Escapism

Last night I watched the first of the Harry Potter movies once more. No one ever accused these books of being great classic literature but nothing succeeds like success and the sales figures speak for themselves. I wonder if in centuries to come doctoral theses will be written as to whether it is possible that a welfare mother wrote books that were read by millions around the globe. The storylines are formulaic, the characters have derivative names but despite myself I find myself drawn in.
Harry Potter appeals to the outcast misfit that resides inside the child in all of us. Who wouldn't love to be able to turn the tables on a childhood bully as Harry does in the scene in the zoo with the python or laugh at the pigs tail Hagrid gives Dudley. Wouldn't we love to believe that magic were possible.