the queerness of harry potter. the author seems to go a bit overboard on his reading of harry in terms of gay culture, but i suspect that he's dead on that the celebration of not being normal is what makes some people hate these books so much. that, and racial themes in the books(pureblood or mixedblood) which really doesn't seem to get much play in the press. most reports seem to be on how kids and adults adore the books, or conservative christians up in arms about it teaching kids witchcraft, but not much in depth analysis of the themes presented in the books.

speaking of harry, i broke down this last weekend and bought harry potter and the order of the phoenix(interestingly enough that link has a different cover than the one i have, maybe because mine is the uk version?). almost 200 pages until we even get to hogwarts. but i'm enjoying it so far. the new defense against the dark arts teacher reminds me of some of the more moronic teachers i've had in the past.