From: Monica Edinger <monicaedinger>
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 04:56:58 -0400

I've always credited the current popularity of fantasy to Harry Potter, but am now wondering if 9/11 isn't a factor too. The best fantasy novels deal with the most significant issues of life --- what is good, what is evil, and what to do about it. I've always felt that one reason the genre is appealing to young readers is that far from being escapist, its authors create compelling environments in which the same huge issues that we are dealing with daily in real life are being considered, grappled with, and won over. In these works, it is pluck, intelligence, verve, self-sacrifice, and other realistic human behaviors not magic that really matter. Just as we want to think is true (oh so much) in this complicated post 9/11 world that our children will be taking over soon enough.

Monica


Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at gmail.com
Received on Mon 11 Sep 2006 03:56:58 AM CDT