From the blog of Nathan Bransford, as part of Harry Potter week:
As a teacher and as a reader, I always found that J.K. Rowling used her Harry Potter series to lob a few not-so-veiled critiques at elements of society, such as using the muggles vs. wizards bigotry to attack xenophobia. She took a quite a few potshots at the education system, which was going through big changes in many countries around the world, including my home province of Ontario. We had a huge provincial government take-over of local boards, including their abilities to control funding and their own curriculum. Did anyone else feel that she was attacking their local or national school system the way I did, and if so, how?
9 comments:
No. I can't say, as a teacher living through the changes, that it ever occurred to me that JK was getting at the government or the education system. We have such a deeply ingrained system here it just is, how it is.
Of course she did!
And many other things, too.
Interesting, I was just thinking of JK Rowling and the HP series yesterday.
I love all the books - whether reading between the lines or not!
Maybe we should take heed.
xx
I must say I never thought of it in such concrete terms. I often thought she was having a go at certain prejudices and types of behaviour, but not actual systems. Interesting. I wonder what she says about it?
It's been so long since I read them, but HP #5 was a scathing indictment of the British educational reforms, of the removal of local abilities to tax and determine the specific needs of their schools. There was a parallel between what was happening in the UK and right here in Ontario at the time, where our provincial conservatives decided to take the lucrative monies from Toronto's large tax base and redirect it to suburban and rural areas that supported their party. It destroyed our local board, jeopardised things like our swim programs that were unique to our city's progressive board, and caused all sorts of budget shortfalls. We have not recovered from that nightmare, and Rowling's mocking of the ministry of education in her own novel was eerily familiar to us, because what was written on paper at Hogwarts was happening in our neck of the muggle woods.
Interesting discussion, I would tentatively agree with you, but am not steeped in the system anymore!
I'm perhaps the only person left on the planet who hasn't read the books. just not my kind of thing at all.
But I like the fact there might be some kind of subtext.
When I was a teacher the books seemed to appeal most to the 16 / 18 year olds. My "sixth form" artists were totally hooked on them.
Ian, I have surprised myself in picking up what are considered "teen" books, (and I don't mean things like the Twilight series), and really enjoying them. There really is a rich subtext to the HP world, and I would think people living the UK would be able to "read" a lot more into it than those outside of it. I didn't always find all of her installments top-notch, and indeed thought her final book could have started at page 300, but she took on some pretty big social issues in between weaving a great story.
That said, if you've watched the films, you basically get the major plots without the background.
xx
AM
Totally know what you mean by "people living the UK would be able to "read" a lot more into it than those outside of it".
Secret passages in old boarding schools and all that. Fantasies perhaps even once inspired by an class structure that sent it's children away from home to be educated. Lonely nights in dark echoing dorms and all that. Ghosty stories under the bedsheets.
I could nevber get on with The Hobbit either. (Really tried to like that one). Nor even Alice In Wonderland.
Maybe if they were Pink Floyd concept albums I'd like 'em more!
I absolutely love the Hobbit and its trilogy sequel, The Lord of the Rings. Fantastic reading!
I've read them all several times.
As for HP, I read the books after Beth became hooked back in elementary school. They are not just "kids' books".
I was transported while reading them, as well. Great fun!
I might just pick them up again.
xx
Post a Comment