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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 09/01/00 -- Vol. 19, No. 9
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1 In the news New York University is trying to demolish a building
where it turns out Edgar Allan Poe once lived in one of the
building's earlier incarnation. What interests me are the protest
songs. What they are currently chanting in protest is "NYU.
Nevermore." Pretty pallid. At least it is better than "NYU has to
go. Hey, hey! Ho-ho!" But with a few seconds of thought I came up
with the much better "Just like a coffin deep within a sepulchre...
we shall not be moved." [-mrl]
===================================================================
2. Harold Bloom, a great supporter of education in the classics of
literature, takes the Harry Potter books to task in the July 17
National Post. (The editorial can be found at
http://www.nationalpost.com/stories/20000717/346015.html) He says
that "if you cannot be persuaded to read anything better, perhaps
Rowling [author of the Potter books] will have to do... Why read
if what you read will not enrich the mind or spirit or
personality?" I notice conspicuously missing from this list is
imagination. Personally I have always found imaginative works to
enrich mind, spirit, *and* imagination. Bloom goes a step further
and says "Perhaps Rowling appeals to millions of reader non-readers
because..." By implying that many of the Potter fans are "non-
readers" he negates some of his own arguments. He complains about
the number of cliches in Rowling's writing, but how can anything be
a cliche to someone who is a non-reader? And surely turning a
non-reader into a reader, even if a limited one, should enrich the
mind, the spirit, and the personality.
What is it that Bloom believes young people should be reading? As
he says "The ultimate model for Harry Potter is TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL
DAYS by Thomas Hughes, published in 1857. The book depicts the
Rugby School presided over by the formidable Thomas Arnold,
remembered now primarily as the father of Matthew Arnold, the
Victorian critic-poet. [Oh boy!] But Hughes' book, still quite
readable, was realism, not fantasy." Bloom places great value on
realism and apparently much less on fantasy. He does not, however,
give any arguments why fantasy is intrinsically of less value that
realism. To be fair, he does give examples of fantasy that would
be better for young people to read, but they are limited to works
like THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS and Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books.
Bloom's opinions reminded me that I had heard a very similar
opinion voiced in a film not very long ago. The film was THE WHOLE
WIDE WORLD and the speaker was Novalyne Price, played by Renee
Zellweger. Ms. Price was a real person, though her name will
probably not be very familiar. The film was based on her memoir of
the period that she dated another writer, Robert E. Howard. That
name may ring a few more bells. Howard was a pulp writer who
created the character Conan the Barbarian. Price was interested in
Howard's talent, but was frankly not very impressed with the
fantasy genre in which Howard chose to write. To her fantasy was
childish. She felt that Howard had the talent to write good
realistic literature about the lifestyle of Depression-era West
Texas where he lived. She wrote that sort of literature and she
was sure he could also. And perhaps he could have. But I suspect
that even Dr. Bloom has not read Price's descriptions of West Texas
life. I would not surprise me to hear that he did not even know
her name. If Novalyne Price is remembered today it is as the woman
who dated fantasy writer Robert E. Howard.
Howard wrote fantasy, and not very elevated fantasy either. But he
wrote with imagination that has now inspired generations of
writers. Howard founded a genre of writing called "sword and
sorcery" and better writers have found a place in that genre,
perhaps ones that Price and Bloom would approve of and perhaps not.
But for Howard to focus on realism he would not have been setting
his sights higher. He would only have been pointing them in a
wrong direction. Robert E. Howard and J. K. Rowling have something
that Thomas Hughes does not. They have the ability to inspire
modern readers. People have a curiosity to visit the worlds that
they create. Few people have much curiosity to visit worlds that
Thomas Hughes created, and in fact he does not do much creation.
The act of writing realism is not one of creating worlds but merely
describing them well.
Bloom asks "Can more than 35 million book buyers, and their
offspring, be wrong? Yes, they have been, and will continue to be
so for as long as they persevere with Potter." But thirty-five
million book buyers seem to think they are enriching their lives
with Potter. Popularity is no sign of elevated literature, of
course. Trashy novels frequently are best-sellers. But they
almost always pander to sexual curiosity or a fascination with
violence that is not present in the Potter books. Why do so many
people want to read Potter? They are finding some reward. I think
it is fantasy and fun. I can understand that viewpoint. I do not
know what Bloom wants in a book. He would have to show me how TOM
BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS enriches the mind and the personality in some
way that Rowling does not. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
Nothing is so aggravating as calmness.
-- Oscar Wilde
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