Blooming stop them! They’re reading!

By Tamara Lee

So I’m reading a novel, which shall remain nameless (I know, that’s lame but there it is) and I am supposed to think this novel is the bees knees. I’m supposed to appreciate it; failing to do so makes me a heathen/illiterate/simpleton. But the thing is I think this example of The Great Novel is just okay. Why I think this, though, is irrelevant here.

And, no, I am not referring to the new Harry Potter book. Potter, though, is relevant.

Recently I read such know-it-all critics like the mighty Harold Bloom and A.S. Byatt think the whole Harry Potter series is not only poorly written, but bad for literature, and bad for the future of our children.

‘What? That’s a bit over-the-top, isn’t it?’ I thought, as I read the Wikipedia version of the story (Wikipedia, of course, being the online version of crib notes, but there it is). Anyway, reading this criticism made me curious, so I decided to look further into their arguments against the Potter-phenomenon.

Now, let it be said, I have not read a single Potter book, but then, I’m allergic to mania. It’s how I roll. This last Potter book, though, intrigues me, mostly based on J.K. Rowlings’ comments that this is the book she'd always meant to write. So I thought I’d see about catching up with the Potter-plotline. Enter Wiki-crib-notes.

What I discovered is there’s rather a lot of criticism against the books. Where have I been? Me, I’d always assumed it was well-received by all. I should have known better.

Certainly, initially, the book was hailed and compared to Roald Dahl, but eventually, as with most things that become highly successful, the detractors set out to curb the enthusiasm. Enter snotty lit-crits.

What Bloom, Byatt and Faye Weldon argue, in general, is that the series is pap and children should not be reading pap, lest they learn bad reading habits, and not learn how to appreciate real literature. Jeez-louise, people who say stuff like this make me embarrassed that I read ‘real’ literature.

Okay, so Bloom’s an old man, raised during a time when TV and Gameboys and Internet weren’t a distraction. I sympathize with his frustration as a teacher, or in his case a Professor of Literature, but it is, despite his huffing and puffing, a different world. Hell, he’s 80; it was a different world, even, when I was growing up.

When I was a kid, I read S.E. Hinton and Judy Bloom (surely, no relation to Harold), as well as ‘classic’ literature. Reading was never a problem for me; I started at four and never stopped. I read anything. But then, I was encouraged to read. And the more I read, the more I was curious to try other flavours.

Encouraging people to broaden their reading tastes is the domain of parents and teachers. That anyone, and least of all a teacher, would discourage reading (even reading mediocre fiction) is incomprehensible to me. It’s rather like teaching folks how to ride a bike by telling them how not to do it. Lesson: Don’t bother getting on one in the first place. There, that’ll learn ya.

Bloom’s history as a notable critic and booklover is undisputed; attend one of his Ivy-league classes or read one of his tomes and you’ll surely believe it. Meanwhile, there are the rest of us.

The history of privilege and admonishment about reading choices is long and subjective. Early novels were primarily about love and adventure, and when they weren’t being slighted by the Brits for their ‘French’-ness, thus inferiority, they were name-called ‘women’s’ books. That is, until men got hold of them and made them ‘respectable.’ (That J.K. Rowling was asked by her publisher to use a gender-neutral name in order not to frighten off the boy readers just proves how far we’ve not come.)

No doubt Bloom would call me a few choice names for not appreciating the novel I’m reading-but-not-enjoying. I feel as though he’d judge my working-class upbringing; my gender; my blogging activities as lacking.

Happily, I wasn’t raised by Dr. Bloom, and I can carry on reading and disliking whatever classics I choose. And maybe pick up this last Harry Potter, to finally see what all the fuss is about.