Mush
I suppose to someone not as hopelessly geeky as me (or you, Stephy), the themes Rowling works in Harry Potter might seem fresh and intriguing. Now that I think about it, Ursula LeGuin’s Wizard of Earthsea stories, aimed at a similar audience, struck me that way 30 years ago, and you could shoot some of the same arrows at them: a little 60s neo-mysticism plus warmed-over Arthurian mythology. Which was itself lifted from somewhere, and so on.
What’s more interesting is how Rowling (and LeGuin and Lewis and so on) have figured out how to talk past us, directly to the kids, even when we are the ones reading the stories to them. I try hard to keep the laughter out of my voice when I read Harriet to Laura, but I know it’s there; I can hear it. She doesn’t, as far as I can tell. From where she sits, I am nothing but a conduit, like one of those talking e-Book reader gadgets. I guess I’m OK with that. In other contexts I like it a lot. You will remember the Robert Louis Stevenson poem about the horseperson going by in the night, with that great repetitive line, something like “back at the gallop again,” which when you read it out loud turns you into a percussion instrument in the writer’s hands. That’s pretty cool.
Meanwhile, Harry the Movie opens this weekend, as if anyone needed to be reminded. Slate has a pretty decent review, but the best part of their coverage is a link to the delightful Voice of the Turtle. The New York Times ran a think piece today that revisits parts of that old “Just get them reading” battle cry. Most librarians, who should know, seem to agree. I just wish this were the kind of world where they didn’t all have to get started on the exact same mass-produced mush.
Categorised as: Read this to me