Response to CNN.com commentators (or any hater) re: Harry Potter

So, there's this article on CNN.com about Harry Potter being taught in academia and a bunch of commentator's harangued the series, mostly because it wasn't Tolkein and/or too mainstream and/or children's literature.  I posted the below comment on the website, but want to do so here as well to declare my undying love for J.K. Rowling.  And yes, I am still working on that Harry Potter exhibition, so I am biased.  But, I also have academic interpretation on my side...


I resisted reading Harry Potter for many years because 1) I was loyal to Tolkein, Lewis, L'Engle, etc. and 2) anything that popular must be suspect.  Now, years later, I am a devoted fan of Harry Potter because of its complex integration of multiple cultures/worldviews and its insistence on a world based on social justice.  The books explore contemporary culture by interweaving a magical world (populated with common creatures versus unfamiliar and unwieldy new ones (does that really make her a hack?)) with our own.  This allows the narrative to be exciting to readers, yet familiar enough that children at a formative age will be able to make the connection between the persecution of centaurs and with other indigenous peoples or the enslavement of the house elves with that of colonized peoples.    The books also teach children to question their government, their newspapers, and, sometimes, their mentors.   They explore themes of death, the abuse of science and power, and the existential importance of choice. 

Please, don't bash them because they are children's literature or popular or not Tolkein or Lewis as if that's a good enough reason to dislike any other fantasy--the LOTR (though I love them) are completely racist/colonialist and Narnia is the same but with some uber-Christian propaganda and anti-Feminism mixed in.  There is clearly something that speaks to readers and if they walk away with Rowling's message of self-acceptance, respect for all creatures, questioning authority, and importance of choice then so be it.  I'll take a couple of dangling modifiers and the overuse of some adverbs if it means a generation of children whose heroes and heroines are committed to a word of equity.