Laurabelle’s Blog

I don't get why (seemingly) everyone loves Harry Potter.

A couple of years ago I read my mother's copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I didn't enjoy it, for many reasons. One of the biggest was the abuse Harry's family inflict on him. Child abuse is not funny, even in a cartoon, and it's simply unrealistic that Harry could endure systematic physical and psychological abuse without serious psychological consequences. (And why do the wizards at Hogwarts (who should be looking after him!) allow him to stay there for eleven years and then send him back for vacations?) Just thinking about it gets me steamed up. I think I wouldn't mind the theme of child abuse if it weren't treated so trivially and idiotically, as if it weren't a serious real-word problem.

Since I started considering young adult librarianship as a career option, I decided that I should read Harry Potter, if only to know my enemy. Recently I finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second book in the series. I can't really compare it to Stone, because I read that so long ago, but it's fairly horrible all on its own.

All Rowling has is plot and gimmicks. The world and the characters that she has created are funny but unsatisfying in their shallowness. They aren't even consistent! How can under-age wizards be expected not to use magic at all while on vacation, if wizards' lives are so steeped in magic that Ron's father regards telephones and buses with the same wonder that Muggles would have for floo powder?

I read Chamber as fast as I could, because I wanted to find out who was the Heir of Slytherin. In fact, I was half-convinced that it was Harry (not that I thought he was guilty of intending evil, but who can avoid destiny?). To my disappointment, it was a complete deus ex machina. I won't give away the ending to the other three people on Earth who haven't read Harry Potter before me, but suffice it to say that even though all the facts fit with the ending, it was an out-of-the-blue fix for a situation that the reader simply did not have enough clues to solve. There were lots of clues, all right, but they lacked any sort of cohesion. Rowling is making it up as she goes along, and it shows.

I don't even care about the characters. Harry's the protagonist, but I have no idea what his personality is like. He should be traumatized, but evidently he's a normal-enough kid. Ron's a mere sidekick. Hermione's just a girl-brain, lacking any other personality traits. I'm not attached to any of them. They're predictable types, so they don't drive the story. They can't. The plot ends up purely mechanical.

But in spite of my wailings and protestations, I am number 2204 in line for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which comes out this month. KCLS is buying nearly 500 copies, so it should only be 2-4 months before I hold it in my hot little hand.