First, I have to apologize to J.K. Rowling, not that she'll ever know that she deserves one from me. This is embarrassing, but I've been calling her Rawling in my blog, and since that isn't her name, I feel kind of bad about it... and as I said, rather embarrassed. You'd think after reading the whole thing I'd know how she spells her last name.... Oh well, life goes on.
In response to Dr. Cole's posts about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone...
I'm really excited to move on with the series, and I look forward to the bureaucratic and good/evil stuff that you mentioned. I won't be reading them for this class, but I'll definitely let you know what I think. I think that Book 1 was great, and watching Harry develop over the course of the series will certainly be interesting.
As for her technique, I suppose that the most interesting to me is her juxtaposition of muggles and the wizards. It's as though all of the muggles work as excellent foils against the "magic endearing people" in the novel. I also like the words and turns of phrase that she invents. Muggles is a great example, but there are plenty more. Finally, I find her naming of characters and locations (which often act as characters themselves) to be really amusing. I tend to find it difficult to follow characters when their names are kind of foreign to me (most of Shakespeare's work can be offered as good examples), but that's not the case with Harry Potter. The names are so funny and fitting (Hagrid and Dumbledore are great examples) to the characters that they remain easy to follow.
As for Laurie Halse Anderson's work, I don't remember thinking negatively of her endings. That must have been Anthony. I do remember thinking that her work was kind of formulaic, but I wasn't too critical of that. I'll have to reread Twisted or Wintergirls with the endings in mind so that I can take note of any similarities that I notice.
Well, if it was Anthony, the point won't apply quite as much. But, there's this technique and now I'm wondering if it's particular to YA or to other literature as well, to hurry up and finish. Maybe this would be a good inductive mini-lesson.
ReplyDeleteRowling, like other fantasy writers, is excellent with place. As came up in another class, she also did bucket loads of research and has embedded huge numbers of mythological references in her work, and much of it is standard readings of those myths. So, some teachers are using her as a springboard to mythology units. I've heard of people doing the same with the Twilight Series and Bram Stoker's Dracula, but my guess is that Harry Potter creates a more significant literary experience. Do let me know what you think about the rest of the series.