Hogwarts. Photo courtesy of Tuende Bede/Pixaby.
J.K. Rowling is writing a new book— a “proper adult novel,” as a quote from her website goes. Maybe you’ve heard, maybe you’re already planning for midnight showings of the movie version or maybe you’ve just had vaguely concerning thoughts about Potter-porn, but no matter who you are, you have no idea what that phrase actually means. It’s extremely vague, and deliberately so. If you feel like having your intelligence insulted, you can attempt to find out more by visiting Jkrowling.com, which features a cheery picture of a fat yellow tome titled “THE NEW BOOK.”
Besides this titillating image lies what I’m absolutely sure is a genuinely real, handwritten note by the delicate fingers of J.K. herself, which says (in convincingly sloppy cursive), “Although I’ve enjoyed writing it just as much, my next novel will be very different from the Harry Potter series.” To me this seems like somewhat of a shameless publicity stunt. It’s a teaser trailer with extra tease. I think we all would have already assumed that J.K. Rowling is writing something. Now we just know that it will be “different” from Harry Potter. I guess this is news; news enough for the entire Internet to begin its wild speculations.
Previous interviews have been dissected in search for what direction “THE NEW BOOK” may take. A mystery novel seems to be a popular guess. Some people think it may be a magical thriller, and others assume high fantasy. A few years ago Rowling mentioned writing a “political fairy tale” for an even younger audience than the Harry Potter series. Some suggest that she may have taken that idea and aged it up for adults. But I suppose that the two major questions raised by this announcement are these: will the rabid Harry Potter fan base accept a book by Rowling without the spectacled hero or, perhaps, without any magic at all? And will the book be any good?
I think my feelings toward Harry Potter grew up with my tastes. I will probably always cite myself as a non-fan of the series, and after saying so, I will probably have to quell the shouts and cries of my fellow generation-Xers. I have a great fondness for books one through four and a deep hatred of all the poorly paced pieces of melodramatic fan-service that followed. And there will still be a few shouts and cries.
But perhaps not so many as there would be if I faced the truth, which is that I probably dislike the whole series in general. I’ve always hated re-reading books, and the thought of starting once again from the beginning of an almost 3,500-page series (about 1,900 pages of which I already know I hate) sounds scary and boring. So I’m not sure if I can separate my nostalgia from my legitimate opinion, and even if I were to re-read the first four again out of curiosity, I have the feeling that my memories of costumed midnight releases with pumpkin juice, and summer camping trips spent marathon-ing each newest volume would considerably sweeten any objective opinion I could hope to make.
I guess that’s my follow-up question for our entire generation. Can we, in the end, separate our lifelong memories growing up with this series from our opinions of it? And then the more relevant question: can we separate whatever feelings we have for the series in general from its author?
I do not think that Rowling’s next book will be good. I think she’s a dull and clichéd writer who happened to create a rich world in Harry Potter by borrowing heavily from fairytales and myth. I think that preemptively labeling this book as “adult” is meant to be provocative and nothing more. I think it may have darker themes and subject matter than Harry Potter, perhaps a few more swear words, but nothing deeper than that. And I know that no matter what it is, it will sell millions of copies.
While I can’t say I’m excited for the book, I will say that I am fascinated to see the world’s reaction. There’s a strong possibility that the use of the phrase “adult” is meant to ease Harry Potter’s wide readership into the idea that magic will not be involved in Rowling’s next work. This would be a problem for her. The success of the Harry Potter series is based almost solely on Rowling’s ability to create an interesting magical world. If her next endeavor is set in the Muggle world, then “THE NEW BOOK” will have to rely much more heavily on character, tone and theme. Based on seven books of flat characters, dull white-grey tones and almost painfully clichéd themes, I predict any story of J.K.’s set in the real world could only be saved by an amazing plot.
But never mind all this speculation. There’s a much more interesting conversation to be had about this announcement. It has to do with that now oft repeated phrase: “proper adult novel.” What is an “adult novel”? This is what I think matters about this story. Whatever “THE NEW BOOK” will be, whether good or bad, it will be an experiment in popular fiction that will challenge our tastes, our memories and maybe even our concept of the categorization of literature.
