From Uplifting Magic to Distressing Realism. J.K. Rowling's New Book..

From Uplifting Magic to Distressing Realism: The Author of Harry Potter Wrote a New Book

Maybe I am somewhat behind when it comes to the events on the literary scene, and maybe this blog post is not going to be any news to its reader, but I still want to mention that yesterday, at Chapters, the bookstore, I saw that the author of Harry Potter -- J.K. Rowling -- wrote a new book! Apparently (and unfortunately) there isn’t any magic in it though. It is a novel for adults about a small English city and its people. The name of the book is Casual Vacancy, and there is an impressive pyramid from these books on the second floor of the downtown Chapters store.

I wonder if this new novel is going to become as famous as Harry Potter, and something tells me that it will not even come close to the popularity of the latter. This new novel will definitely get (and already has got) some publicity; after all it's the author of Harry Potter (!) who wrote it. In my opinion though, it is precisely because seeing J.K. Rowling as the author of this new novel will inevitably remind its reader of the magic world of Harry Potter, that this new book will strike this reader as especially lacklustre and unimaginative. The bleak and depressing everyday life that the new novel describes will appear especially so in comparison with the exciting and magical world of Harry Potter.   

Rape, drug addiction, self-harm… these are all important topics, but there are so much reminders and information about this already. And all these-- the information, people's real stories, the news-- are much-needed and important in society. But is it really a positive thing that the one author who has previously managed to successfully distract an average stressed-out child and adult from their not-so-positive real world, has now, instead, turned to not only wallowing in the existing negativity of the real world, but to creating additional, made-up, fictional stories featuring all the real-life negativity in the most concentrated and impressively distressing way. 

It is a reality and a fact that many people who struggle with addiction and self-harm (all subjects of the new novel) have named "reading a 'Harry Potter' book" or "watching a 'Harry Potter' movie" as one of their most effective coping and escape strategies: The absorbing magical atmosphere so skillfully crafted by the author of "Harry Potter" has enabled many of these people to distract themselves and to mentally escape during the most difficult times of the day. Some positive magic is what most people are missing in their daily life and it is what helps when it comes to overcoming the issues that the new novel deals with. It is not the addition of fictional, made-up negativity on top of the pre-existing real-life abundance of it, that will produce a positive outcome as a result. This new novel is announced as one for adults, as opposed to Harry Potter, which has children and adolescents as its official intended audience. So then, it is implied, that adults, as opposed to children need an additional, fictional portion of doom and gloom, in their already quite dull and often even troubled lives, while children should be the only ones cuddled and cushioned in a cheerful and exciting magical world, until they too, become adults, upon which they too, will qualify for only negativity, "realism", problems, troubles issues, both real and fictional: no adventure and magic and happy endings from that point.

Of course, any author is free to write about anything he or she wants. But it is very wrong to claim that the fictional book that recreates the negative side of the real life and the troubles of the real life is somehow more beneficial to helping the sufferers of these troubles and negative realities, than the book that skillfully creates a fictional positive and exciting magical world and thus quite concretely helps the sufferers of the real life negativity and troubles to cope and emotionally rest and recharge.