Todd,
Re your comment below:
"In spite of this, I didn't really enjoy the book. In the
process of becoming more 'hardboiled,' it lost much of its
silly humor and joy, the main reason most people probably
read the series."
But the series became pogressively more hard and dark with
each new entry. The culmination of hardness and darkness in
DEATHLY HALLOWS is precisely what the series has been working
toward. And the fact that each new entry was more popular
than the last indicates to me that it wasn't the "silly humor
and joy" of the series that drew readers, at least not that
alone, but precisely what Chandler said drew readers to the
hard-boiled crime story, the story of a hero and his
adventure in the search for hidden truth.
The series actually does a very good job not only of charting
Harry's search for that hidden truth, butof charting his
growth from childhood through adolescense to manhood. And as
Harry changed from a child, enjoying the "silly humor and
joy" that is, or should be a part of childhood, to an
teenager filled with the angst that marks those years, to an
adult fighting a war for the very survival of his society, he
gradually puts away childish things, as is entirely
appropriate.
JIM DOHERTY
____________________________________________________________________________________
Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 02 Aug 2007 EDT