Everyone and his blog has been commenting about AS Byatt's criticism of JK Rowling. So why should I be the only one left out?
I think your stance on this depends on whether you see books as primarily a source of entertainment or erudition. Having read both Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone and Possession, I can say that I definitely consider the latter to be the better book. But that's because I enjoy AS's disappear-up-your-own-arse style of metaphor and scholarship. Frankly, 99% of the human race don't — they'd rather have JK's derivative schmaltz. (It was presumably for similar reasons that Star Wars was voted the best film ever.)
JK's stuff may be two-dimensional but both of those dimensions are rather well crafted and there's no denying that her books have given a lot of people a lot of pleasure. Why begrudge them this?
AS's stuff is more worthy. But does that make it better? Perhaps to some (including me). But her arguments start to lose credibilty for me when she claims Terry Pratchett to be a "genius". (I've read only one of his books and it really is the biggest load of purile, trite junk that I've ever forced my way through.) I'll also note that, though her sentences can be sublime, AS's contribution to world culture also includes probably the worst movie ever made.
Posted by timo at July 10, 2003 11:09 PM | TrackBack