Amy H. Sturgis sends this along: Tolkien/Rowling Lecture Free and Open to the Public (”Evening with the Author” Series): J.K. Rowling draws fire from cultural critics and laypersons alike: her works rank among the most challenged books of the last decade due to their supposedly mature content, and yet highly visible reviewers consistently poke fun at their allegedly juvenile nature. A question emerges from these disparate but repeated lines of attack: if children cannot handle dark and serious issues such as death, and adults should not enjoy such childish and light pleasures as fantasy stories, who if anyone is the proper audience for the Harry Potter series? According to J.R.R. Tolkien, the solution to this dilemma lies not in discovering a new category of readers, but rather in dismissing the false assumptions about childhood, adulthood, and the nature of fantasy that inform the question. [More]

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