Thursday, August 02, 2007

What's All the Fuss?

Here I am, deep breath being held, because I am about to identify myself as one of the worst heretics of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. I’m probably going to lose friends over this, very good friends, not to mention family members. My blog stats are going to plummet (not that they’re in danger of doing much more than scraping a knee if they do). Oh well, here goes (get your pile of stones ready): I don’t get all the fuss over Harry Potter.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m woefully behind in my reading, and I'm still kind of hoping this is the real problem. Everyone is now reading the last book in the series, and I thought until a few weeks ago I was on book number four. Come to find out, once I actually took a look at them, I’m only on book three. I decided I need to do a little catching up, so made it a goal to read The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire by the end of the summer. Now I’m thinking, Goblet of Fire can wait till Halloween.

Unlike everyone else I know who’s read any of them, I wasn’t duly impressed with the first one when I read it, except that I had awesome dreams. Rowling does manage to cram into her books almost every ancient story, mythical creature, and symbol Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell would have us all believe are common to human brains and healthy psyches. One would expect awesome dreams to be a natural bi-product of that. When I finished it, though, instead of immediately reaching for the next one, which was already out by the time I got around to reading the first, I decided I needed to re-read E. Nesbit’s The Phoenix and the Carpet for comfort (by the way, I may have said this before, because I say it all the time, but it’s worth repeating: the Phoenix, as portrayed in this book, is absolutely the greatest character ever created in children’s fiction). Then I decided to re-read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a book I read as a child but of which I was not particularly enamored.

And that’s where the problem seems to lie for me. I will read all the Potter books eventually, just like I read all the Narnia books as a child, but I must be missing some important Jungian piece of the brain that makes these sorts of series so beloved by everyone on the planet except me. My childhood friends were all addicted to the Narnia books, and I’ve seen this addiction repeated with my friends’ children now, but I never really understood all the fuss about them either. Re-reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as an adult made me wonder if even at that age, being hit over the head with such obvious Christian allegory was too much (I know, I know. Odd for a soon-to-be minister’s wife to say that, but I really like my religious allegory to be subtle or else, like The Pilgrim’s Progress, practically to have a big red banner across it saying: “Warning: beautifully written but nothing here except over-the-top Christian allegory.”) But obvious Christian allegory can’t be the problem with Potter (especially if some of those on the religious right in this country are to be believed, although they would probably find Bunyan to be the work of the Devil were he writing today), so I’m wondering: what is?

Plenty of my friends have said to me, “Keep reading Potter. They get better. They get darker,” so I was expecting that to happen with The Prisoner of Azkaban. I expected to read this one and not to want immediately to go back to E. Nesbit or Edward Eager. That didn’t happen. I’m about halfway through it, and I’ve already pulled The Enchanted Castle off my shelves. Granted, this third book in the Potter series is a perfectly fine read, even clever and fun at times, and it helped me get out of a bit of a reading slump I was in, morosely convinced I was never going to find anything as good as the fabulous Time Traveler’s Wife again, but the more I read, the more I find myself wondering when the really compelling part is finally going to make an appearance.

Seriously, if someone came and stole it from me right now, I really wouldn’t care. I’m discovering the main reason I’m reading these books seems to have more to do with the fact everyone else already knows what’s going to happen, and I hate to be the last one to know things, than with any true enjoyment I’m getting from them. Why are Rowling’s books attracting children and adults in a way so many other, better books don’t seem to be able to do? And why am I not compelled to drop everything and read them straight through the way I do when I read someone like Alan Garner?

I don’t have answers to these questions, but I was talking to my mother the weekend practically everyone else in the family was hunkered down with the new release, and she told me she’s never read any of them. She said, “I suppose maybe I will one day, if I ever get stuck.” What a great way to put it: “getting stuck.” I can’t imagine what “stuck” might really mean: she’s trapped on a desert island with people who were asked what one book would they bring with them, were allowed to bring that one book, and they’ve all chosen a Harry Potter? However, I get the gist of what she’s saying. My response to her was, “Don’t bother, Mom. Just re-read E. Nesbit instead.” Then I had to add, “Oh, wait a minute. You can’t. I took all the E. Nesbits last time I visited.”

I also took all the Oz books. Now there’s a series I loved as a kid. I’d be willing to say that maybe my problem is just with series, but this one would belie that theory (besides, there were plenty of other series I loved as a child, like Scott Corbett’s “Trick” series – great fun with a magical chemistry set. A few years ago I re-read The Lemonade Trick, and it held up for me as an adult. And then there's the fact there are plenty of adult series I love, Maupin being the one I've discovered this year). I initially decided when I was in second grade, to read the Oz books, because they had such large print, but I got hooked instantly, and can remember spending many summer afternoons reading and re-reading all we had, while supplementing our collection with those we didn’t have from the library. Maybe instead of The Enchanted Castle I should return to that series next and see how it holds up to Harry Potter.

