The article I’ve linked to (Harry Potter And The Childish Adult by AS Byatt) came up on my Facebook notifications, so it got my interest as I thought it was a new article. Then I realised it was from 2003!

Never mind, I think it’s still relevant and I think it articulates well some of the objections I feel towards the Harry Potter books (and particularly the films) but never been to articulate myself. Basically, AS Byatt is saying, the Harry Potter books have very little original imagination: they are “comfortable, funny, just frightening enough”, but lack the true sense of mystery and danger in Tolkien, Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, etc.

I particularly like the sniffy put-down of “jolly hockey-sticks school story”, and this bit: “Ms. Rowling’s magic wood has nothing in common with these lost worlds. It is small, and on the school grounds, and dangerous only because she says it is.”

What do you think? Are you a Harry Potter fan, and is AS Byatt just a snob? I’ve heard people defending Harry Potter by saying things like “anything that gets kids reading can only be a good thing”, but AS Byatt seems to be agreeing that (in » Continue Reading.