Alferian's · Journal

I am typing this on a computer keyboard at a hotel and the keyboard is so stiff and arranged so differently from my own at home that it is very awkward to type.  I'm in Worthington, visiting my mum for her 85th birthday party, whichhas been long in the planning.  Today on the prairie it is 95 degrees and windy. I am sleep deprived as usual, but perhaps even more so than usual when travelling because I've been finishing up Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in preparation for the film release next week.

The book is enjoyable but also affords me an example of things not todo in my own novels.  I have begun working on a series of juvenile novels aimed at teens partly because I myself prefer reading that genre than novels written for adults.  Partly also because there are things about the representation of magic I dislike.  On the one hand i do like Rowling's ideas about writing books of magic and inventing new spells, organizing the science formally, something which, alas, has not been done very well for over 1000 years, so that the few books we have are constructed out of a completely different worldview and are hardly very useful.  When I read HP novels, I find myself wanting to write the textbooks that are cited.  However, the way magic is represented as instantaneous and often involving bolts of light or sparks bothers me.  It is misleading, confusing blasters with wands and failing to understand the fundamental nature of magic.  One could say it is merely a dramatic device of children's books, but I do not think it a very good one and it panders to the modern child's misinformation about the actual world.  Children (especially boys) have enough trouble separating video games from reality.  

Well, I'll write more on my own machine.  This one is atrociously uncomfortable.