Soccer Dad

Is harry potter nobel worthy?

Douglas MacKinnon thinks so

Orhan Pamuk. Elfriede Jelinek. Imre Kertesz. And ... J. K. Rowling?

In recent years, the Swedish Academy has awarded the Nobel Prize in literature to the first three authors on the preceding list. Heard of them or their books? Come on, be honest now. If you answered in the affirmative, congratulations on being a lover of obscure and unread literature.

MacKinnon's point isn't to dismiss highbrow literature but to examine if in any way the Harry Potter series fulfills the standard that

[a]ccording to the Nobel Web site, when Alfred Nobel drew up his partly incomplete will, he stated that prizes should be given to those who, during the preceding year, "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind," and that one part be given to the person who "shall have produced in the field of literature, the most outstanding work in an ideal direction."

He reasonably asks

Does the mere fact that millions of people chose to buy the book of a "commercial" author automatically cause the academy to remove him or her from their august nominating list?

Essentially he dismisses this concern with

I would nonetheless like to propose to the Swedish Academy that it nominate someone who has single-handedly reintroduced reading and literature to a large part of the world. I suggest that for the 2007 Nobel Prize in literature, the Swedish Academy select the formidable Ms. Rowling, whose Harry Potter books have brought joy, escape and peace of mind to hundreds of millions of people.

Before they turn up their already elevated noses and laugh at the very thought, in the name of Alfred Nobel, they might give the idea serious consideration. By any honest assessment of what Mr. Nobel had in mind for his prizes, Ms. Rowling more than fits the bill.

Certainly the term "ideal direction" is nebulous enough that if Harry Potter was nominated (or won) the Nobel in literature, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Well, it wouldn't be if you're not Harold Bloom. But the world might end for Harold Bloom.

In fretting over the National Book Foundation recognizing Stephen King, Bloom wrote

By awarding it to King they recognize nothing but the commercial value of his books, which sell in the millions but do little more for humanity than keep the publishing world afloat. If this is going to be the criterion in the future, then perhaps next year the committee should give its award for distinguished contribution to Danielle Steel, and surely the Nobel Prize for literature should go to J.K. Rowling.

He then tells a tale of woe

What's happening is part of a phenomenon I wrote about a couple of years ago when I was asked to comment on Rowling. I went to the Yale University bookstore and bought and read a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." I suffered a great deal in the process. The writing was dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs." I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing.

That might be the difference between Prof Bloom and me. I didn't count the number of times a character stretched his legs. Instead I appreciated Rowling's world, its characters and inventive names. Additionally Rowling's attention to detail and ironic sense of humor liven the books and make them a pleasure to read. And not least of all I've watched her enchant my four oldest children, especially an 8 year old who has now in excess of 2000 pages of Harry's adventures and absorbed it all.

Perhaps the difference between MacKinnon and Bloom is that the former is now a novelist (and possible future recipient of the prize himself) and the latter sees himself as the last defense against the decline of Western civilization.

Harry Potter, Nobel Prize in Literature.