Why-Harry's-Hot英汉双语[完美版]

Unit3

Leisure without literature is death and burial alive.

——

Seneca, Roman philosopher

Why Harry

’s Hot?

1.

J. K. Rowling swears she never saw it coming. In her wildest dreams, she didn't

think her Harry Potter books would appeal to more than a handful of readers.

never expected a lot of people to

like them,

a recent

interview.

it

turned

out

I

was

very

wrong,

obviously.

It

strikes

a

chord

with

an

enormous number of people.

print,

in

35

languages,

the

first

three

Harry

Potter

books

have

earned

a

conservatively

estimated

$$480

million

in

three

years.

And

that

was

just

the

warm-up. With a first printing of 5.3 million copies and advance orders topping

1.8

million,

Harry

Potter

and

the

Goblet

of

Fire,

the

fourth

installment

of

the

series,

promises

to

break

every

bookselling

record.

Jack

Morrissey,

12,

plainly

speaks for a generation of readers when he says,

life, but better.

2.

Amazingly, Rowling keeps her several plotlines clear of each other until the end,

when he deftly brings everything together in a cataclysmic conclusion. For pure

narrative power, this is the best Potter book yet.

3.

When the book finally went on sale at 12:01 am. Saturday, thousands of children

in

Britain

and

North

America

rushed

to

claim

their

copies.

Bookstores

hosted

pajama

parties,

hired

magicians

and

served

cookies

and

punch,

but

nobody

needed to lift the spirits of these crowds. In one case, customers made such a big,

happy noise that neighbors called the cops. At a Borders in Charlotte, N.C., Erin

Rankin, 12, quickly thumbed to the back as soon as she got her copy. “I heard that

a_ major character dies, and I really want to find out who,

later she gave up.

“I just can't do it. I can't read the end first.

4.

The only sour note in all the songs of joy over this phenomenon has come from

some

parents

and

conservative

religious

leaders

who

say

Rowling

advocates

witchcraft. reading of the books has been challenged in 25 school districts in at

least

17

states,

and

the

books

have

been

banned

in

schools

in

Kansas

and

Colorado. But that's nothing new, says Michael Patrick Hearn, a children's book

scholar

and

editor

of

The

Annotated

Wizard,

of

Oz.

kind

of

magic

is

considered

evil

by

some

people,

he

says.

Wizard

of

Oz

was

attacked

by

fundamentalists in the mid-1980s.

5.

But

perhaps

the

most

curious

thing

about

the

Potter

phenomenon,

especially

given that it is all about books, is that almost no one has taken the time to say

how

good

—

or

bad

—

these

books

are.

The

other

day

my

11-year-old

daughter

asked me if

I thought

Harry Potter was a classic.

I

gave her,

I'm

afraid,

one of

those

adult-sounding

answers

when

I

said,

will

tell.

This

was

not

an

outright lie. There's no telling which books will survive from one generation to

the next. But the fact is, I was hedging. What my daughter really wanted to know

was

how

well

J.

K.

Rowling

stacks

up

against

the

likes

of

Robert

Louis

Stevenson or Madeleine L'Engle.

6.

I

could

have

told

her

that

I

thought

they

were

beautifully

crafted

works

of

entertainment, the literary equivalent of Steven Spielberg. I could also have told

her I thought the Potter books were derivative. They share so many elements with

so

many

children's

classics

that

sometimes

it

seems

as

though

Rowling

had

assembled her novels from a kit. However, these novels amount to, much more

than just the sum of their parts. The crucial aspect of their appeal is that they can

be read by children and adults with equal pleasure. Only the best authors

—

and

they

can

be

as

different

as

Dr.

Seuss

and

Philip

Pullman

and,

yes,

J.|K.

Rowling

—

can pull that off.

7.

P. L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, put it best when she wrote,

specifically

for

children,

for

—

if

you

are

honest

—

you

have,

in

fact,

no

idea

where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is all endless and all one. There is

plenty

for

children

and

adults

to

enjoy

in

Rowling's

books,

starting

with

their

language.

Her

prose

may

be

unadorned,

but

her

way

with

naming

people

and

things reveals a quirky and original talent.

8.

The best writers remember what it is like to be a child with astonishing intensity.

Time

and

again,

Rowling

articulates

just

how

defenseless

even

the

bravest

children often feel. Near the end of the second book Dumbledore, the wise and

protective

headmaster,

is

banished

from

Hogwarts.

This

terrifies

Harry

and

his

schoolmat es

—

—

an d it

terrified me. And in all of Rowling's books there runs an undercurrent of sadness

and

loss.

In

the

first

book

the

orphaned

Harry

stares

into

the

Mirror

of

Erised,

which shows the viewer his

or her utmost

desires. Harry sees

his

dead

parents.

until

I'd

reread

what

I'd

written

did

I

realize

that

that

had

been

taken

entirely-

entirely-

from

how

I

felt about

my mother's death,

fact,

death

and

bereavement

and

what

death

means,

I

would

say,

is

one

of

the

central

themes

in

all

seven

books.

Do

young

readers

pick

up

on

all

this

deep

intellectualism? Consciously, perhaps not. But I don't think the books would have

their

broad

appeal

if

they

were

only

exciting

tales

of

magical

adventure,

and

I

know adults would not find them so enticing.

9.

The

Harry

Potter

books

aren't

perfect.

What

I

miss

most

in

these

novels

is

the

presence

of

a

great

villain.

And

by

great

villain

I

mean

an

interesting

villain.

Long. John Silver is doubly frightening because he is both evil and charming. If

he

were

all

Bad,

he

wouldn't

frighten

us

half

as

much.

V

oldemort

is

resistible

precisely because he is just bad to the bone. That said,

I should add that in the

new book Rowling outdoes herself with a bad guy so seductive you'll never see

him coming. And he is scary.

10.

That quibble aside, Rowling’s novels are probably the best books children have

ever

encountered

that

haven't

been

thrust

upon

them

by

an

adult.

I

envy

kids

reading

these

books,

because

there

was

nothing

this

good

when

I

was

a

boy-nothing

this

good,

I

mean,

that

we

found

on

our

own,

the

way

kids

are

finding Harry. We affectionately remember The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, but

try rereading them and their charm fades away pretty quickly. Rowling may not

be

as

magisterial

as

Tolkien

or

as

quirky

as

Dahl,

but

her

books

introduce

fledgling readers to a very high standard of entertainment. With three books left

to

go

in

the

series,

it's

too

early

to

pass

final

judgment.

But

considering

what

we've

seen

so

far,

especially

in

the

latest

volume,

Harry

Potter

has

all

the

earmarks of a classic.

没有文学的休闲生活犹如死亡抑或活埋。

——西尼加

(

古罗马哲学家

)

《哈利波特》风行之迷

1.

J< /p>

．

K

．罗琳发誓说自己从来没有过这种预 想。她做梦也没有想到会有那么多人对她的书

感兴趣。

“我从来 没有指望过有这么多人喜欢它，

”在最近的一次访谈中她仍然这样说，

< br>“可是，很显然，我大错特错了。它在许多人心中产生了共鸣。

”她说得很委婉。

《哈利

波特》系列丛书的前三册被翻译成了

35

种语言，已出版

3,500

万 册，据保守估计，这

三册书在三年时间里已经赚了四亿八千万美金。而这还只是个开始。

《哈里波特》系列

丛书的第四册

《哈利 波特与火焰杯》

初版

530

万册，

加上高达

180

万册的订单，

有望创

造新的畅销书销售记录。

12

岁的杰克·莫里西的话很清楚地表达了他们这一代读者的

想法。他说：