Subject:
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Harry Potter as fine literature
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 22 Mar 2001 14:49:36 GMT
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Viewed:
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135 times
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This is related to the current thread of debat on fantasy fiction but is not
a direct response to any single posting so I though I would free it from
that entangled thread.
The Harry Potter books have a direct relationship to a fine lineage of books
and authors but this ancestral group does not include Tolkien or CS Lewis
as a major members. Rather the family tree as I see it includes Kenneth
Grahame (sp?), Hugh Lofting (the writer of Doctor Dolittle), The series of
Books of Mary Poppins ( by PL Travers), the Borrowers, The Phantom
Tollbooth, and lastly Roald Dahl. In the group but separate because of
nationality is John Bellairs.
What are the commonalities that bring these authors together? Firstly is
their profound sense of character and personality. While the books have many
fantastical elements the main characters are always very real and identifiable.
Secondly, all the books at heart celebrate a very English eccentricity. The
wind in the willows is about a bunch of content country bachelors, Mary
Poppins about a rich family and their peculiar dowdy nanny. There is a
tradition in England of celebrating the oddball, the oner and thumbing their
nose at the aristocratic upperclass.
Thirdly most of these books concern loss and pain especially as it relates
to children's experience of the world. Dahl is a very funny writer but most
of his characters (James of the Giant Peach, Matilda, Charlie) have suffered
very much however bravely they have coped. The borrowers are destitute and
have lost all family and others of their kind. The stories don't shrink from
these terrible things but show how through strength of character and will
happiness can be achieved.
Lastly, the books also have a very forceful and unflinching view of evil and
of the existence of higher powers or God. This is true especially of Dahl,
Rowlings, and even Mary Poppins. It always stunned me that Mary Poppins is
given as a gift by all the zoo animals a belt made from the skin of the
serpent from the garden of Eden. It is taken very gravely. The most touching
scene in the Wind in the Willows is when Mole and Rat witness Pan playing
his pipes at dawn.
Harry Potter will last as cherished literature for the ways it finds to
celebrate life despite the profound hardship the characters endure, for its
amazing humor and inventiveness, and for its hope.
This is long winded but I thought people might be interested seeing how the
conversations have been going.
Jonathan
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