Thursday, July 10, 2003
A.S.Byatt on Potter
The BBC writes about the Booker-prize winning Byatt's diss of the Harry Potter series.
Author AS Byatt has dismissed the Harry Potter books as being written for people whose imaginations are confined to the "worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip". The Booker Prize-winning author said Rowling's stories lacked the "seriousness" of great children's writers and questioned why adults were fanatical about her writing.
I am not the greatest fan of the Potter books. However, Rowling must be doing something right for so many tens of millions of these books selling, and not just in the reality-TV obsessed countries of the world, but just about everywhere. Honestly, I'd rather have children read a not-so-great series of books rather than have them sitting around watching TV all day and reading nothing at all. If Harry Potter is what inculcates the reading habit, so be it. Noone should be complaining, least of all Byatt. Some of these kids might actually grow up and read "The Virgin in the Garden."
Author AS Byatt has dismissed the Harry Potter books as being written for people whose imaginations are confined to the "worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip". The Booker Prize-winning author said Rowling's stories lacked the "seriousness" of great children's writers and questioned why adults were fanatical about her writing.
I am not the greatest fan of the Potter books. However, Rowling must be doing something right for so many tens of millions of these books selling, and not just in the reality-TV obsessed countries of the world, but just about everywhere. Honestly, I'd rather have children read a not-so-great series of books rather than have them sitting around watching TV all day and reading nothing at all. If Harry Potter is what inculcates the reading habit, so be it. Noone should be complaining, least of all Byatt. Some of these kids might actually grow up and read "The Virgin in the Garden."
