I grow up with English children’s literature. I can say I’m quite conversant in talking about Enid Blyton’s adventures and boarding school lives. I even read Agatha Christie’s detective novels in my teen age, while other kids read Japanese comics which started to be popular here in the early 1990s. If you’re a Blytoner like me, you probably read other English books too, including the colorful Roald Dahl, the touchy The Railway Children by E. Nesbitt and the humorous Jennings series by Anthony Buckeridge. Other European writers also wrote some page-turners such as Edith Unnerstad and Cornelia Funke.
Japanese comics aren’t bad anyway. Aside from the mellow “Serial Cantik”, those comics tell stories in communities with specialized fields of interest; soccer, judo, acting, basketball, detective, karate, etc, showing the importance of excelling, fighting through the obstacles, and not being afraid to face a pro, when you are newbies. I also read comics, although it doesn’t affect me as much as English’ adventure does. So different they are, the adventurous crime-buster English children educated in boarding schools versus the ambitious Japanese kids with their labour of love.
So here I am, lost in the world which worships specialized skills and encourages people to love their specialized job and get married to their specialized career, because all I dream of is having adventures during vacation in some exotic places to fight criminals. Not that I don’t have a specialized interest, it’s just always changing.
Excuse the curcol. My point is; this literature background is responsible for my first impression of the most famous English book of all time J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter as an Enid Blyton’s adventure-and-boarding-school inspired novels.
How couldn’t I?
When I was in elementary school, I couldn’t rid myself of Enid Blyton’s books, which my older sister and brothers used to read. So I’m just continuing the tradition. I spent hours in the countryside during school holidays with the Famous Five, living in caves and strolling along secret passageways with the Adventure kids, examining the village people when the Find-Outers investigate a mystery. But I also enjoy living in boarding school with Darrel and Felicity in Malory Towers, as well as Pat and Isabel in St. Clare. 
Most Blyton’s are stories about children in unordinary situation solving crimes without the help of adults. The Famous Five and the Adventure kids are ordinary English kids who hate their boarding schools, which makes them, brothers and sisters, separated. Therefore, they really enjoy their holiday time every year to meet each other again, moaning on how boring school is, contrary to holidays where they can go to some remote beautiful places for camping or homestay. The Adventure kids even go abroad often and go on a cruise ship once, dropping by exotic regions along the way. During those vacations, they’ll find themselves in some unusual circumstances and found the nest of a bunch of criminals. Incidentally. They call those experiences of incidentally finding themselves in such situations and solving crimes “adventures”.
The Find-Outers also hate school, but mostly they stay in their small home village during holidays, where they enjoy interesting activities and, of course, finding mysteries to solve. But this doesn’t mean that the Find-Outers adventures are boring. Unlike The Famous Five and The Adventures who do not intentionally look for “adventures”, the Find-Outers declare themselves kid detectives who look for “mysteries”—their word for “adventures”—to solve. Their stories are funnier than the serious Famous Five and Adventures, thanks to ludicrous Mr. Goon, the village police officer who is not smart enough to beat Fatty, the FO’s leader, whose definition of mockery is using sophisticated disguise to tease and defeat Mr. Goon on the race of solving mysteries.
Blyton’s boarding school series is like the opposite. The common English boarding schools seem boring in the beginning, but lately the children realize that they enjoy their lives there. They have to face problems of growing-up; friendship, rivalries, honesty, bad attitudes, and anger, and take lessons from it. Unlike the kids in the adventure books who enjoy their holidays, these boarding school students can’t wait to go back to their beloved school to find those non-academic lessons between them. Their adventure is the one during school, within the dorms.
So, for me, Harry Potter is the reincarnation of Enid Blyton’s adventures and boarding schools combined. Harry’s stories are crime-busting adventures in boarding school, within the walls of classes, halls, corridors, dorms, of the huge castle Hogwarts filled with secret passageways and tricks. The adventures also happen at home during holidays. The only difference with Blyton’s is the addition of magic and fantasy.*
This doesn’t mean that I fail to see the other side of Harry Potter’s charm; the real-school-like fantasy, including classes; the boring history of magic, the elitist Rune class, taken only by brilliant students like Hermione, and the important main courses like Charm and Defense of The Dark Arts. It is the main ingredient that attracts the readers much. Not to mention the details that match the real world intricacies; power politics (the power-thirst Ministry of Magic versus the evil Death Eaters versus the marginalized truth-fighters Order of Phoenix), social classes (the Malfoy versus the Weasley), and racism (the murders of half-blood and muggles, as well as the torture of house-elves).
No wonder the legal accusations on plagiarism faced by Rowling are mostly about her magical creatures and fantasy world, details of which are believed to be invented by many writers before her.
No one consider the peculiar adventures experienced by Harry, Ron, and Hermione, which normally don’t happen to most kids (remember the scene where McGonagall asking them “Why is it, that whenever anything happens, it's always you three?” and Ron answered “Believe me, Professor. I've been asking myself that same question for the past six years”) might be inspired from the unintentional solving crime adventure happening to the Famous Five and the Adventure kids.
Rowling doesn’t mention Blyton as her inspiration either. She mentions mostly English fantasy writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Those fantasy books, which I call the other side of English literature, are the ones I rarely read. I don’t even read the famous Alice in Wonderland. The only book I have read among Rowling’s inspiration list is Roald Dahl’s Matilda. It seems that I’m not literate enough in English literacy. But tell me, Blytoners, do you remember The Famous Five when you read Harry Potter?
*As a matter of fact, Blyton also writes fantasy books. which unfortunately I never read. But she doesn’t blend them with crime-busting stories.
Hmm... the books I read in my childhood was not so extravagance as yours. Surely, I never read books in English only after I became adult. But, that doesn't mean my readings not interesting, for I too a fan of Lima Sekawan and Trio Detectives series. Both serials were fascinated me in various way, for sometimes I imagined myself as a brilliant Jupiter Jones who solved every little puzzle that curious his mind. Above all, I'll praise too for Tintin adventures series which brought my imagination to farthest boundary of my daily experiences. Wow, what an imaginative childhood, eh. :)
ReplyDeleteyou don't think that i read those children's books in english, do you? :p i didn't read books in English until the third harry potter book, and that was around 2002 :D
ReplyDeletei read trio detektif and tintin too. but i didn't mention them coz they aren't from england. ah the arrogant jupe. i'd like to punch his face coz he's so smart hahaha
Aha I guess I've got wrong, when I wrote the comment I thought that the term English as the title of this post was refer to books written in English and not a place where the books come from England. So, I included in that some American and Belgian (that you'd so-called) literatures I've read during my youngster. :)
ReplyDeleteAbout your state on Jupe, I only lit bit feel if the word smart was dedicated to that fictive smart-boy character, while the punch was on me. You know, it's so hard kick Hermione. :p
i read enid blyton too..but indonesian version :P
ReplyDeleteHP and hesty: ah you two overestimate me. english literature means;
ReplyDeleteliterature: written artistic works, particularly those with a high and lasting artistic value
english: relating to or from england.
so, i don't talk about books "written in english", but books from england. i read the indonesian version too. maybe i should wrote Lima Sekawan, Seri Petualangan, and Pasukan Mau Tahu instead, so people are not mistaken :p
for HP, you are too "geer". there are many people out there i'd like to punch, such as some members of our beloved legislatives, not you. still you have to be careful, maybe there are people out there who'd like to punch you :p