call me a snob

"The mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; til he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of white-wash all over his black fur, and an aching back and very weary arms. Spring was in the air above ans in the earth below......"
- from The Wind in The Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

We looked at 'T.W in the W' today in my children's literature module. It seemed that everyone wanted to slate it, but I think that they were slightly mis-judging the exercise of considering a classic text in that they chose not to understand the themes of friendship and adventure that it comprises of. Instead someone said to me 'but it's not as good as harry potter', to which my argument was that we should wait and see if H.P stands the test of time as TWITW has. Grahame's use of vocabulary may be 'flowery' and archaic, but as our lecturer said, it is good to read outside of our comfort zone every once in a while in order to either progress in our reading, or to understand the past. Whilst the novel may seem out dated to some, and in some cases it is, it's themes and underlying morals have the same significance as they did 1oo years ago, and it should not be written off as a 'boring' or 'irrelevant' story. Non literature students bore me in their criticisms, call me a snob, but simply saying you did not like something is not criticism, it is laziness. AGH to uncultured people who believe harry potter to be the only decent book available.