I'm wondering if those of you who have not stalked off in disgust at this point can be entreated to put down your stones and enlighten me. Possibly some of you can point out what I’m missing. Or maybe someone can assure me I just need to get to the end of this one, and I’ll be seeing the light, a brand new convert before the Inquisitors arrive, who will find me properly immersed in all the rest of books in the series well before Halloween. On the other hand, maybe some of you feel the same way I do. I’m kind of hoping so, just in case I don’t see the light in time to be saved. No decent heretic with no support has ever come to any good.

21 comments:

Charlotte said...

Well Emily, I'm with you - my response to HP is mild. My trajectory with the books is slightly different though. I loved the first so much I had an accidental home birth (I wasn't prepared to leave for hospital until I had read "just one more chapter" and then it was too late), but I felt lukewarm about the next three.

My daughter, 7, is now reading HP1 and LOVING it and that's a delight to watch. I'm hoping that her enthusiasm will re-enthuse me. I'm planning to read the last three in the series alongside her.

Could it be that since it's become a phenomenon you and I have lost interest somewhat? If it had remained an off-the-wall, secret, slightly cultish series I think I might have persevered. But the big bucks associated with it, the movies, the marketing, the hype, all served to put me off.

Anonymous said...

I'm not the one to enlighten you about HP, because I didn't read a single one. But *all the fuss*, as you put it, got me thinking about why some books seem to be addictive (you've got to get them, you really crave the next one). In a whole different category, Harlan Coben's thrillers are addictive too. Is it, like food (I sometimes can't resist a McD meal even though I know it's not gastronomic or dietically correct), about some particular ingredients: a particular set of characters readers can project themselves, or is it a breathless plot? Or is it pure peer pressure, marketing devices etc. (I'm HP fans will scream at this hypothesis)? sorry for the long post...

Emily Barton said...

Charlotte, maybe it IS because of all the hype, the same way I never seem to enjoy a movie as much if everyone has seen it and tells me I'm going to love it as I do when I discover it in my own. My expectations get set so high, and then I'm bound to be disappointed. And I probably am someone who is more intrigued by a "secret society" of readers than I am reading what even cats and dogs are reading these days. I will say, though, that watching children enjoy HP is great fun. My nineteen-year-old niece has grown up with him, and her enthusiasm was what got me reading him in the first place.

Smithereens, I almost said in my post that for me the books seem to have no soul, almost as though it is all peer pressure and marketing devices, but I thought that would be too harsh (and, besides, I don't really want to pass that judgment until I've read them all). I don't know, either, what that secret ingredient is that makes some books like eating a bag of chips or gummy bears, but I've known my fair share of them: Ross Macdonald, Janet Evanovich (although, having been someone who used to await her latest release the way most await HP, I've begun to lose interest in her), and, yes, Harlan Coben. (No need to apologize for length of commment. As you can see, mine's longer!)

Froshty said...

Sorry, Emily, but I can't enlighten you at all. I read the first Harry Potter book out loud to Anna when she was in the 5th grade and the only joy I found in it was turning the dialogue into different British accents to Anna's great amusement. That remains the only Harry Potter book I've read. I was impressed that J.K. Rowling had obviously read C.S. Lewis, E. Nesbit, and Edward Eager but in the grand scheme of my reading, it did nothing for me. I'd rather read "Half Magic" 50 times. I was somewhat perplexed by this response because I loved magic and fantasy books as a child: Lloyd Alexander books come to mind. But obvious fantasy and fairy tales where evil wizards and beasts torment innocent children leave me cold now. Maybe it's because, as Anna said once, "I hate those books because they make me want to have magic powers and there's no such thing." As a child, I still believed that people could have magic powers, but as an adult, I've lost that wonder. I have to say, though, it is nice to see so many children sitting down with a book, Anna's friends included. But in a way, I wish they were reading Michael Moore books--now there are some real-life dark tales about evil.

IM said...

It is shameful to say, but I haven't read any Harry Potter. I'm fascinated by the phenomenon though, and I think it is great that adults and children alike are rushing to read large novels. As for children's authors, I remember Beverly Cleary, with the childhood-realism, flea-bitten dogs, paper-routes, and pests.

Anonymous said...

