> martin> The current phenomenon is harry potter stories. Equally a
> martin> product of the author's cultural roots (thereby more egalitarian
> martin> in tone.)
>
>Well, yes and no.
>
>There's actually an interesting issue of natural slavery in the Potter
>series, one which a forthcoming issue of Monkeyfist.com will cover,
>together with a consideration of natural slavery in the work of Samuel
>R. Delany, particularly his *Stars in My Pockets Like Grains of
>Sand*.
'more egalitarian...' than the ring trilogy - given the cultural roots of the respective authors. In tolkein the fellowship was unique in it's ethnic mix - in dowling the wizarding community (and perhaps the muggle community) are equitably mixed racially and genderwise.
The subversive nature of each of the works was my point. But where tolkein reached a young adult audience in academic settings, dowling seems to reach a broad swath of early readers in the consumer class.