Another excellent Point of View talk by Roger Scruton on Radio 4 this morning - this time on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. In my opinion, he over-praises their literary merit - when I tried one I found it literally unreadable - but his wider point about the impact of 'Potterism' is well made. I hadn't joined the dots between the magical thinking of Potterism and the 'soft socialism' of the snowflake generation, but it seems to make perfect sense. You can listen to the talk via this link...
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Sir, you seem a well read man and so it delights me to see that we share the same opinion of the Potter novels. I tried one, got to page three and decided it was cliched hokum. I have never tried again, but have spent many years preventing myself from voicing in public what I thought were unorthodox and unscholarly opinions. I will now sleep a little better at nite thanks to you.
ReplyDeleteI made it through several chapters, determined to discover what all the fuss was about - but it just seemed ordinary at best. I was too bored to go on...
ReplyDeleteThe adults who I've heard extolling the virtues of the Potter stories generally seem to be people who have not read much fantasy prior to that.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat the same for my friends who are rabid fans of Game of Thrones. A show which I enjoy, but don't see as anything exceptional except for its budget compared to most fantasy series pre-LOTR movies.
The commentator here seems like he's familiar with the classics, but probably not the mainstream fantasy books of the last couple decades.
A 'don't even go there!' cognomen for the masked lady? Not the sort of thing one assumes by accident.....
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the books, but I see that on Twitter JKRowling is the self-appointed chief moralist de nos jours, a great mine of platitudes. Can't possibly therefore be a good writer.
ReplyDeleteYou're right there, Old Bones!
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