I can't enlighten you either because I haven't read them but just recently I've started to appreciate their appeal a lot more and I've read chunks of books 6 and 7 (I guess that's horrible to read random bits of books but I became engrossed enough to want to read more). My daughter, having read the early ones so long ago and knowing that she was going to pick up her pre-ordered final book on its publication day, read all six books in one week which was quite a task. And with all that concentrated effort, and having just seen the latest film starring my favorite Imelda Staunton as the wicked Bush administration-like Dolores Umbridge, I may consider finally climbing aboard this bandwagon I've been avoiding for years. But if they don't grab you, Emily, forget about it. God knows you have endless stacks of other worthy books on your nightstand! And Ms. Rowling sure doesn't need your money.

Anonymous said...

Well, as you already know, Dan and I are big fans and I feel embarrassed commenting here as I seem to be the only one who does really like the books and has read them several times. I won't defend them to you--if you don't like them, you don't like them. I wouldn't ram them down anyone's throat.

But I will say this. It's given us a great connection with young people. We had the best time in England last fall talking to our friends' kids about the books and doing Harry Potter quizzes (which they all beat us at hands down). I love talking to my niece Mary about them and speculating until recently what would happen next. And, yes, we went to the midnight party at Barnes and Nobles and it was exciting being with all these young people who loved to talk about a book series and who dressed up so creatively as some of the characters and who were considered cool, not nerdy. It really was like a rock concert.

And, yes, we had to buy two books because we were both too impatient to wait until the other finished. And we both loved it.

Emily Barton said...

Okay, I guess I was wrong about the family. I knew, Froshty, that you hadn't read them all, but for some reason, Ian, I wasn't aware that you weren't on the bandwagon. Now, Linser, yes, I knew all about you and Dan (had been wondering, though, if you'd each gotten your own copy this go-around). I think connecting with kids is the number one reason I've been continuing with them.

Danny, you're right: I've got tons of preferable stuff on my night stand at the moment. I am VERY impressed that Leah went through all of them in one week!

Anonymous said...

I'm a Harry Potter fan, started reading them just before book three came out and loved them from the start. I can't give you a detailed reasoning why I love them so much. They are fun, the plot sucks me in, the characters are delightful. It's just plain good entertainment. Plus the fact that so many people have read them and were reading them all at the same time it was fun being part of that moment, knowing that as I sat up late reading in Minneapolis, there were others not only in my town but in cities across the country, and probably even the world, doing the same thing.

But don't worry, just because you don't like HP won't send me away. I'm not that easy to get rid of ;)

Emily Barton said...

Stef, that bit about knowing everyone else is reading it at the same time is a real attraction and, truth be told, is one of the main reasons I decided to read more this year (plus reactions like yours). I felt like I was missing out on this big event. But that's already fading now that so many people I know have already finished the last release.
I figured you were tough enough to stick with me even if I'm not a huge HP fan.

mandarine said...

I have read all Harry Potter volumes except the latest one, and I think I will leave it at that.

I discovered the sort of snobbish pride one can conceive for not reading the da vinci code, and I decided I would do the same for the latest Harry Potter book. I have enjoyed the first three, but I suspect most of the enjoyment came from reading in English. Then I was gradually more disappointed by the story (as with the Lord of the Ring) and the characters, and I realized that I had kept reading only because Amazon was mailing me great pre-whatever discounts.

Sometimes I wish all of literature could be open-source, so that a great fantasy world with a poor set of characters and a lame plot could be reworked by brighter minds to make the best wizardry books ever...

Emily Barton said...

Mandarine, I'm all-too-familiar with that snobbish, Da Vinci Code pride. And, yes, wouldn't it be fun if we could all interact with the books. I find the setting (such a clever idea to have a Wizard's boarding school) with its ghosts and talking paintings and secret passages to be the best part of these books. I'd love to bring E. Nesbit's Phoenix into it and see what would happen.

Rebecca H. said...

Wow -- you got a lot of agreement and sympathy here! I'll join them -- I've read the first one and that's it, and I remember being entertained by it, but not blown away. I may pick the rest up later, but I'd really rather re-read Philip Pullman.

Unknown said...

I haven't read any of them yet. Like your mom, I'm saving them for someday when I get "stuck." They just have never particularly appealed to me on any level but I also am not one (which will make me a little different) to read children's literature...I didn't particularly like it when I was a child and couldn't wait to turn 12 and hit the adult stacks at the library...so now I also haven't read The Book Thief and other children or young adult novels, either...for no reason other than they just don't spark my interest...

Diana said...

I have mixed feelings about HP. I started reading them with/to my kids and as they've grown, it's been something that we can share. That being said, I work in a bookstore and am baffled by childless adults who come in and buy the books, for themselves. I know that I wouldn't bother with them if I didn't have kids.

