...if they are so weak in their beliefs that they could be swayed by these subtleties.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit...my foundation. A rock of adamant. It will take a lot more than a mere work of fiction to sway me.
Oops. Sorry, Ozzy. I forgot to copy you on post #761. Take a look.
Well, don't despair. You could have fooled me. You're a natural saleswoman.
I just wish we could mix it up a bit. I'd love to wake up tomorrow to find the mitten covered in snow. Enough with this heat already!!!
*** It will take a lot more than a mere work of fiction to sway me.***
I'm guessing you're not a child.....
It was posted on the-leaky-cauldron.org, with links to Catholic websites.
Excellent point. It put me in mind of this picture:
Note that the creature Mike has his foot on was once an angel too. And, as Milton showed us, the can be very, very persuasive.
I'm not insinuating here that you are among those I have cited, just answering your question. And going off on a tangent, as usual.
No, I am not a child. My oldest son, nearly eight, is reading the HP books. Like a good parent, I have read them through so I know what he'll be experiencing. We discuss the stories all the time.
We also go to church together and we read the Bible together.
Why would Lot purposely allow his family line to die out? Consider, if you will, the importance placed on having numerous progeny in all of the stories in Genesis. One of the central motifs of the story of Abraham is the promise God makes to him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. Note that his inability to have a child by his wife Sarah was his personal source of grief for many years. Children mean everything in that culture. (As they should in our culture too, but that's another thread.)
So why would Lot not want his daughters to marry and have children? And don't tell me it was the "our father is old" stuff. He obviously wasn't too old to do the nasty with his own daughters.
Ah ha! Another native of the enchanted mitten. I was born and raised in Royal Oak.
****Like a good parent, I have read them through so I know what he'll be experiencing.****
So why do you think it's ok to read to your kids about things that the Bible calls an abomination?
***And I'm guessing you don't know many kids...***
You seem to be doing an awful lot of guessing today about who I do and don't know.
Would this be a hobby of your's???
:)
"Was it really necessary to post that at her?"
You object to prayer?
"reword"
Grow up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.