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On Child-Proofing Harry Potter
In a word, don’t do it. Peter Damien explains why in a very thoughtful article at BookRiot, where he discusses the very experience I had several years ago reading Harry Potter to my then first/second grade daughter. I must confess, the thought never occurred to me to alter the details of the plot to make them more kid-friendly. What’s the point of reading a story if you’re going to change it?
The most I ever did is the same thing Peter confesses to doing: cleaning up the language every so slightly to tone down the “hells,” “damns,” and whatnot. My daughter is quite aware that people swear. She may even suspect that I swear when she’s not around. I prefer her to think that educated people can make themselves understood without recourse to vulgarity.
Anyway, Peter does an excellent job of highlighting this and other concerns so that parents can reflect on how to read material with their children that may just push their (the parent’s) comfort zones. And his bottom line is so blazingly obvious, it’s a shame he needed to say it: If you as a parent don’t feel comfortable reading something to your child, don’t. But there are benefits to reading stories like this “straight” (at the appropriate time):
My personal preference is, do read it, and do discuss it with your kids. You’re having a remarkable dialog which is itself a habit you want to continue for the rest of your lives. And there is a giddy high you’ll get when you go to discuss the book with your kids and they just get it. They get the plot, the people, they’re building theories. I’ve been tweeting with excitement my oldest son’s attempt to puzzle out the Harry Potter plots along the way, because it’s amazing and fun to watch his mind work, logically figuring things out.
I’ll suggest something else. Reading an early version of Children of Pride with my daughter, I later heard her comment about a particular detail of how my imagined faery world worked that I knew would resonate with things she was going through at the time. I realized that I had managed to give her a little bit of vocabulary with which to talk about things she was feeling. Looking back, I can see how Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and other fantasy heroes (not to mention their respective villains, sidekicks, and mentors) have also broadened her ability to name and thus to some extent control or at least endure the challenges she faces.
Finally, if I might say so, J. K. Rowling has already done a masterful job of “child-proofing” her own stories. Ron’s language, for example, doesn’t even become an issue until the later books. Themes associated with dating and romance are handled with considerable tenderness and reserve. In my opinion, children who are perhaps a bit younger than Harry and his friends are in any given book should have no problems dealing with what they encounter there.
Something Tells Me This Will Be at My House Next Summer
A quick update on Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods, my collection of original Greek myths told from Percy Jackson’s point of view. The US release date has been set for Tuesday, August 19, the day after Percy’s birthday! Book releases are always slated for Tuesdays, for sales and marketing reasons I do not pretend to understand, so that’s the closest date we could make it. No word on release dates in other countries yet. I don’t usually get that information, but if I do, I will let you know.
Writing Tips from George R. R. Martin
At a recent event at the Sydney Opera House, A Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin shared ten tips for writing fantasy. Here is the list; click through to Chris Jager’s Lifehacker article for the details:
- Don’t limit your imagination
- Choose your point-of-view characters to broaden the narrative’s scope
- It’s okay to “borrow” from history
- On believable POVs
- Grief is a powerful tool — but don’t overdo it
- Violence should have consequences — so spare nothing!
- Avoid fantasy cliches
- On creating “grey” characters
- Juggling lots of characters takes skill — and luck
- Remember: Winter is coming
I Never Knew There Was an International Cryptozoology Museum
…in Portland, Maine or anywhere else! But Christa Thompson, the Fairytale Traveler, has the scoop.
The only one of its kind, the museum showcases a bizarre, extraordinary and diligent collection of mythical and unusual creatures from around the world. In other words, if you’re looking for the Jersey Devil or Bigfoot, this is your best bet at finding them.
Names
I appreciated Carl Sinclair’s post today about names in fantasy fiction. Some writers seem to love filling their fantasy worlds with awesome (if improbable) names for people, places, and things. Tolkien made a cottage industry of it—and inspired generations of writers who simply don’t have the linguistic chops to pull it off! Carl’s point that some (many?) such writers go overboard is well taken.
In Children of Pride, most characters, places, and things have names that are quite at home in the English language. This was something of a challenge, as the story deals with people and things that were often given their names centuries ago both in Gaelic, Cornish, or some other actual language or in Esrana, a constructed language that plays a tiny role in the unfolding of the story. Plenty of originally-foreign names became blatantly Anglicized (Gaelic Áine became Anya) or, in once instance, Gaelicized-then-Anglicized (Muskogee Rvne Rofke became Dunhoughkey) for ease of pronunciation.
Left to my own devices, I would probably have made things more complicated than they are. I am, however, dealing with fantasy in a contemporary setting and aiming the story at younger readers. I appreciated the constraint that provided, and my beta readers and I are fairly pleased with the results.
Tolkien’s Dragons
Anne Marie Gazzolo, guest author at Mythic Scribes, has written a very informative article on dragons in the imagination and writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Here is a sample:
The great worms will ever live in the world of Faërie, and we can enjoy them from the safety of our favorite reading place. But as we shiver in delighted terror, let us not forget what they can also teach us.
In presenting Smaug as the personification of the destructiveness of avarice, Tolkien shows us the ugliness of materialistic greed. The dragon jealously guards his treasure but does not enjoy it, cannot possibly use it, and does not even know what has true value and what is just a trinket. Even so, he does not wish to share his amassed wealth with anyone. His overreaction after discovering that the cup Bilbo stole is missing is almost as bad as Gollum’s regarding the Ring, and it grows much worse.
Watch a Danish Archer Outshoot Legolas
This video filled me with wonder. What was ancient and medieval battlefield archery like? If Lars Andersen is any indication, maybe a lot faster and more rip-roaring than we may have envisioned.
Plato or Dumbledore?
DISCOVERY: that the addition of “Harry” to almost any Plato quote makes it seem legitimately like a nugget of wisdom out of the mouth of Albus Dumbledore.
“Death is not the worst that can happen to men, Harry.”
“Harry, good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.”
“He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it, Harry.”
“Harry, how can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?”
“Harry, astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other.”
“He was a wise man who invented beer, Harry.”
Percy Jackson Confession
Adrian Murdoch speaks for many:
The Percy Jackson novels by Rick Riordan are essential reading for any classicist. I claim to buy them for the kids – they are nominally aimed at children – but instead devour them myself as soon as they are published.
Indeed.
Chupacabra Sighting?
I’m going to vote No, but have a look and see…
Darrell J. Pursiful 