There is some interesting stuff in the overarching story but overall, I find the characters to be too simple and predictable. And personally, I am drawn more to character-driven novels than to plot-driven ones, and HP is definitely in the latter camp.

I guess I'm trying to say that I totally get why young people love the books but I don't get at all why some adults do, although it *is* an interesting world she has created. There is some escapism appeal. And the movies tap into that for me; I LOVE the life at Hogwarts on the screen. Just beautiful. These latest movies, which are moving away from Hogwarts, don't appeal to me as much.

Anonymous said...

Oh, my goodness -- people who don't care that much for Harry Potter, but who do love Edward Eager and E. Nesbit? I have found soulmates! I adore Eager and Nesbit and Diana Wynne Jones, and the flat writing and passive hero of the Harry Potter books does nothing for me. I read a bunch of them because a friend lent them to me, but I almost immediately forgot everything that happens in them. Compared to yes, the Phoenix, or the Psammead, or the events of "Knights Castle", the Harry Potter books are just... ordinary.

Phew. I thought I was all alone out here.

Kitty

Rebecca said...

You know I like the books since I dashed off from dinner with you and Bob to pick up book 7. But, they aren't great literature, they are clearly derivative and sometimes the prose is downright clunky. I like them because of a nostalgia factor, I think and I really wish I had been able to read them when I was much younger. They remind me of the pleasure I got out of similar, better books as a child, although I still read those too.
I completely agree about E Nesbitt and Alan Garner; I love Elizabeth Goudge - if you haven't read The Little White Horse you must borrow it at once. And now a confession - I am the only person on the entire planet not to like Philip Pullman's books. And I don't care.

Marissa Dupont said...

I put off reading the HP books for a very long time (I didn't give in until after book five had come out) just because I can't stand giving in to anything that has been hyped so much. So I wonder if some of your feelings about the books are coming from that. They are much more imaginative than MANY books on the shelves, and I think that's why so many kids and adults who don't read normally are getting into them. The stuff that is readily available to people who don't seek out good books is total crap most of the time. I mean, if you're only shopping at, say, airports, you're probably not going to like reading! :D So of course HP is going to look like genius material. But for someone like you, who reads constantly, and reads a wide variety of books, of course HP is not going to be as impressive. But I do agree with many of your friends when I say they start getting really good in books 3 and 4. I think she wrote the first two with the expectation that these would end up as a series, and once she started realizing that adults were into them, she changed them to reflect that (starting in book 3). I don't think they're the best books EVER, and certainly not the most well-written, but they do succeed in whisking me off into another world, which is what I really love about books. :) If I were you, I'd wait until the hype has calmed down a bit before picking them up again. :)

Emily Barton said...

Gee, I'm beginning to think I spoke too soon when I waxed poetic about the wonders and joys of e-salons. I wish I could gather all of you together for a long discussion!

Dorr, yes, you and Hobs have me intrigued about Philip Pullman, so much so that I recently looked for him on the shelves at the library, but decided I don't have enough time at the moment, so will have to wait till we're settled this fall.

Court, well there, we've finally found one of the few differences between us. It took me forever to graduate from the children's department to the adult department. I can remember my cousin saying to me when she was thirteen and I was twelve, and I was headed off to the children's room, "You still go THERE?" I was shamed, but not so much so that I quit going back.

Diana, I think that plot-driven aspect is the problem for me. I don't mind plot-driven, but I need to have characters that affect me a little more in some way than the ones in HP do.

Kitty, AHHH! you most definitely are not alone. Would you like to have a cup of tea together?

Becky, add Elizabeth Goudge to the stack of books going to PA with me (Gary recommended her to me at some point, too, I think).

Marissa, well I'm almost done with book 3, and it IS getting better, so I won't give up completely, but I'm pretty sure the hype has affected me. And being whisked off to other worlds is definitely what it's all about, right?

litlove said...

I think they're great for children, and for adults who find it fun to return to their inner child, but they're not fabulously written. They are very well plotted, though, and exciting and reassuring enough to grip children in a non-threatening way. Ask children whether they like them - that's the point. Adults are by no means obliged to.

I'll post on this myself once I've read the last one, but I seem to have no reading time at the moment!

Emily Barton said...

Litlove, can't wait to read your post. Meanwhile, I think you've hit something with the inner child, and that my inner child prefers reverting to what it's enjoyed all its life. Having now finished the book, though, I will say it's very good. The second half was better than the first. I'd forgotten how Rowling really does grab the reader at the end. Not great, by any means, but not all books can, nor need to be great.