I spent this past weekend indulging in what some might call a reclusive and nerdy passion. My Friday night and better part of Saturday was consumed with my devouring of a giant novel the size of my fist.
No, I was not engrossed in the latest Harry Potter like the rest of the world. I was enjoying “At Swim, Two Boys” by Jamie O’Neill, the brilliant, Irish, post-modern novel that deals with a taboo homosexual relationship during the brink of the Easter Rebellion of 1916.
When my friends and I emerged from our fictitious worlds, I battled a strange duality within my gut about how I felt about this whole Harry Potter craze. There was the pretentious literary hand casting devious swipes at anything written by someone who hasn’t won a Pulitzer ““ I wanted to scream at the entire world for paying so much attention to a children’s book. Where was the justice that no one stormed Borders when Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison’s “Love” emerged ? I despised how Harry Potter entranced the world when so many great works continued to go unnoticed.
The other hand knows better than this. Harry Potter galvanized a whole generation of youth to voraciously consume literature. I cannot fathom why a 7-year-old would attend a midnight book release, but they did, and they did so in droves.
My ultimate qualm with Harry Potter is in regards to the adults who read it. Many people believe that this series is a children’s collection and it is ridiculous to have grown men and women devouring the books as if they were great literature.
Whether or not I agree with this opinion, I understand that it is only an opinion. There is no basis to say that Morrison’s “Beloved” is inherently worthy of more praise than the latest Harry Potter work. Literature is a taste, and like all tastes, we must take it in as a subjective one.
The Harry Potter phenomenon is an example of how deeply reading is embedded into our core of enjoyment and not just the thing we do until the newest blockbuster is screened.
I find it sad when people ask me who my favorite author is (Toni Morrison if you have yet to guess) and I get the reply of, “Oh, I have never heard of him.”
If you understand why that statement is sad, good for you. If not, just realize that there are many worlds outside that of Hogwarts that can equally captivate and astound you. The conclusion of the Harry Potter series is not an excuse to step away from reading, but rather an entrance into the worlds waiting to enrapture you just as easily as one sorcerer has already done.
Nadler is a fourth-year world arts and culture student.