June 25, 2005

STOP WAVING THAT THING:

Still wild about Harry?: Nearly 11 million copies of the sixth Potter book are coming, though spell may miss older teens. (Scott Martelle, June 25, 2005, LA Times)

When the first two Harry Potter novels came out in the late 1990s, Cinda Webb would sit in the upstairs hallway of her Irvine home and read aloud as her two sons drifted off to sleep, visions of wizards dancing in their heads.

Her younger son, Jon, now 14, quickly became entranced and devoured all five books. But her older son, James, now 17, lost interest around the third volume.

So Webb and Jon will join 200 other bleary-eyed Harry fans at Irvine's Whale of a Tale Children's Bookshoppe for the midnight July 16 release of the sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

James will likely be home, sound asleep.

"It's about a little wizard boy, and when you're a teenager you're just not caring what happens to the guy with the wand," says James, whose diet of nonfiction and the occasional mystery make Harry just so much kid stuff.


Of course, he'll read them again when he grows up and enjoy them.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 25, 2005 8:05 AM
Comments

The same is happening in my family where the kids are starting to consider HP as a bit babyish but the wife can't wait for the book.

Posted by: AWW at June 25, 2005 4:15 PM

My kids are going to be at camp in July, so I can't even pretend that the book's for them.

Posted by: David Cohen at June 25, 2005 5:05 PM

As C.S. Lewis said, "When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the horror of being thought childish."

Posted by: Bob Hawkins at June 25, 2005 10:33 PM

As a kid, I loved the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe books. Now, that I have a deeper understanding of the symbolism and allegory, I love them more.

The Harry Potter book are in the same mold, and perhaps even cleverer. I can't wait for the next book either.

Posted by: AML at June 25, 2005 10:36 PM

AML - Saw the trailer for Lion Witch and Wardrobe recently. The kids will love it for the acting/special effects. I'll like it for that and the message it sends (assuming Disney doesn't pc it to death)

Posted by: AWW at June 25, 2005 11:30 PM

I couldn't get through more than a few chapters of the first Harry Potter book. But I never muched liked the Narnia books, either. Both authors are guilty of "mixing myths" (Father Christmas and pagan fairies both appearing in the world where a lion is the Christ figure, for example), and using deus-ex-machina magic willy-nilly to advance the plot. These devices blow the whole "willing suspension of disbelief" thing for me. At least C.S. Lewis could write excellent prose and had an admirable purpose beyond cashing in on a series, unlike Rowling.

But after I had read Tolkien, a lot of other fantasy genre novels seem like pale imitations.
Except Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels--even though the castle is a weird, anachronistic pastiche of literary archtypes, it works. At least the first two books do.

Posted by: Ted Welter at June 26, 2005 9:16 AM

I know many adults who read Harry Potter. Of course, it's no surprise that older teens would abandon it. They are trying to become adults and don't want to be mocked for keeping things they associate with childhood.

Posted by: Chris Durnell at June 27, 2005 3:20 PM
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