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I am in a state of bliss that both the Harry Potter and Barry Bonds spectacles are wrapping up at the same time. I couldn't care less about either of them...not Rowling and her hundreds of millions of dollars, not Bonds and his money and trophies. Please, God, no more.

Keith Olbermann is getting a lot of credit for that Sopranos/Harry Potter mashup joke, but Dan Kois of Slate beat him to that joke with his "How Harry Potter Really Ends" piece that came out about a week before that Olbermann broadcast.

Anyway, getting to the segment-- Sarah Vowell talking Harry Potter? Fantastic. Thanks for making this happen.

I think for those listener's who don't "get" what the whole Harry Potter thing is about I can empathize - I've never seen the Sopranos, so when it gained such stature in our culture my natural first question was "what's it about" and I got the kind of 10 second answer I was hoping for (Mobsters and the ordinary lives they lead). No thanks, not interested. But I sense that answer is similar to the answer we would give about what Harry Potter is about ("It's an epic coming of age tale set in a parallel universe of wizards") - factually correct, but missing the whole thing.

My wife, myself and our 11 and 9 year old's are going tonight because we get it, but we only get it because we've read 6 books - firsthand experience is the only way to really "get" anything!

To Moiz,
I don't believe that it's your or my place to interrogate others on their priorities or to assume that they are "deluding themselves" just because they are taking some time to engage in a pursuit that is also being indulged in by many others.
I shouldn't presume what your politics are but I have noticed throughtout the years how so-called liberals will complain how the "masses" will not, at first, applaud the works of "marginal artists" but as soon as they do these same critics will denigrate the tastes of the masses.

I just want to say, Sarah Vowell is a goddess.
Sorry, just had to get that out.

To BC -

If I saw someone reading Shakespeare or Harry Potter, I wouldn't sneer at either of them. The only question that I would ask them is what ELSE are they reading, watching, cultivating?

I think the idea of saying 'lighten up' is a slippery slope, allowing people to let themselves be deluded from other, more important topics of our time.

The bible? It is difficult to imagine a book that would be worse for a child to read!

to chris -
Can we infer from your comment that, if you saw a child, or an adult for that matter, reading Shakespeare's Tempest or Macbeth or Midsummer's Night Dream, you'd sneer and say "C'mon, why don't you read something adult?"

My comment is about cultural infantilism. It's not that I disagree, per say, with adults reading Harry Potter books...but I think there is a cultural undertone that gets overlooked.

Harry Potter shouldn't be thrown under the bus on the idea of cultural infantilism, but also children's movies that come out in Hollywood that draw adults to the theaters, or video games, etc., etc.

Something to think about, I think.

To Chris and Michael Bergelson,
Lighten up.

My prescription for anyone who may suffer Harry Potter withdrawal pains upon finishing the last book: start reading them again in another language. I read the first three books in Spanish and French and had a blast, without being fluent in those languages.

I can't believe anyone is surprised that the Potter-phenomenon would be described as 'cultural infantalism' -sure the characters confront aging, death, change in general but c'mon...they're little WIZARDS. Do we really have to remind your guests that wizards don't come around here much anymore?

the 3d Imax Harry potter was awesome btw. the ending with the glasses was spectacular. totally worth going.

All well and good that kids are reading, but the larger message it seems to me that we are perpetuating is more cult of celebrity, cult of pop culture. We are parcipating in this complete immersion in this consumer-oriented culture of our children.

Teaching them to stand on line for one hyped thing after another is not my idea of healthy attitudes about what they are fed by the media.

Michael Bergelson
UWS of Manhattan

OK, leaving myself open to attack-What's the deal on Harry Potter? The only thing that I find to be more boring is baseball.

I agree with Grant! I desperately fought to not hear the ending of the sopranos. Every time someone on the subway started talking about it, I ran out of the car. Every time I saw the word "sopranos" on a newspaper I looked away. I had to keep asking people to stop talking about it. I kept changing the radio station every time someone started talking about sorpranos.

BUT THEN!

Brian had a segment on Hilary Clinton's sopranos-like campaign ad. I didn't see it coming and found out the ending like that.

Little known fact about Nancy Pearl: She has an action figure! It comes with a "ssh"-ing action finger, tiny plastic books, and a trading card.

http://www.mcphee.com/laf/

My father was a librarian for 65 years and I got him this action figure for his birthday a couple of years ago.

Brian! Please please please stop referring to the ending of the Sopranos! Some of us are not fortunate enough to have that fancy cable so haven't been privvy to the series finale. Every time you refer to it, I catch a few more clues and am sent into anxiety induced seizures. Please! No more Sopranos talk!

Thank you. Love the show.

Grant

Where's the link for Sarah's book?