Crazed Pottery
by NIH literary editor, St. Clair Carr
Everybody says the Harry Potter books are good for children because they are well written. Thank God! Otherwise children would have to read hackneyed crap like The Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
And of course what the field of children's literature needs just at this moment in history is another series of books trading on the hoary old shtick of a child protagonist with special abilities which make him more powerful than adults.
Do the parents who are so happy that their children are reading Harry Potter ever wonder why their children want to read about a boy who can put adults in their place? Do they ever wonder why they want their children to read about a boy who can put adults in their place?
Let's see – what does the plot of the current Harry Potter movie remind you of? Boy with magical powers vanquishes evil wizard who has killed his parents – isn't that just a little reminiscent of popular depictions of current events?
Boy president with magical technology vanquishes evil religious fanatics – that's how the current Western military campaign in Afghanistan is depicted. Son of George triumphs over the arcane wizardry of Osama bin Laden, who has killed young George's countrymen. And once he has triumphed, all our problems will be over.
That, of course, was how the bombing of Yugoslavia was depicted. The good wizard Billy Clinton used his magical technology to defeat the evil Milosevic, after which everything was fine. Oh, the Kosovar guerillas destabilized Macedonia and Yugoslavia, and Macedonia had to accede to their demands, but since everyone had stopped paying attention by then the story lost none of its power to enchant.
Doubtless you have noticed that the magical hero who can singlehandedly conquer evil is a staple of American popular entertainment. Sylvester Stallone won the Vietnam war for America after it was long over.
The actual utility of reliance on magical technology seems not to have been assessed very well. In its battle against Communism the United States shipped billions of dollars' worth of magical technology to Vietnam, only to end up throwing up its hands and letting the Communists have Vietnam after all.
To return to Harry Potter, he may fairly be categorized as the opium of childhood. Children are still, even in these times of weak-kneed childrearing, at a gross disadvantage in their dealings with the world: they are small, naive, intellectually undeveloped, and weak. To make them feel better children's books like J. K. Rowling's encourage them to indulge in fantasies about being small, naive, intellectually undeveloped, and strong.
Perhaps the Potter oeuvre does encourage children to read (I am unaware of any studies in refereed journals that confirm this supposition, but these days you can't believe anything you read in refereed journals, anyway). And perhaps it gives them a taste for hero worship over political participation, for trust in magic over assessment of risk, and in general for fantasizing over thinking. Is it any wonder Harry Potter is popular?
Crazed Pottery © John FitzGerald, 2001
Click the banner or click here for ACTUAL ANALYSIS
Reviews | Home