Change
is inevitable, I suppose, and I'm sure that there is a very good reason why all this has changed, but I don't know what it is, and that always leaves me edgy.
I had a lengthy, but good-natured, argument with a work colleague today, during the course of which I called him a literary Nazi and arrogant. And all over
Harry Potter. Now, for the sake of clarity, I do not think that aforesaid Mr Potter's books represent high literature, nor do I read them for any reason other than I enjoy them. Which after all is why we read most things (apart from
Ulysses, which is slow going!).
However, I do take exception to people saying that they haven't read something, that they don't intend to, but that they've read reviews, and it's bad/rubbish. What gives someone the right to make value judgments with the implied sense that if you don't agree, you're just as bad. I think that's no less than arrogant. Fair enuff to say "I've read the reviews, but I'm not reading it, because I don't think I'll enjoy it, and I'm not a kid". Fine, your choice. But how can anyone say that they know enough about anything to confidently say "It's bad".
The argument descended into morality at that point, and whether murder is bad or not, and whether you should qualify every view with an "I think". Well, I think you should. Because I may not be right. I don't like to read Milton as bedtime reading, but that doesn't mean those who do (and I'm sure that there are some) are wrong. I haven't read any books by Will Self because I don't like his on-screen persona. But some people have, and he sells well. I guess what I'm saying is that there are horses for courses, and others shouldn't knock what other people like just because they don't. It's a pretty simplistic view of the work to think that one is right all the time.
And as for murder, and the complex moral arguments, I think that one's stance on those simply defines one's own personal moral sense. There are few who think murder
is acceptable, so it's a pretty extreme argument, but there are others which could be taken. And the fact of the matter is that other people have different views, and, at the end of the day (and particularly for those with a religious bent who believe in a Day of Judgment and all that), who is actually there to say that I am right, or the next person is right.
And, I don't care if said colleague thinks
Harry Potter is bad; I enjoy it.
