The Half Blood Prince
posted by Dave Justus | 7/15/2005 10:52:00 AM
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Friday, July 15, 2005
5 Comments:
Alright, I'm baffled.
You write so well, and are clearly an intelligent person--how does the base writing of those novels keep you interested?
They're SO poorly written--stylistically, if not thematically.
I have to strongly disagree with you there Brian. The style in the Harry Potter books is quite good. For one thing, I don't recall another series, by any author, where the protagonists so credibly changed and developed over time.
In Sorcerers Stone, Harry is clearly 11. In Order of the Pheonix he is clearly 15.
This is not something that is trivial to pull off, and Rowling is very convincing at it.
Certainly Harry Potter is full of archetypal themes that are commonly present in other novels and myths, but presenting these old archtypes in new and compelling ways strikes me as evidence of signifigant artistic talent.
I understand that there are some people who believe that if a novel is accessible to 'common' people or, heaven forbid, children it must not be signifigant. I have always found that attitude to be rather shallow and elitist.
I would think that given the popularity of these books, your dislike of them says more about you than it does about them.
I would have to agree with dave on the style stuff of the book.
The chronicles of narnia were written by a smart and well rounded person. I love those books but think they are very simple, but then again they were not written for me.
When you are writing for children you are writing for a different audience.
The author of harry potter was able to make kids read nearly 800 pages in her last book. They were talking about the dangers of kids reading TOO much.
You can say they are simple, but kids apparently like that.
Whether or not I enjoy a book, or movie, or music, has little to do with its critically accepted level of quality.
I like the world of the Harry Potter novels, and as long as the writing is good enough to not distract me, I don't care if it isn't written as well as the Lord of the Rings trilogy or Crime and Punishment.
I finished the novel today and made some comments at my blog.
As a writer, in terms of style, Rowling's is top notch. Her style is geared *perfectly* toward the age group she's targeted. This is a task that is horribly complex for a writer. Having attempted to write children's material myself, I have to say that it's incredibly difficult to write a story geared toward children, that will also capture the imagination of adults, without seeming like you're dumbing it down for the sake of the kids.
Rowling is vastly talented. I can only hope, that by the time I've completed my first novel, that it displays some of her gifts.
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