From: Connie Rockman <connie.rock>
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 10:27:15 -0400

I teach children's literature in a Graduate School of Education and usually when we discuss fantasy the class divides down the middle those who love fantasy and those who claim to 'hate' it. I've always assumed that a love of fantasy comes from a positive childhood experience with folk literature and the classic fantasy books and try hard to convince the confirmed Muggles in each class to understand the allure of fantasy even if they can't embrace it.

All that changed this fall. With the paperback edition of the first Harry, I made it required reading for our fantasy discussion and the entire class loved it. (If there were dissenters, they kept quiet on fear of being ostracized.)

Now here's my theory: Rowling has managed to do what two other wildly popular fantasy authors (albeit with help from illustrators and movie-makers) have done in the past - create a fantasy world that exists very close to reality. The nearly immediate popularity of the Alice books of Lewis Carroll 100+ years ago had much to do with his satire on Victorian society, politics, education, etc. The drawings of Tenniel supported that satire (the Lion and Unicorn who resembled Gladstone and Disraeli, etc. etc.). It is a triumph of his genius that the books are still popular even for those who don't know the context. L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz brought the fantasy genre to middle America, and the Judy Garland film gave the story a circular connection to reality (the farm hands back home who resemble the Scarecrow, Lion, etc.) showing that the fantasy (dream, wish-fulfillment, etc.) exists in conjunction with the real world. Don't we all know adults who never miss this film adaptation of a children's book when it comes around on TV every year?

Rowling has made this same connection beautifully with her remarkable vision and sparkling style - those Dickensian names that Ruth mentioned, the satire on school life that is a universal experience, the wizard's mall at Diagon Alley - it's all deliciously close to what we deal with every day, and then delightfully skewed to make us laugh at ourselves or gasp at Harry's brushes with the dark side that lurks around the edges of our own reality.

And that's as much as I care to dissect these wonderful books - I'm reminded of a quote I use in teaching another genre: "A poem should not mean, but be."

Connie Rockman Children's Literature Consultant Stratford, CT
Received on Fri 05 Nov 1999 08:27:15 AM CST