bibliogramma | Yes, I do read Harry Potter books (Reply)

I resisted for a while, until the first movie came out. Then I had to read the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. That led me to the second and third books, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

I continued to watch the movies as they came out, and read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but then I sort of let things slide, until the huge fuss last summer over the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By then, I'd forgotten a lot of the plots and lost track of who was who and so on, and since I'd never actually bought any of the books (instead, I'd borrowed them from the library), I decided to get serious.

So over the past year, I have bought and re-read everything up to The Half-Blood Prince - having just read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. (Yes, I read it in one evening - I read rather quickly to begin with, and these are not really the sort of books one savours slowly in order to better appreciate the deathless prose or profound insight.)

And now, on to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Why do I enjoy these books, seeing as they are a rather formulaic crossbreed of the standard British boarding school novel and the classic children's fantasy adventure, and there's really a lot of repetition from one book to the other in terms of plot and character interactions? Well, they're fun. Rowling may not be particularly original, but she certainly knows how to put all the standard pieces together in a way that works just fine, if you happen to be a fan of childhood and adolescent angst paired with death-defying deeds and magic, or something like it.

I think it's part of the same reason why I enjoy a lot of Mercedes Lackey's books, because they really are for the most part very similar in overall structure and theme.

Lackey's books generally start out with an abused or misunderstood child or early adolescent who, all unbeknownst to him or her, has a Great Destiny. Something unexpected and often magical happens to take them out of their unhappy circumstances and put them on the path to their great destiny, but it's hard slogging, and for quite a while, they continue to be misunderstood or underestimated or disbelieved. They gain some adult allies, but also adult enemies, and often also find themselves being tormented by a group of youths their own age, either because of jealousy, the above-mentioned misunderstanding, or because the children are linked in some way to the adult enemies. The special child perseveres, gains more allies, and embarks on the special quest that he or she was born to accomplish.

The only real difference with Rowling is that instead of telling the story in a linear fashion, the Harry Potter novels recapitulate the basic plot in each new book/year of Potter's life, increasing the level of initial misery, magical rescue, challenge, risk, and importance of the mission.

I guess I'm just a sucker for Special Children with Great Destinies.