And another thing…

Hmm, you left out this part of Laurie’s post:

“We have a responsibility as readers and thinkers to analyse the messages that this book sends precisely because its audience is so huge and so young.”

Do you not think Laurie has a point?

Or are you content with simply sneering at her attempt to seriously and clearly analyse something because it chimes easily with a non-leftist audience, whilst simultaneously refusing to engage with the most important sentence in what she’s written?

“Do you not think Laurie has a point? Or are you content with simply sneering at her attempt to seriously and clearly analyse something because it chimes easily with a non-leftist audience, whilst simultaneously refusing to engage with the most important sentence in what she’s written?”

Er, the second one…

Tom, you’d sooooo be in Slytherin.

Always fancied myself as a Ravenclaw kind of guy, actually…

I’ll bet you think the Famous Five are establishment reactionaries seeking to subvert the egalitarian principles of British society through racism and class elitism. But they’re not – they’re five children whose brilliantly-written adventures enthralled a generation of children of all classes.

All right, then what about Biggles, eh?

Surely another reactionary seeking to subvert egalitarian principles through racism and class elitism, beads of sweat glistening on his forehead as he manoeuvred his Sopwith Camel expertly around the dunes of the Sahara desert to escape the pursuing huns?

And he was no child either.

Oh dear, Tom. You seem to have missed the slightly tongue-in-cheek nature of Laurie’s post. Irony is not just a type of metally, you know.

Though I must say that when it comes to antinomian figures subverting the class and power structures, Captain Samuel Vimes of the Discworld series beats Harry Potter into a cocked wizard’s hat any day of the week.

I would say something about gender roles in the Twilight series, but to be perfectly honest Twilight is vacuous rubbish.

Good to see you back as your old self again Tom. Like you I look at these things as entertainment, but you know how maudlin Lib/Dems can be. They are almost as self righteous as Labour.

‘Er, the second one…’

Er, as usual…

The bit that got me was “Young children are all fascists”. n my experience, they’re actually fair minded until their parents’ or the world’s prejudices are foisted upon them.

I have a 10 year old who loves these books mainly for the stories – as a trainee animal rights activist her favourite characters are Buckbeak and the centaur who becomes a teacher whose name escapes me.

I will admit to having discussed with her that the magical world’s government stinks on just about every level – but she gets that herself from reading about Harry’s appearance before the Wizengamot, the fact that he’s not believed when he comes back from his first encounter with Voldemort, and so many other things.

I think if there is a message it’s that the world isn’t fair and terrible injustices happen and you have a bit of a responsibility as a citizen to stand up against those sorts of things.

Most of that will go right above the heads of the kids who read the books – they will just enjoy the story.

Tom, ‘brilliantly written’Famous Five books- really?! I spent approximately 80% of my childhood glued to the works of Ms Blyton, but even as an ardent 9 year old fan I could see that the books were pretty formulaic and that beautifully-crafted prose was not their USP..

Oh no. I’m afraid that such frivolity is misplaced. If either the author of this critique or Tom believes that this is an approporiate subject for mild mockery then they are mistaken. Such stories reinforce elitism, promote the belief that the forces which divide us are immutable, that the fates of those who are made to think of themselves as untalented, ordinary, are sealed. Insidiously, subliminally, in their neo-Calvinism, they propagandise on behalf of the political Right.

I’m a ‘Biggles of 266′ man meself. Western Front.

When I was at university I once considered writing my dissertation on how the HP books represented the clash of 20th century narratives with the Nietzschean “will to power” (as represented by Voldemort and his followers) battling it out with traditional Christian structures and attitudes (Dumbledore and Hogwarts).

Then I realised that it was a just a children’s book and went and had a pint instead.

In many cases the lefty, idiot classes are exactly those who, when not over- intellectualising children’s literature, or indulging their inner class awareness, are extolling the nobility of practically every enemy this country has ever had.

I think it’s arrested development.

They ceased to develop their thinking beyond the (necessary) radicalism of the nineteenth century.

Speaking as a former kids’ book editor, Laurie Penny puts her finger on what I think is the key to the Potter books’ success. ‘Facism’ may be an emotive word, but it’s also a good description of children’s fantasies. Children are perforce largely powerless, amoral and lacking in developed abilities, so to compensate they fantasize about being inherently superior, about imposing their own nature on everyone else – and about taking revenge. Whatever its other merits, HP provides a setting in which those impulses for self-aggrandisement and vengeance are hallowed with moral and practical impunity. That’s a big driver for its popularity.

The almost unprecedented cult status of HP is a useful window into the human mind, and if I was a politician the human mind would be of great interest to me. ‘Getting out more’ is very nice, but once out there it’s a shame to run around blindfolded shouting at the top of your voice about how you’re too clever to be told anything.

‘Facism’ may be an emotive word, but it’s also a good description of children’s fantasies… etc.’

Really? Aren’t children the worst?

Sigh. Fancy making me break off from my game of ‘Supreme Ruler’ to have to respnd to that. Oh well, the moment has gone. Maybe I’ll have a game of ‘Doom’ instead. Nah. Not in the mood any more. Where’s me ‘Terminator 2′ DVD? I see meself as Arnie’s machine in that you know, obsolete but still mighty, still resilient, almost indestructible until I decide otherwise, blasting away at the relentless enemy relentlessly.

But kids? Little monsters. Lock ‘em up I say.

