When I was a kid I would like it a lot; as most of us, I suppose.
This time I was reading it in search of the (sort of) same feelings. However, I can’t say I was meant to find literally the same inspiration and breathtaking moments, but at least their shades and hints at them. In addition, I had started to read it in English what definitely added anticipation of the repetition of the child’s experience.
Nevertheless, surprisingly or not I found books extremely boring and not because I knew the plot in advance. Does it have something in common with kid’s impressionability (which is more vivid as we know) or with something else? I have no answer.
I really tried to find a value as it used to have for me. After the first book, I told myself: «Do not grumble at it, you’re just a snob, you’ve put pressure on your expectations by yourself». But with every next book has become more and more difficult to react to the situation this way. Enormous quantity of questions don’t let you concentrate on the world of the book: do not take into consideration the most obvious of them (i.e. that for solving almost every problem they just could use a time turner (unless you can get it as easy as the third year student)) there are more - obviously Mad Eye Moody could only bewitch the goblet of the fire and had no chance to use a book (?) as a portkey and pass it to Harry in Moody’s office at the beginning of the term: also obvious that effect of seeing thestrals shows itself only after summer holiday (but not immediately!) and only if you were older than a year when you saw death… and so on and so forth. Your imagination doesn’t go toward this magical world, instead it goes strictly towards the author’s head and the question “How could you create so many contradictions?”.
But why then it is so extremely popular?
Originality? Please… Sauron from the Lord of the Rings had created horcrux before it became mainstream.
The text itself? I haven’t written out any paragraphs or quotes. Just didn’t find something I wanted to reread sometimes. Compare with Gaiman (NeverWhere): “I am impressed. What a brain, Mister Vandemar. Keen and incisive isn’t the half of it. Some of us are so sharp,” he said as he leaned in closer to Richard, went up on tiptoes into Richard’s face, “we could just cut ourselves.”
I have a theory. These books are not a masterpiece, they just found their time, they were simple and black-and-white enough at the beginning and because of it were so attractive for kids. They gave us an artificial world - very simple and very romantic. But growing up with their readers books haven’t turned into something deep. They are still simple and black-and-white and attempts to add difficulty and lowers into it produce almost only off-putting effect. Paradoxically, but in the story about magic world I haven’t found the magic. And this is sad
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