Rating: 4/5, good
A.K.A. The Book Series That Won’t Die by She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
I listened to Lily Simpson’s 10-hour long video critique of HP a while ago and I started to wonder what I would think of the books now. I recently reread Harold Bloom’s (much shorter) critique as well.
As much as I think HP will eventually become irrelevant, it keeps sticking around. It’s become controversial because of the anti-trans views and actions of its author, but I don’t think it’s just controversy keeping it alive. I’ve seen people who are otherwise pretty liberal and open-minded make HP references, visit the theme parks, buy merch, and continue engaging with the franchise despite what we know about JKR and her legal crusade against trans people in the UK. What is the honey that keeps the flies coming despite the odor of the rotting corpse nearby (pretending for a second that flies dislike the scent of rotting corpses)?
I read the first couple of chapters of HP TCOH (it was my favorite one as a kid, so I picked up a used copy on Ebay). It was nostalgic—I remember I was so into reading it (I think it was the second book) that I missed a whole section on the standardized testing we had to do in third grade.
I recently saw a home movie of myself playing in the backyard as a kid. My Mom asked me, “How do you think you did on the standardized testing?” and I looked stressed for a moment before saying, “I think I did well..” I’m guessing that was the same year lol
I think TCOH is pretty good. The action moves along quickly with punchy, funny prose. The characters are very well-defined and iconic. Most chapters end with cliff hangers that make you want to keep reading. I think it’s leagues better than Eragon, mostly because the characters are unique and easy to picture mentally and the writing is much more spare. It’s very clear what each character is experiencing at any given moment; JKR does a good job of conveying the characters’ emotions to the reader.
I think Harold Bloom discounts the entertainment value of literature too much in his essay. Isn’t that a large part of why people read, to entertain themselves and pass the time? Maybe the written word started with the Bible in the West and therefore had a bent towards improvement, but it can be a medium for fluffy entertainment on par with film and TV.
Lily Simpson had some interesting critiques of HP, especially when it comes to economics. She asks why HP doesn’t just give money to RW if he has so much and RW’s family has so little. That’s a good question. I don’t remember if she had many aesthetic critiques, I mostly remember her pointing out logical issues with the lore.
I know some people who have never liked HP or never gotten the hype. Some were adults when it came out and couldn’t get into a children’s book, others it just never appealed to them that much.
I think it’s actually better than a lot of similar fantasy-ish children’s books that were releasing around the same time. I read about the first ten volumes of A Series of Unfortunate Events and I thought HP was better. I didn’t like the conceit of including difficult words with definitions, it felt condescending and repetitive. The characters also weren’t quite as interesting to me and the plot was overly convoluted and unfocused.
I did like a lot of horse books—Brighty of the Grand Canyon, Black Beauty, The Black Stallion. And adventure books—The Hobbit, Tom Sawyer, The Magic Treehouse books. And some humor—Roald Dahl and Wayside School.
I don’t know if horse books would appeal to today’s kids… they might be a little too slow. Adventure books have some staying power. And humor books are pretty timeless.
Finding alternatives to HP isn’t terribly hard. There are plenty of fantasy books for children and teenagers to choose from. The edge that HP has is that it coined a lot of terms that are referenced in general culture. It also has a defined visual brand that there are a few books that have (The Hobbit, Tom Sawyer), but it’s not as common or as popular. The visual brand might mostly come from the movies, though…
HP does “cozy but not boring” very well. There are lots of dangers in its world, but one gets the sense that nothing really horrible can ever happen to the main cast. There are many interesting items and locations to interact with in fanfiction (similar to LotR). It’s easy to think of good children’s books, but it’s harder to think of ones that build a sandbox for readers to play in. It’s especially inviting because the items and the rules of the sandbox aren’t too complex or difficult to comprehend, so more people can play.
On rereading it, what stood out to me a lot was how strong of a fantasy of personal importance HP is. The hobbits are pretty important in LotR, but it really feels like HP is the most important person in his world and everything would totally go dark without him specifically. Dob comes to HP’s house over the summer and tells him he’s too important to risk going back to Hog. When HP tries to demur that he’s not important, Dob says HP is “humble and modest,” praising him further (lol, I liked that line). I think the fantasy of personal importance in HP is stronger than in most other media. It is a heady idea for kids to identify with a character who is literally the most important person in a fantasy world.
I guess in Narnia they’re kings and queens and in His Dark Materials Lyra saves the world (or destroys the world? I don’t remember exactly), but I’d have to reread them to see if they’re equally fantasies of personal importance.
The personality test/sorting aspect is a draw as well. People love sorting themselves and trying to understand others through types. And HP’s is very simple and easy to remember: good guys, bad guys, smart guys, and nice guys. It does make it a little awkward for people who get sorted into “bad guys”, though…
HP has that cozy Halloween/dark academia vibe going on, too.
Camille Paglia basically said that aesthetic beauty justifies immorality. I don’t agree with that. But I also don’t believe in denying one’s aesthetic sensibilities because of morality. A thing can be both evil and beautiful; one does not unmake the other. I recognize HP’s beauty and its author’s immorality simultaneously.
In this case, I think the author’s immorality trumps the work’s beauty. It doesn’t feel right for me to engage with it in any way (I’m doing something a bit sketchy talking about it but I’m trying my best to do it in a way that is just expressing my opinion on it and not recommending it). It’s a bummer. It’s a nice thing that was ruined by the author’s actions.
I kind of hope that it doesn’t survive the ages. It takes a lot to ruin as shining a success as HP, but JKR did it.
It’s important to be aware that it’s not just her opinions that she and her work are being “cancelled” for, it’s that she’s using the money she earns from her franchise to disenfranchise trans people of the freedom to change their sex and gender.
What about enjoying HP without financially supporting JKR?
I feel kind of mixed about that. I feel like engaging with the work in a public way is helping promote it, which could end up financially supporting her if somebody sees you engaging and gets inspired to buy something officially licensed. In private, that depends on how you feel about it. It feels a bit too icky for me, but I can’t think of a way it would be hurting anyone to enjoy the books in private.
Anyway, this Ebay copy will be going off to my local thrift store… I got up to about Chapter 3 and then lost interest. It’s good, but I already know what’s going to happen, so it’s hard to stay invested all the way through. Also the whole anti-trans thing just makes it feel weird.
And I have too many things competing for my time and attention… I’ve been reading the Pita-ten manga in Japanese and I’m getting close to the end of volume 2! (Pray for me, it’s been months and there are 8 volumes… but it’s been a long-standing goal of mine to finish all of Pita-ten and to read it in Japanese)
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