Words as a Source of Power in So You Want to Be a Wizard

[readingredhead.livejournal.com]

I've known for a while that I'm largely the kind of reader (and student of literature) that I am because of writers like Diane Duane who showed me how magical plain old words can be. But explaining this to other people has always been a bit difficult...especially when those "other people" are the kinds of people who work in university English departments and Take Literature Seriously. I've always been frustrated by these people, for a number of reasons, but I am a grad student in English lit and I should be able to give them an argument on "their" terms about why books like So You Want to Be a Wizard are not just awesome, but integral to literature as a whole.

So, with a lot of this in mind, I ended up writing something like an informal analytical essay (but also like a celebration) about the power of words in So You Want to Be a Wizard, which you can find on my blog if you're interested. I've been piecing this together in my spare time for a while now, and I'd love to hear any thoughts that you might have on it.