This is something that, eventually, I would have gotten around to writing myself (but probably not until my next lifetime), so I'm very happy that EscutcheonBlot from the Liverputty site has gone ahead and done it for me. (Hat tip to The House Next Door).
Titled "Harry Potter and the Snarky Reviewer," the piece defends the Potter series, and takes on those who felt the need, not only to criticize the books (which I have no problem with), but to imply that anyone who read them or enjoyed them was dim-witted and obviously quite uncapable of enjoying "real" literature. Even some of my favorite bloggers, linked on this site, engaged in some Potter-bashing, and the tone of superiority that characterized those comments and pieces was annoying as hell. [Warning: there are dozens of spoilers in the piece, so it should not be read if you've missed any of the books.]
My favorite section of the piece, one of those things I wish I'd written myself:
J.K. Rowling may not be a mistress of elegant prose, but Henry James is considered one of the all-time prose geniuses, and he often lost the plot before he finished a sentence. There is, of course, the pleasing narcissism of being able to pooh-pooh all that is popular in order to appear sophisticated and intellectual; but I don't think this explains either the undercurrent of supercilious praise of Rowling as a children's author, or the outright condemnation (as in the recent review in the Christian Science Monitor or the faux review in the Guardian) of the central character as having made no moral journey.
Kudos to Mr. Blot for a job well done.
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