@Penny

Being clever also includes the ability to distinguish preposterous pretence from reality.

I’ve never written specifically for children, but if I did, I’d take enormous pains to avoid this kind of condescension.

MRH
Tom, ‘brilliantly written’Famous Five books- really?! I
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Agreed – I listened to a Sunday papers freebie dvd of Five Get Lost On An Island or somesuch recently. You could drive a truck through the holes in the plot.

Of course what would really shock the pretrendy lefties was the fact that the swarthy foreigner was always going to be the villain

@Liberanos

IMO, acknowledging the primitive nastiness in children is the best way to avoid condescending to them.

I don’t think she’s being entirely serious.

There are serious issues about Harry Potter – namely why do so many adults feel the need to pretend they are great books.

They are OK books but they’re not brilliant and they are very definitely for kids, not adults.

If adults want to read some of the greatesr childrens books – or young adult fiction I think it is classified as now – of our time try Philip Pullman. His books really are brilliant.

I think Dickens is the greatest children’s writer.

Followed by Balzac.

I Like the spells:

Redactio – to cover in black ink
Flipio – to make a tax liability disappear
Quan go – to make something disappear. Precisely what is unclear and something else will take its place.

I wonder if her blogs will double in length each time she does a new one. Seems to work for J.K Rowling.

Although for once I did agree that Laurie’s article was tongue in cheek, it didn’t half go on.

I loved the Famous Five and Secret Seven by the way, but it wasn’t long before I realised how crap they were.

Also loved the Narnia books which weren’t crap, but you could have some serious discussion about the social, religious, sexual and racial stereotypes and attitudes portrayed there.

I can’t be bothered just now though.

Penny? She’s clearly a total Knut.

Are children fascists? I remember a Viz sketch which was based on a Famous Five/Secret Seven scenario, set in WW2. The characters foil a spy plot and, at the end, while the authorities are congratulating the kids, the German spy and U-boat sailors can be seen in the background, being killed by having their heads held in buckets of water. Crude humour, like you’d expect from Viz, but also a comment on Blyton’s perspective?

There are lots of books I loved from my youth, which I would probably regard as painfully one-dimensional now. I couldn’t get enough of my sisters’ Mallory Towers and St Claires books. I remember the ‘And so a bully was born’ line, where the reason for one girl’s abusive behaviour was explained, and Gwendoline, the emptyheaded, vain butt of jokes for most of the (MT?) series, had to grow up and take some responsibilities, so EB appreciated that everything wasn’t black and white, nasty and nice. But generally, her books ended will all being well and all manner of things being well…

Ms Penny is sailing a bit close to the wind with her assertion that ‘racist conceptions of Othered humans are made into separate magical races -consider the long-nosed, conspiring, bank-owning goblins, for example.’ It sounds as if she’s saying Rowling is sneaking in a bit of anti-Semitism, which would go with the accusation of the wizards portrayed as an ‘ubermensch’ . I thought Rowling was actually making an oblique reference to the way Swiss bankers have been traditionally referred to as the ‘Gnomes of Zurich’ – something to do with their secretive ways in their subterranean bank vaults, rather than actually looking like, erm, Gnomes. Far from being run by Jews, Swiss banks were chosen by the Nazis to keep the gold from melted down gold fillings and rings.

I think Ms Penny is angling for a job in journalism, and the way to get yourself noticed is to court controversy. It doesn’t matter whether the whole premise of the piece is completely specious. Journos like Julie Burchill have based their whole career on writing opinionated twaddle and annoying their readers. It’s a bit like the advice that the teacher in the History Boys gives to his pupils for their university applications – they could present a well-researched, factually correct but utterly boring argument, which will get them a place at their second-choice university, or they can cook up a completely specious, contentious but entertaining argument and get the place at Oxbridge. Which seems a bit perverse.

It was Harold Wilson who referred to Swiss bankers as the ‘Gnomes of Zurich’. That’s how traditional it is.

@ Jim Baxter: I didn’t know that. It’s passed into common parlance at any rate. It sounds as if it should be the title of a story collected by the Brothers Grimm.

@Nicky,

I believe JHW coined the term during his Premiership in the 1960s.

I don’t know if he also coined the phrase, ‘Get your tanks off my lawn’ but he certainly used it on Hugh Scanlon.

This is a good time, for the benefit of new readers, to repeat what he said about George Brown’s autiobiography, ‘In My Way’. I.e., ‘That’s where I always found him to be’.

We don’t get too much emmorable wit from our PMs these days, sadly. I liked Alan Johnson’s remark about some joint charm offensive he and Charles Clarke were involved in, ‘I was charming. He was offensive’.

Then there was Sir Alec Douglas Home’s remark. He’d renounced his peerage, something made possible for him by one Anthony Wedgewood Benn as he was always called (in, er, my day). Still, the LotO (JHW) insisted on referring to him as ‘The Fourteenth Earl’ playing the old snobbery card (inverted or otherwise). Sir Alec’s response: ‘I expect he’s the fourteenth Mr Wilson’.

Jim

It may be apocryphal, (everything quoted is, we know) but I loved Attlee’s supposed response, as leader of the opposition, to an invitation to the Kremlin.

“I’d be delighted to visit, and take the opportunity to spend some time with my opposite number.”

Nicky
Journos like Julie Burchill have based their whole career on writing opinionated twaddle and annoying their readers.
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And Tom Harris hasn’t noticed this.

Ya think !!