Reader Autobiography by Julianna Fugere

I have noticed that the books you chose tend to take you just beyond what is merely human. From a golden unicorn through the precocious insight of preteen detectives across magical worlds of wizards and demigods back to a place where superior intellect creates its own downfall in the form of a monstrous power.

I am reminded of CS Lewis’s description of his attachment to fairy tales. “As an adult,” he said, “I got more out of them, because I brought more to them.” And one of the things you are bringing to these stories is magnanimity.

You revel in the tales of the triumph of the good, but you struggle with the dark fears of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley when she faces her own immense creative power. As Peter Kreeft points out in a commentary on Jean Paul Sartre’s “Nausea”, it is better to face the truth, even if it is awful. It is also possible to face it and say “this worldview is needlessly pessimistic.”

And this specific response is what you have made. You have seen the divine spark in humanity, and you have found hope in it. You have found in these books a reflection of yourself, and Pinkalicious predicted your path:

“I cried because I was so beautiful.”

When you were still reading Pinkalicious, I faced a real challenge in life: I wrote a college letter of recommendation for a Slytherin named Mikayla. It had to be included. She was too deeply a Potter fan to leave it out. What I discovered was that her attraction to the wizarding seat of intolerance and prejudice wasn’t a sign of either intolerance nor prejudice. No, she just had no patience for people who could not find the magic in the world. That made her a proponent of a pure-blood-only worldview.

You have found the magic in the world. You have seen humanity exceeding its apparent limits to go where only the poets and dreamers and writers of fantasy can take us. But you will bring the world in with you. Where Mikayla said “go or get out of the way,” you have said “I know the way, follow me.” Mikayla may build a haven for the hopeful, but Julianna will make it a solace for the hopeless. Mikayla could open the main gates for Rowling’s children, but Julianna will sneak in Shelley’s in through the back door.

“Even if Julianna can’t change the big picture, her choices will alter the details.” —Rick Riordan, probably, if only he knew. Julianna will do something great with it.

-Dad Fugère

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