Harry Potter as a cultural orientation text

A Japanese returns to Japan from six months at Cambridge…

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Cholmondeley: How did you prepare for it?

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Murakami: Since I don’t speak or read English well and I needed to be ready to answer questions at high table, I used Harry Potter as my cultural orientation.

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Cholmondeley: JK Rowling, eh?

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Murakami: You think a little too easy to prepare for six months on sabbatical?

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Cholmondeley: Well, you might have done worse. Like wading through the repetitive plots of Enid Blyton. There again, you could have taken on the

challenge of reading Roald Dahl.

________

Voice-over

“Words are in my not-so-humble opinion, the most inexhaustible form of magic we have, capable both of inflicting injury and remedying it.” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
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Three best-selling children’s authors in the Top Ten, all English. Comparing their merits is difficult; Enid Blyton wins total sales, JK Rowling wins speed of popularity ascendancy. Roald Dahl wins the creativity award. But as cultural orientation texts?

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