Literary Dementors

I came across an interesting article by Harold Bloom in the September 24, 2003 edition of the Boston Globe.  It's about literature, Stephen King, Book Awards and Harry Potter.  I was quite impressed with his observations and find them completely accurate.  I encourage you to read it also.

Here's a snippett:

. . . I was told that children would now read only J.K. Rowling, and I was asked whether that wasn't, after all, better than reading nothing at all? If Rowling was what it took to make them pick up a book, wasn't that a good thing?

It is not. "Harry Potter" will not lead our children on to Kipling's "Just So Stories" or his "Jungle Book." It will not lead them to Thurber's "Thirteen Clocks" or Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows" or Lewis Carroll's "Alice."

Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.

Comments

[Isaac]

I disagree with Harold Bloom. I commend the National Book Foundation for giving the award. I posted about it, if you want to read.

http://www.wayswithwordsonline.com/