Bogus Harry Potter Book In China

elveu writes "Chinese Harry Potter fans have been blessed with the fifth book early -- only it's not the real one. The title translates to 'Harry Potter And Leopard Walk Up To Dragon.' The story has Harry getting turned into a fat hairy drawf and being void of his powers."

Comments

Re:They used her picture on the back of the book..

[Zeinfeld]

A word of advice to people over fourteen (esp. males): Never recommend Harry Potter books to anyone, and never freely admit having read them. Doing so, (1) reveals your lack of intellectual sophistication, (2) hints at your inability to read books from start to finish (unless they are "For Dummies..." or nine-year-olds, and (3) makes you one of those annoying asswipes that insists that everyone read the all-seeing, all-knowing work of infinite philisophical importance that is the last book you managed to complete (mostly).

Actually the books are very sophisticated intellectually. The sophistication is generally lost on American readers however who are unaware of the cultural and litterary references that Rowling ads in for the amusement of older readers.

For example Hogwarts Castle is a parody of Mallory Towers. The use of Magic as a substitute for technological mod cons is a homage to the Flintstones.

This simply carries on a long tradition of British Children's works, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe is an allegory of the New Testament. The Harry Potter series as a whole is an allegory of a series of works by Foucault. The Dumbledore character is an anegogical reference to Derrida. The Dursleys are of course a reference to Proust.