»Harry Potter - Great literary works or complete pants?«
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 I honestly cant understand the popularity of these books, i know they are aimed at children but the amount of adults i've seen reading these books on trains and busses is rediculous! I'd rather read The Lord of the rings backwards than read H.P! posted by Crossfade |
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| in-my-opinion.orgEntertainment & SportsEntertainment & Art (Assorted topics)Harry Potter - Great literary works or complete pants? |
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 Are they really aimed at kids? I think the theme is pretty "kids", but the style and thickness (of the books) is pretty adult. posted by knn |
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 I've never read H.P. so I couldn't really say. But I suppose that is an indication in itself.  posted by Marl64 |
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 Crossfade: have you ever tried to read them? Have you seen the films? I would recommend doing one of the two before making such a violently prejudiced statement! I don't necessarily say that the Harry Potter phenomenon is the result of literary genius; at least, not entirely. Marketing has a lot to do with the success of the franchise. But all the marketing money can buy cannot sell a shoddy product, either. I didn't read the first book til after I saw the first film; after that, I read all the books that were out, and waited as anxiously as anyone for book no.5. The story drew me in. The characters are such that you, the reader, care about them. That's good writing. The setting is largely fantastic, but not so much to put most people off. It is the kind of fantasy that it's fun to get lost in. The worldbuilding that Jo Rowling has done with Harry Potter is remarkable, too. Of course, it isn't nearly as comprehensive as Tolkien's, but it is still relatively complete, and believable, and fun! ...I've never tried to read LOTR backwards. Maybe I will next time; then I can truly say I know it 'forwards and backwards!' posted by annaerullo |
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It already struck me in the first Harry Potter movie: The casting was fantastic. posted by knn |
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 harry potter sucks. every book is the same. here let me tell all of you people who have not read the books the basic plot of every HP book. potter must escape his evil aunt and uncles house. seomone comes and gets him. they go to school in some weird fashion. they learn a bunch of new crap have a broomstick game. weird crap starts happening at the school. potter fights his arch nemesis. they leave the school. books over. that's the plot for every freaking book and i didn't even read the books. sad isnt it? posted by Agent Zero |
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 Quote: that's the plot for every freaking book and i didn't even read the books. umm..."i didn't even read the books" just sort of disqualified your opinion...just sort of.  Quote: sad isnt it? yes...you are. i'm glad you admitted it zero. 
posted by nocturnal_anonymous |
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 Alan Rickman is fantastic ain't he? Hrmmm... I used to love Harry Potter (not like other kids did, I had taste,) the books are very enthralling, a key to a successful book. But the movies annoy me and I havn't read the fifth book because I have recently decided I'm quite annoyed at the series in a whole. Mainly because of how commercialised it's become. Very much like pokemon in away, was enthralling but then became commercialised and lost its appeal. One thing that really annoys me about the Potter books is the concepts have all been done befor and when I read A Wizard of Earthsea, I said "this is dark and original." Potter certainly has it's dark moments, but it's still a bit too kiddish for my liking. The movies are filth in my eyes, but they definitely have a great cast, not including the child actors I add. I've only ever read each potter book once, there's kids out there who've read each one 30 times. That annoys me when there's some bloody great literary work out there by authors they'll never hear about because they're too hyped up about the new Potter movie to actually think about reading something different for a change. I guess all that annoyance made me forget what the books were like. Is the fifth book worth reading? posted by hungarian kid |
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Agent Zero - Man, you really have a lot of anger, don't you? Let me give you a thought: Uninformed opinions are like mosquitoes; they're practically worthless, and they annoy everybody. If you haven't read the books, at least understand that some other people who have read the books might not agree, and also that the fact is, there are more of those people than would suggest that the books are poor quality, or unimaginative... Indeed, it seems that you are in the minority in your assessment. Since you're also not too fond of Star Wars, or GWB detractors either, I think I can safely dismiss most of your stronger opinions as simply contrary from this point on. (i.e., I agree to disagree with you; hope you can too!  )
By the way, in your synopsis of 'every book,' you left out a visit to the Dark Forest.
