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Sunday, June 22, 2003
Potter’s Field
While the media pimps Harry Potter into the next galaxy the literacy levels of students in the US continue their twenty year decline. And then there’s that little thing, the P-word, that Jayson Blair and JK Rowling may have in common.
The world loves a great story. And the Potter tales help fill that market gap. Unfortunately, in the US, that audience is a largely whitebread world of haves, children of soccer moms, trust fund brats, yuppies, gen-xers and amateurs of the shamanistic arts.
You won’t see too many Pablos, Waleeds, Jim Bobs, Kwames, Nguyens, or Patels standing on line to buy the book.
Author JK Rowling is now the wealthiest woman in the UK, surpassing Maggie Thatcher and she didn’t have to sell WMD technology to Saddam to get there. When it comes to her major market, the US, maybe Rowling ought to do for literacy centers what Andrew Carnegie did for libraries, namely... fund them.
posted by Groom
5:49 AM
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