The bookish kids reading Harry Potter novels may not go on to control the world, but they will almost certainly go on to control the media. In fifteen years, they will be publishing books and directing films and writing broad jokes for unfunny situation comedies that will be downloaded directly into our brains. And like all generations of artists, they will traffic in their own nostalgia. They will use their shared knowledge and experiences as the foundation for discourse. So I wonder: Because I don’t understand Harry Potter, am I doomed to misunderstand everything else?
