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In Celebration of Magic
Dec. 27th, 2011 04:47 pmDiscussion on Raphi's LJ on relatable characters and Harry Potter and such made me want to dive back into the "magic" books that enthralled me as a child.
See, I wasn't remotely charmed by the first two HP books, and other acclaimed modern series like His Dark Materials really haven't worked for me. I grew up reading the sort of books that are the foundation of kiddie fantasy lit, like the E. Nesbit Psammead trilogy, not to mention lots of Roald Dahl. If that's what you start out reading, J.K. Rowling and her generation don't seem like much of anything special. Now, I think Rowling got her groove on with Prisoner of Azkaban, which actually got me invested in her series and characters, but the first two books are pretty standard school-story formula with bonus Dalhian grotesquerie, IMO.
[I also realize that part of the cultural impact of the Potter books was that, for many kids, that was the first series of books they ever read or wanted to read. That's a valuable role. They were NOT the first books I ever read and that's all I have to say about that angle.]
Not that derivative works can't be amazing.
( Cut for length. )
See, I wasn't remotely charmed by the first two HP books, and other acclaimed modern series like His Dark Materials really haven't worked for me. I grew up reading the sort of books that are the foundation of kiddie fantasy lit, like the E. Nesbit Psammead trilogy, not to mention lots of Roald Dahl. If that's what you start out reading, J.K. Rowling and her generation don't seem like much of anything special. Now, I think Rowling got her groove on with Prisoner of Azkaban, which actually got me invested in her series and characters, but the first two books are pretty standard school-story formula with bonus Dalhian grotesquerie, IMO.
[I also realize that part of the cultural impact of the Potter books was that, for many kids, that was the first series of books they ever read or wanted to read. That's a valuable role. They were NOT the first books I ever read and that's all I have to say about that angle.]
Not that derivative works can't be amazing.
( Cut for length. )
