rosa HarryPotter and ne Chiish Adult- Now York Tims Thedew York ies Opinion More Like This And Hallands Cas Cow Intimidatedby Setan by Find More Stories Wists Lard Velderert, Harry Potter and the Childish Adult ‘What isthe seret of the explosive and worldwide success ofthe Harty Patter books? Why do they satisfy children and ~- a much harder question -- why do so many adults read them? ‘think part of the answer tothe first question is that they are writen from inside a child's-eye view, with a sure instine for childish peychology. hu then how do we answer the second question? Surely one precludes the other. "The easy question frst. Freud described what he called the “family romance,” in which a young, child, dissatisfied with its ordinary home and parents, invents a fairytale in which itis secrely of noble origin, and may even be marked out asa hero who is destined to save the world. In J. K. Rowling's books, Harry is Ube orphaned child of wizards who were murdered trying to save his life He lives, for unconvineingly explained reasons, with his aunt and uncle, the truly dreadful Dursleys, who represent, I believe, his real “real” family, and are depieted with a relentless, sleeful, overdone venom. The Dursleys are his true enemy. When he arrives at wizarding school, he moves into a world where everyone, good and evil, recognizes his importance, and tries ether to protet or destroy him, ‘The family romance is a latency-period fantasy, belonging to the drowsy years between 7 and adolescence. In "Order of the Phoenis," Harry, now 45, is meant to be adolescent, He spends a Jot ofthe book becoming excessively angry with his protectors and tormentors alike, He discovers that his late (and "real father was not a perfect magical role model, but someone ‘who went in for fits of nasty playground bullying. Te also discovers that his mind is inked to the evil Lord Voldemort, thereby making him responsible in some measure for acts of violence his neresis commits, mn psychoanalytic terms, having projected his childish rage onto the caricature Dursleys, and ‘retained his innocent goodness, Harry now experiences that rage as capable of spilling outward, mperiling his friends. But does this mean Harry is growing up? Not really. The perspective is still childs-eye. There are no insights that reflet someone on the verge of adulthood. Harry's first date with a female wizard is unbelievably limp, filled with an 8-year-oli's conversational ‘Auden and Tolkien wrote about the skis of inventing “secondary worlds." Ms, Rowling's world {sa secondary secondary world, made up of inteligenty patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of ebildren’s literature -- from the jolly hockey-stcks school story to Roald Dahl, from "Sta ‘Wars! to Diana Wynne Jones and Sesan Cooper. Toni Morrison pointed out that clichés endure ‘because they represent truths, Derivative narrative clichés work with children because they are ccomfortingly recognizable and immediately availabe tothe child's own power of fantasizing, ‘The important thing about this particular secondary world is that itis symbiotic withthe real ‘modern world, Magic, in myth and fairy tales, is about contacts with the inhuman ~ trees and creatures, unseen forces. Most fairy story writers hate and fear machines. Ms, Rowling's wizards shun them and use magic instead, but their world isa caricature ofthe real world and has trains, hospitals, newspapers and competitive sport. Much of the real evil inthe later books is caused by newspaper gossip columnists who make Harry into a dubious celebrity, which isthe ‘modern word for the chosen hero. Most ofthe rest of the evi (apart from Voldemort) is caused by bureaucratic interference in educational affairs. 4+ |2| [erpxce] A.S. Byatt is author, most recently, ofthe novel "A Whistling Woman." wneyimes.cem200407/Tlopnionharnypoter-and:the-childch-adut nd werosa HarryPotter and ne Chiish Adult- Now York Tims wneyimes.cem200407/Tlopnionarnypoter-and:the-chldch-adut nd