Enchantment and Exploration

The beauty and tragedy of the world of Harry Potter is compelling, because it is realistically fantastic, from the point of view of young people, rather than a series of rote rituals designed to mollify and anesthetize the middle aged adults they will one day become. That this can be accomplished with a series of novels that also encourages critical understanding of the world through exploration of its rules and how to break them, combined with the books’ vast popularity, could very well establish a generation of fearless, thoughtful literate adults, who not only have a flexible mind capable of confronting thorny problems in their banal life, but also enjoy the childish escape to another world of pure imagination.

[via The Invisible Library]