"'Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill
Appear in Writing or in Judging ill,
[...]
'Tis with our Judgments as our Watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
In Poets as true Genius is but rare,
True Taste as seldom is the Critick's Share;
Both must alike from Heav'n derive their Light,
These born to Judge, as well as those to Write.
Let such teach others who themselves excell,
And censure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their Wit, 'tis true,
But are not Criticks to their Judgment too?
[...]
-excerpt from Alexander Pope's "Essay on Criticism"
To millions of children he is a bespectacled hero and trainee wizard.
Not a bit of it, according to a Left-wing French lecturer. In fact, Harry Potter is a "politically incorrect sexist" with a degrading view of women...
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JK Rowling's Harry Potter stories are sexist, tedious and grating, according to a book out later this month.
The author, Jack Zipes, professor of German at the University of Minnesota, says the wildly successful books are part of the "process by which we homogenise our children".
"Rowling's books conventionally repeat much of the same sexist and white patriachal biases of classical fairy tales," he says in his book, Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter, to be published by Routledge.
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The funny thing about Harry Potter is that he was famous from the start. "There will be books written about Harry -- every child in our world will know his name!" J. K. Rowling announced with spooky accuracy in the opening chapter of her first novel, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." No doubt she meant this as a reflection of Harry's awesome powers of wizardry, not of his ability to land on magazine covers and lure children to bookstores at the witching hour. But the fact is that Ms. Rowling's gifts of prophecy have proved nearly as amazing as all the magical feats she ascribes to Harry and company. Still, not even she could have predicted this.
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Quick, name the best-selling book -- actually, a series of books -- containing wizards, witches and strange beasts which some schools don't deem appropriate for children (the books, not the beasts).
Did you say "Harry Potter?" I was actually thinking of the Bible, but since you mentioned Harry, let's talk about him instead.
Harry Potter is the main character in a delightful series of children's tales by J.K. Rowling which also happens to be a guilty pleasure for many adults (me included). These three volumes -- seven are planned -- stand head and shoulders above many other children's books (sort of the way Hagrid gets attention) because they are actually worth reading. The fact that they have become the center of a minor controversy says more about the low opinion some adults (dare I say Muggles?) have of children than it says about Harry Potter, who would never be so condescending.
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I read the first novel in the Harry Potter series, ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' in April 1999 and was only moderately impressed. But in April 1999 I was pretty much all right. Two months later I was involved in a serious road accident that necessitated a long and painful period of recuperation. During the early part of this period I read Potters 2 and 3 (''Chamber of Secrets,'' ''Prisoner of Azkaban'') ...
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BERKELEY, Calif. -- My family, like so many others, was excited about Saturday's release of yet another Harry Potter book. But although there are many legitimate reasons for praising the series -- the exciting plots, the new young readers being drawn to books, the quality of the writing -- I am disappointed about one thing: the decision by Scholastic, publisher of the American edition, to translate the books from "English" into "American." Scholastic even went so far as to change the title of the first Harry Potter book from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
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Sooner or later, even the best spells wear off.
The one cast by the Harry Potter books of J.K. Rowling has enchanted children and grown-ups alike for almost three years. One secret to the young wizard's popularity is that, behind all the familiar hugger-mugger of magic potions and invisibility cloaks, Harry's really having a normal childhood. Rowling first introduced us to the plucky orphan at 11, an age when -- like many unorphaned 11-year-olds -- Harry learns that his parents aren't who he thought they were...
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Last Updated: November 2001 (Mostly web page design).
