Unreal City

I am an English graduate. I have read Ulysses and The Wasteland. I have used words like structuralism and post-modernism in essays and understood what they meant. I once read Madame Bovary in the original French. So why have I just phoned my local Waterstones and asked if they're staying open till midnight to celebrate the launch of the Harry Potter books?

I'm still not sure why I like Harry Potter. I like the fact that they're dense with clues and secrets which only a true die-hard reader would pick up. I like the twinned films coming out a year or two after each book. And most of all, I like the fact that I genuinely can't decide if Harry will survive the final book.

In reality, though, I think I like Harry Potter because it's social currency. I can talk to so many random people about the books, and I love that. It's slightly less poncey than trying to find someone else who loves post-modern postcolonial magic realism.