The final installment is apparently out today - last night on my way back from performing at the the very classy Bath House Comedy Club I saw the queue of sleeping-bags outside Waterstone's on Oxford Street and I though what a strange thing to do.Personally I haven't read the books. I saw one of the films once and thought - oh good another little white boy for children to look up to. And don't bother telling me that Hermione is "really clever" because why should little girls grow up wanting to be the "really clever" one who still has to play second fiddle to the boys? On the other hand though Emma Watson, the actress, is pretty cool.
But I also wondered why adults would read children's books. Feels a bit like sticking your head in the sand to me. Ideal for those who can't really deal with grown-up subjects. But if that's your thing for a bit of occasional escapism, who am I to stop you. I'll even help you out with some fake covers so other people won't know what you're up to.
And finally, remember children: Harry is an evil pagan who deserves to die... Isn't there some sort of law against doing this to children?
1 comment:
Adults read children's books for the same reasons they read adult books--many of them are very good books, and deserve to be read. My own initiation as an adult was reading to my children every night. Not just when they were little, but when they were older too. And I've gone back and read some of them, and the good ones remain good. But they get labeled "children's books", so adults generally aren't smart enough to read them. Harry Potter isn't necessarily great literature, but it is great storytelling, as good as, say, Kipling. Not reading Rowling, or Tove Jansson or Natalie Babbitt or EL Koenigsburg or Susan Cooper any of dozens of other authors, because they write "children's books" just means that you're willing to accept the boundaries that other people assign to the world. Lose those chains!
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