Harry Potter hater

I'm such a dork. Most of my readers and definitely my friends have figured that out. I love Lord of the Rings, I love Star Trek but I'm equally a Harry Potter dork. As a matter of fact, I'm deeply dug in the Harry Potter thing right now.

I go visit The Leaky Cauldron as well as J.K. Rowling's site a few times a week. Last month The Leaky Cauldron ran a link to a Tribune Review columnist named Jack Markowitz's rant about Harry Potter mania. He essentially said the books sucked and people were just sucked in by all the media hype. Whatever. So, I emailed him a little note. Well, evidently he was overwhelmed by Potter fans of all ages and types. So, he wrote another hateful column about it.

The Leaky Cauldron blogged about it, too and pulled out some snippets:

"More troubling was a declaration by many Totter-heads that they've read all five books -- 2,700 pages in toto -- a half-dozen times each! As if layers and layers of meaning are to be found in them. Plus, subtle clues to the unfolding of the plot. In short, the series is a field of study. (Colleges, it's said, are starting to offer courses!) More than a good read is going on here. It suggests a psychological need, a community of feeling with readers "into it" around the world. A kind of cult, in fact, boosted by the peer pressures of child consumers.

It goes too far. Just too far. Life is hardly long enough to get through all the great literature once, even. To think of so much time, taste and eyesight being spent on anything less than first-class. Something eerie is afoot in the book marts. "

Not to let things go (I know you're all shocked). I emailed this jackass again. Here is my email to him and his response:
Wow. I was really disappointed to see that you did it again with a hate-column regarding Harry Potter books.

I'm just curious exactly what you don't like about the books? I've never seen a precise reason in your columns about why you dislike these stories so much. Is it their commercial success? You just don't like the storyline? What is it?

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, however, I just never saw WHAT it was that burns you up so much about these books. Do you find Tolkien's works to be overhyped, too?

Regards, (my name)

Here is Twit for Brains' response:
A hate column? I don't think anything I've done could be described as a hate column. I think Potter fans confuse a skillful piece of fluff with literature of genuine quality, thanks to media promotion, internet buzz, and mass psychology: a sense that everybody thinks something is great, so it must be. Persons of a different opinion, against the crowd, tend to keep it to themselves. Some fans have written me they've read one or more Potter books 10 times! That goes beyond a recreation. It is a cultish devotion which tells me that minds are being diverted from other, better reading. So it's not the books I don't like so much as this emotional extremism abetted by media and marketing in overdrive. Jack M.

Feel free to send him an email if you'd like: jmarkowitz@tribweb.com

I just don't get it. I bet he also thought the Smurfs were satanic, too. Maybe he thought the Goosebumps series that got lots of middle school kids to read was bad, too. *shaking my head*

Who would you rather read? This smart intelligent mom?

Or this old fart?