Colleen&Potato
Farmer
Do you like Harry Potter (the books)?
Harry Potter
- Thread starter Colleen&Potato
- Start date
Lew Zealand
Helper
Yes, the best part was the cliffhanger wherein I lost my copy of the 7th book for about 2 years and madly avoided spoilers until I found it again in a gym bag I only use for emergencies.
Yes, I do have access to a Library.
No, I don't think of things like that.
Yes, this is a microcosm of my life.
No, I will not change.
Because my changing clothes are in the gym bag which has gone back into hibernation.
Yes, I do have access to a Library.
No, I don't think of things like that.
Yes, this is a microcosm of my life.
No, I will not change.
Because my changing clothes are in the gym bag which has gone back into hibernation.
LRangerR
Local Legend
PoppyForPenny
Farmer
I liked the books better than the movies. Also true of Twilight, Hunger Games, and Divergent.
Colleen&Potato
Farmer
Same! Especially when it comes to the first book of each series.
Lew Zealand
Helper
You may want to check out the idea of Death of the Author. This divorces the author's works and your interpretation and enjoyment of them from the IRL person who the author is. Of course that's only if you already own or have access to those works, or if the author is dead. Buying the books right now of course will financially benefit the author which is not what most would want to do for a person they don't like.
FYI an example of someone who wholeheartedly believed in Death of the Author (this time in Fine Art form) is Salvador Dali. It was his opinion that the appropriate interpretation of The Persistence of Memory is yours. Every yours, all of them. It belongs personally to everyone who sees something important, familiar or just... more undulatingly liquid than normal in it.
It belongs to the viewer, not the artist.
Corvus
Sodbuster
One's the second-most widely read piece of literature in the English language (The Bible is first) and basically kicked-off the whole fantasy genre while the other invented a game that makes no sense at all.
OTOH, when everybody was waiting for Order of the Phoenix to be released there was a discussion on another message board where I have been a longtime member about whether there has ever been so many people anticipating a book. The closest we came to -- and we know some books -- was Gone with the Wind and that was only by adults from a much smaller population so the conclusion was 'no.'
hexnessie
Farmer
Yeah, HP was very much a social phenomenon. The books are OK, but it's the fandom that really made it great. You could find someone interested / very opinionated about HP in nearly every group.
The growing hype between books, then films, the surrounding merchandise, the games, the fan cons -- it grew well beyond the source material.
I'd compare it to Star Wars (the original trilogy) which, as storyline and characters go, are pretty run-of-the-mill space fantasy, but which became a kind of cultural icon through its fanbase.
I'm also sorry the author of HP turned out to be much less progressive and feminist (and a much more nasty person) than she thinks herself to be, and it does sour my reception of the books, but I still love the fandom and the people who make it.
Colleen&Potato
Farmer
I totally understand that.
LRangerR
Local Legend
There are an absurd amount of parallels between LotR and HP, i won't get into most of them, but I will say that The One Ring, is a Horcrux. The thing that I actually like about LOTR is that, despite it being a fantasy world, there is actually a surprisingly small amount of magic in the book. The vast majority of it being relegated to Elven lands, or the forces of Mordor.
PoppyForPenny
Farmer
I love every book I've read by Orson Scott Card, and he's at least as awful as Harry Potter's author. And his Ender series is like, Harry Potter in space with video games, has like 11 books, plus a whole spin off series about Ender's friend Bean with another 8 books. So that's ridiculous as well, imagine 8 books about Ron, hahahaha!
