July 20, 2007

This is NOT about Mr. Potter.

This is about... the power of words. Characters. Universes.
And the power of imagination.

Does a story have to be steeped in magic to be magical?

As the coundown to Harry winds down, the UK's psychologists are getting ready for... grief counseling.

What do you think of that?

Herein may lie the major differences between UK and US cultures. People here are excited, but there is this sense that children are meant to be excited, and there is a high degree of sarcasm and annoyance from some sectors because excitement over a mere children's book - a book of time wasting fantasy, is seen as unseemly at best (and satanic at worse. And sue-worthy at very worst. Sigh.) Undoubtedly, there are those same attitudes in the UK, but along with their wholesale embracing of costuming and launch parties, they're calling in more therapists - the largest UK bookstore chain is funding an emergency counseling line. They know characters will die, and children will be saddened, and they feel that children are important enough to care.

I am moving to such a... different place.

2 comments:

divatobe said...

You've got to be kidding! That actually seems like such a swooping in American thing to do. Wow.

David T. Macknet said...

No, no - it's not an American thing to do. Americans do it when they've been ignoring their children long enough that they've gone off & killed other students with automatic weapons. Then the American Grief Counselors will sweep in.

In the UK it seems that they care about how their children feel; they recognize that trauma doesn't have to involve "real" violence.