Harry Potter

For the longest time I have hated Harry Potter.  Now, I'm not one to disparage the book, or its author.  J.K. Rowling is quite frankly a genius in her art, but frankly these books make JRR Tolkein look quite tame.  I don't understand how a children's book can be marketed with such a high character death count.  Tolkien highly discouraged anyone from thinking any of his books were for children, including The Hobbit.  This fact surprised me when I first heard it, but when you really look at all these books they aren't appropriate for children.  War and death abound in Tolkein, who took a great deal of inspiration from fighting in World War I.  In fact, the Dead Marshes in Lord of the Rings are a direct impact of him seeing dead soldiers in the trenches.  For a child to see such images of wanton destruction was probably more than Tolkien could have imagined.  Even in the Hobbit there's a great deal of nasty things, not the least of which is the terrible battle at the end, yet still many consider this a children's book.

Which brings me back to Harry Potter.  From book one, there's a high death count, and it seems that from the start Albus Dumbuldore has a pretty good idea what is going to happen to this poor kid.  He seeks to protect Harry from the dangers he will face, but at the same time he also catapults him into them.  I remember sitting in maybe the third or fourth movie, Goblet of Fire and wondering why the heck Dumbledor would put Harry into such brazen danger all the time.   It was reckless...almost heartless.  In the end Harry essentially has to lose EVERYTHING and everyone to finally find peace, much like Frodo in Lord of the Rings.   Gandalf is no less to blame than Albus is for putting Frodo in such danger, but there seems a greater reluctance on his part at least from my perspective.

There's other things that get to me too.  Some of the plot points of the book seem obvious, at least from an Author stand point.  I'm not going to spoil things for those who haven't read the whole series, but I had a pretty good idea what was happening and how things would end when I first heard about book one's plot.  Ironically enough, however, I think in large part my dislike of the books is a bit of jealousy.  Just before book one came out I was in High school and toying with an idea for a book about a school for magicians.  Its a very neat concept, and frankly Rowling's take on it far exceed's my preliminary notes and sketches.  I guess the fact she got to it before I could was a lesson in, write it while you can.