How Harry Potter shaped a generation
[Via Boing Boing]
Seven years after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Caroline Siedelooks back on the book series that defined a generation.
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This series changed how books are read and by whom. It also instructed a generation on the proper way to deal with authoritarian perils, even as the individuals involved were complex, multifaceted characters
We could hate the actions Snape took as much as we liked them. Same with Dumlbedore. Or Draco. They did things not because they were evil but because they were humans trying to make their way in the world, dealing with the consequences of the decisions they made. Sometimes people die because of those decisions.
It showed that even if not perfect, people could do the right thing to help others and to defeat the forces that drive authoritarian tyrannies.
Exactly the battle that generation will fight in real life. Those books provided early training for what the Potter generation will deal with most of their adulthood.
A Man With A Ph.D. 