July 23, 2005

J.K. Rowling, not the "pimply loner freakazoid" compensating type.

Jeremy explains why the Harry Potter series is so appealing (even to adults):
[I]t's full of cleverness but doesn't start taking its world too seriously--you don't get the image of some creepy male author sitting in an attic typing out page after page of the fantasy world that he had first started conjuring as an adolescent as a way of coping with what a pimply loner freakazoid he was.
Hmm... how many authors is he slamming there?

4 comments:

Ron said...

"I'll take 'All of Them' for $200, Mr. Trebek."

Squints said...

Ron's right.

Wow. The kind of statement says way more about its author than its subject. I've got wallpaper deeper than this guy.

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

I've always thought that Rowling intended -- and I believe she's said this in interviews -- for Harry P. to appeal to, and represent, precisely the kids who thought of themselves as not cool, popular, or "normal." Hence the eyeglasses, which symbolize intellectualism; hence his difficult relationship with his suburbanite aunt's family, who are caricatures of averageness; hence the way even his classmates at Hogwart's, except his two best friends, are frequently suspicious of him because of his special powers. It's only because the books have become so popular, and because the movie actor who plays him was cast to a more robust type, that this side of Harry has been somewhat overlooked.

jeremy said...

"I've got wallpaper deeper than this guy." Yeah, well, I'm wallpaper and you're glue, buddy!