Hungarian Kid, and nocturnal - the fifth book is really not that random. The fact is, the Harry Potter series is written entirely through Harry's eyes; nothing happens in the narrative that Harry himself does not witness or experience. Book 5 (and similarly all the previous 4) is Year 5 for Harry at school, and he's 15 years old. Recalling that it's Harry's point of view we're reading, it is clearly written for a 15-year old audience. So, nocturnal_anonymous, no discredit to your maturity intended, but there may well have been things in HP5 that as a 13-yo reader, you might not have picked up on as you should. There's nothing wrong with that; I just suggest you try reading it again in a year or two, and see what you think then.
The 'randomness' you experienced I reckon may have come from the fact that it is such an angry book; Harry is dealing with more anger than he's ever felt, and things tend to get sort of muddled up when you are angry. Especially when you are already stressed, as Harry is throughout the book, by exams and such. And Hungarian Kid, without preachiness, I point you to a verse in Ecclesiastes: 'What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.' (Ecc.1:9-10) posted by annaerullo |
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I don't think the fifth book was as good as the other ones. That's all, okay? Quote: So, nocturnal_anonymous, no discredit to your maturity intended, but there may well have been things in HP5 that as a 13-yo reader, you might not have picked up on as you should. ahem, I've read The Matrix and Philosophy (which IS a college-level book) and I almost understood the whole thing (except for words such as epistemological...  ...but now i know ). not to brag or anything .I think Harry Potter should be no problem. It should be an easy read for everyone.
The thing is not the difficulty level of the book. It's the content. The fourth one was a huge jump from the third one (in length), and I still like it a lot. The problem with the fifth one is that some events strays from the main plotline, and you can tell that rowling is trying to make this book longer by adding more descriptions and less action. running out of ideas eh? 
posted by nocturnal_anonymous |
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 She puts "description" in the fifth book? Well that makes a change... posted by fatpie42 |
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its my oppion! and my purpose...to anoy everyone i come in contact with until i am shot dead at the keyboard posted by Agent Zero |
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 I like Harry Potter books, to say the least. Quote: The fact is, the Harry Potter series is written entirely through Harry's eyes Couldn't agree more. After reading the books one after another that becomes obvious. So even though reading them at whatever age is fun (my 8-year-old sister enjoyed them all) some things you can miss nevertheless if you are not of age. What was new for me in the fifth book is the impression that Rowling decided to use her influence to give some advice: it looks like some passages of Hermione have a clear purpose of teaching the youngsters why girls behave like this or that (Harry's relashionship with Cho). Not that I mind but it cought my eye. Quote: running out of ideas eh? I doubt that. She's too good for that and besides the last book presents many possible story lines. The bad thing is that the story gets darker by book and by the end of it I wonder how many of the characters will still be alive... posted by mymla |
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Quote: hoold it mymla...you're 23 and you have a eight year old sister? yes I do. and she is very nice. Quote: i wont read them whats the point, the movies are all coming out and the book are too dang long Zero, may I ask what you consider the maximum acceptable length for a book to be readable? By the way, as the Potter movies send you to sleep I guess you are not going to watch the third one? posted by mymla |
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Quote: i can do that for free in my bed! good thinking! Quote: maximum novel would be about 300-400 pages not the size of the bible well the first three books are I think even less than that and the fifth one, the largest so far, takes about 580 pages of Word, so that's not too much even for your quota. Especially considering the fact that HP is much more interesting than the Bible for an average human being to read. If you have opened any of the books you must have seen that the font size is drastically different from that of a Bible so one page from it would be worth 7 in HP. Quote: Great stories - badly written. Fatpie, that's where I cannot agree at all. I can somehow understand when people say that Rowling is running out of ideas, unnecessarily puts in some dialogues, gives only one point of view, whatever, but badly written? what makes you say so? posted by mymla |
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The time now is 13 October 2008, 06:51 php B.B. |