think about it, on the scale of cool stuff that people can do to make lives better, the wizards et all have been on the same level for centuries, they never discover anything new and the only way in which their lives are different to those of their ancestors is because of how muggle society has changed.

Wizard society doesn’t evolve, none of them are interested in how their magic works, they just accept that it’s there and nothing else, there’s no intellectual curiosity because every need is met by magic (so the idea of the Weasleys being poor makes no sense, why can’t they just conjure everything they want out of thin air? what with it being magic and all?).

We may not have magic but we understand our world and can make it better and that’s something that JK’s wizards will never have. They’ve reached the peak of their evolution whereas we haven’t. Human society and life will continue to evolve and (hopefully) improve but Harry or his mates want to know what kind of life their grandchildren will have then they just need to look around because it’ll be exactly the same.

Laurie has been consistantly the most demented poster on this site but this takes the fucking biscuit! What the fuck an unreconstructed Stalinist is doing posting on LibCon is beyond me.

INTERPRETATION IS AN ARTIFACT OF THE METHOD OF ANALYSIS, it’s not a science which reveals the ‘hidden meaning of a text’.

Putting into Marxist terms that Laurie can get a grown up to explain, the cycle of the production of meaning is completed by the reader: in her case her paranoid, humourless political fundamentalism PRODUCES a fascist dystopia from the text.

Much of what you say is accurate analysis – but irrelevant. One could equally argue that the whole book is a polemic in favour of non-conformism (ie punts at the National Curriculum), against racism (freedom for Muggles) and freedom of conscience (ie not supporting a Petainist regime.

Above all, I find this argument objectionable because, all around us, we are beset by vested interests and others that oppose freedom in our society, and encourage mindless consumerism and worship of celebrity. You choose to target one woman who has, shock horror, made a lot of money because children love her books.

This article helps to demonstrate why so much literary criticism cannot be taken seriously. Rowling has encouraged millions of children to enjoy reading and done more to promote education in the World than Laurie Penny.

But at what cost?!!??!!???! [gibber]

No to pretentious literary criticism being used to slander the essentially decent and progressive message of the Harry Potter books!

No to Penny Red knocking on doors and agitating in working-class communities (as if!) in her attempts to spread her fundamentally conservative message of Potterphobia amongst the proletarian consciousness!

Yes to female writers’ solidarity and support for JK Rowling!

Yes to more ridiculous posts analysing Harry Potter as they can’t really be taken seriously!

Jeez, who had an unhappy, broken childhood and was picked on by everyone?

Don’t take your own self-loathing out on all kids, Penny.