07.27.07 5:00 AM CDT
• Books
• Josh Robertson
No shit, here’s what people were reading across from me on the subway this morning:Harry Potter
Barbara Kingsolver
Harry Potter
[not reading]
[sleeping]
Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter
[unidentified book, not Harry Potter]
[not reading]
Harry Potter
All readers were adults, possibly in their mid-20s to mid-30s. Granted, this was a subway ride in the 9:30-10:00 a.m. range, so these were not Wall Streeters or other Highly Successful People. Indeed finding myself in the midst of a quietly raging Harry Potter Reading Party gave me the opportunity to consider the question I always have: Who the hell are all these adults who read Harry Potter? Trends in appearance include flip-flops, shorts and general shagginess among the men, bland New York summerwear (black top, beige calf-length skirt) for the women. I cannot guess what they were doing with the rest of their days—lunch with a friend at a sidewalk café? Meeting with an advisor to discuss the progress of a graduate school thesis? Or perhaps just a stroll into Central Park, a search for the perfect shady spot on which to lay a blanket, and a solid six hours with the final volume of their favorite kid-wizard series? Possibly the last—their outfits seemed to scream “I have nothing to do today.”
What, if anything, is wrong with this picture? Why did I find these people so irksome? Eight years ago, an adult reading Harry Potter was in some sort of “know”—the idea was that yes, it’s a kids’ book, but it’s such a fun and comfy read that adults can enjoy it too. Harry was brand new yet felt like a classic you wish you’d grown up on. Now it seems more like some kind of drug, inducing heavy nostalgia for childhood—not your childhood, because it didn’t exist back then, but childhood in general. This for a generation (mine) that has enough trouble letting go and growing up. (See Vans sneakers, dodgeball leagues, et al.) I’m happy that a writer can make the kind of scratch J.K. Rowling is pulling down, but I’m also happy that this is her last Harry Potter book. For what appear to be educated New Yorkers, the “at least they’re reading something” argument is useless. These aren’t 12-year-olds. We’re in a great period for literature; there are too many interesting, challenging works of fiction being produced to fritter away your time on something as intellectually lazy as the 3,000-page Harry Potter corpus.
Well that ought to settle that. Speaking of intellectually lazy frittering and general brain-rot, I have here on my desk a stack of printouts of celebrity nipple slips to review for the Grapevine page. This will probably consume the rest of my day. And maybe tomorrow.
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Comments on this entry:
You stink man! Harry potter is one of the greatest serieses of all time! what is this "intellectually lazy frittering and general brain-rot" Reading Harry Potter is not intelectually lazy and it is most certainly not brain-rotting! You have no reason to say that reading the harry potter book is bad! You should do yourself a favor and maby hitch that IQ of 2 you have up by picking one Harry Potter books and ACTUALLY READING IT! AND how can you say that you are happy that this is her last Harry Potter book! The Harry Potter books have been staples for other writers as well as entrancing over 325 MILLION people! On this subject I can also state that that is not just a few countries that have these books but they have been translated into 63 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, and in case you didn't notice D.H. has broken the world record for bestselling book on its first print run! You may as well be totally uneducated if you lack the ability to actually use your brain constructively! I will give you the right to criticise her once you have sold 325 million copies of your book and then you can say that the people that read this book are not able to grow up, and are not highly successful! What you are incinuating is that they have no respect for great literature, and well frankly I believe that you yourself have no idea what a great literature is!
P.S. you may also want to read the Oddesy, Lord Of The Rings, and The Three Musketeers!
Have you read the books? The series is not so bad. It doesn't sound like you're judging the books at all. It's sounds like you're judging the people who read the books. That judgement comes across as if the readers have the mind level of a twelve year old, which is not really the case.
When all the world is annoying you, perhaps the problem is all in your head. It's late summer, the haze has thickened and the insects are getting more numerous--and it's a perfect time for light, escapist fantasy. I do not wish to be the man who can not enjoy the summer out in the sun, on the grass, reading a known enjoyable series. Let winter be the time for hard thoughts and dense books.
I know how you feel. When the book came out, or the day after rather, I was trying to IM some people and they were all reading Harry Potter. Except for one friend who was claiming Harry Twatter.
But I try not to judge it too much, I'm happy for J. K. and I figure it's a trend like all the people who saw Titanic or tried to get into Studio 54. There are worse things, like reading the gossip mags to keep up on Paris Hilton who wouldn't be believable if she were a character in a book. Another thing is it's over so two, three or four years from now you won't see people reading Harry Potter 8 unless y'know, J. K. "has a plot that deserves to be written" (ie: banking on a sure thing).
Summer for light escapist fantasy? Winter for hard dense books? What nonsense.
Two weeks ago this afternoon, whilst sitting British Airways' premium lounge at Sea-Tac, about half-a-dozen of the waiting Brits had books. Every such book was a copy of -- well, you know. En route to London, I asked one of them for her opinion of the series, and she loved it. I mentioned the high value British culture places upon good storytelling, and she said J.K. Rowling had met that standard. Recall that Tolkien's huge story was considered kid stuff for the first dozen years after he first published the whole thing. He wrote that his object was just to tell a really long story that readers would enjoy, nothing more. (I've never read Harry Potter, and got only halfway through the first "...Rings" book.)