<P> Michael Rosen, a novelist and poet, advocated the books were not suited for children, who would be unable to grasp the complex themes . Rosen also stated that "J.K. Rowling is more of an adult writer ." The critic Anthony Holden wrote in The Observer on his experience of judging Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 1999 Whitbread Awards . His overall view of the series was negative--"the Potter saga was essentially patronising, conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain", and he speaks of "a pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style". Ursula K. Le Guin said, "I have no great opinion of it . When so many adult critics were carrying on about the' incredible originality' of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid's fantasy crossed with a "school novel", good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean - spirited ." </P> <P> By contrast, author Fay Weldon, while admitting that the series is "not what the poets hoped for", nevertheless goes on to say, "but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose". The literary critic A.N. Wilson praised the Harry Potter series in The Times, stating: "There are not many writers who have JK's Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep--openly, with tears splashing--and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokes...We have lived through a decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest, scariest and most moving children's stories ever written". Charles Taylor of Salon.com, who is primarily a movie critic, took issue with Byatt's criticisms in particular . While he conceded that she may have "a valid cultural point--a teeny one--about the impulses that drive us to reassuring pop trash and away from the troubling complexities of art", he rejected her claims that the series is lacking in serious literary merit and that it owes its success merely to the childhood reassurances it offers . Taylor stressed the progressively darker tone of the books, shown by the murder of a classmate and close friend and the psychological wounds and social isolation each causes . Taylor also argued that Philosopher's Stone, said to be the most light - hearted of the seven published books, disrupts the childhood reassurances that Byatt claims spur the series' success: the book opens with news of a double murder, for example . </P> <P> Stephen King called the series "a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable", and declared "Rowling's punning, one - eyebrow - cocked sense of humor" to be "remarkable". However, he wrote that despite the story being "a good one", he is "a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle", the formulaic beginning of all seven books . King has also joked that "Rowling's never met an adverb she did not like!" He does however predict that Harry Potter "will indeed stand time's test and wind up on a shelf where only the best are kept; I think Harry will take his place with Alice, Huck, Frodo, and Dorothy and this is one series not just for the decade, but for the ages". Sameer Rahim of The Daily Telegraph disagreed, saying "It depresses me to see 16 and 17 year - olds reading the series when they could be reading the great novels of childhood such as Oliver Twist or A House for Mr Biswas . What that says about the adults who are fanatical fans I'm not sure--but I suspect in years to come people will make a link between our plump, comfortable, infantilising society and the popularity of Potter ." </P> <P> There is ongoing discussion regarding the extent to which the series was inspired by Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books . </P>

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