Harry Potter!!!!!!1

[ymu]

Coming out post

I got the first two as a present for a kid down the road who was always coming round when his mum couldn't be arsed. mad: at her but for me).

Turned out his reading age/confidence wasn't good enough so we read them aloud together, imagined them as films (he thought films were better than books) and drew the characters from the descriptions. He loved it, and his older brother and younger sister started coming round to join in.

It's not great literature - it's painfully badly written in places, very derivative and with a very repetitive structure used in all the books, but it actually is a good over-arching storyline across the 6 (7 now).

I'll support it because it gets 8 year old kids reading huge tomes - as books 4-6 have been - and wanting to do it. That's a great thing - even if there are much better books out there (there are). I hate the hype, but if it's getting kids who wouldn't normally read to do so, I think that's great.


The films are shite.

 

[DrRingDing]

and i'm afraid to say i think you're rather sad.

Play the ball not the man.

 

[madzone]

The films are shite.

In what way?

 

[Reno]

The films are shite.

Haven't read the books and thought the first two films were shite, but the third one was great.

 

[Melinda]

I got the first two as a present for a kid down the road who was always coming round when his mum couldn't be arsed. mad: at her but for me).

Turned out his reading age/confidence wasn't good enough so we read them aloud together, imagined them as films (he thought films were better than books) and drew the characters from the descriptions. He loved it, and his older brother and younger sister started coming round to join in.

It's not great literature - it's painfully badly written in places, very derivative and with a very repetitive structure used in all the books, but it actually is a good over-arching storyline across the 6 (7 now).

I'll support it because it gets 8 year old kids reading huge tomes - as books 4-6 have been - and wanting to do it. That's a great thing - even if there are much better books out there (there are). I hate the hype, but if it's getting kids who wouldn't normally read to do so, I think that's great.


The films are shite.

You know- you have really made my day!

 

[fogbat]

Where have I said that?

Oh, sorry, my mistake.

I think I've been reading a different thread from you

 

[ymu]

Haven't read the books and thought the first two films were shite, but the third one was great.

To be fair, they have been improving. I quite enjoyed Goblet of Fire, but I got bored half way through Prisoner of Azkaban. The younger actors (and some of the older ones too, actually) have been getting better.

It's rare that I enjoy a film as much when I've read the book though.

 

[madzone]

Oh, sorry, my mistake.

I think I've been reading a different thread from you

No, seriously where have I said that? I haven't. I said here come the pseudo literati. I didn't say who I meant but you and dub (and to a certain extent OU though I think he was just tarting) jumped ont he comment. I've never said no-one's allowed to think something is shit but by the same token I'm allowed to think that the same offenders who trot out he same seemingly affected opinions are psuedo's who think belittling something so popular makes them somehow superior There are other people saying they don't like it but they manage it say it in a way which doesn't seem to suggest that people who do like it are some kind of intellectually challenged fish food.

 

[ymu]

In what way?

Poor acting mostly. Really grates on me. I can accept the shortcuts they have to make to get it all into a film, but the acting is like fingers on a chalkboard, in the first two especially. *shudders*

 

[Orang Utan]

You didn't like it when I said bad things about Mary Shelley.

Harry Potter is far more entertaining and far less obnoxious than Frankenstein.

[/BadRingDing]

I disagreed with you about it. I don't recall saying that you shouldn't slag it off

 

[ymu]

You know- you have really made my day!

Happy to be of service.

 

[madzone]

Poor acting mostly. Really grates on me. I can accept the shortcuts they have to make to get it all into a film, but the acting is like fingers on a chalkboard, in the first two especially. *shudders*

Isn't that always going to be the case when the majority of the cast are kids though?

 

[DrRingDing]

I think with what you're doing and whom you are with when you experience certain media may well have more of an impact than most would probably expect.

I've read all of the Harry Potter's thus far out loud (and been read back) to a girlfriend.

Twas very cosy, a nice way to spend an hour or two....better than watching the telly with your partner.

The only problem was after we read HP's everytime later we read to each other all we could hear was the Harry Potters voices....didn't really work reading out loud heavy weight political tomes after that

 

[Orang Utan]

and i'm afraid to say i think you're rather sad.

tsk Dub, it's Friday, not Monday

 

[DrRingDing]

I disagreed with you about it. I don't recall saying that you shouldn't slag it off

You did become rather heated, infact I can't remember you ever being so angry on here before.

I felt a bit guilty....and I'm a right cunt apparently

 

[Reno]

To be fair, they have been improving. I quite enjoyed Goblet of Fire, but I got bored half way through Prisoner of Azkaban. The younger actors (and some of the older ones too, actually) have been getting better.

It's rare that I enjoy a film as much when I've read the book though.

Same here. It's not the kind of thing I would read, though friends of mine who are well read and whose opinion I respect said basically the same as you about the books.

I thought that unlike the first two films which seemed to be structured like books, the third one actually worked as a film, was beautifully directed, very atmospheric and surprisingly dark. The fourth one was pretty good as well. I still find the child actors irritating, but as you said, they have been getting better. Anyway, I'm going to a preview screening of the new one next week and I'm quite looking forward to it.

 

[ymu]

Isn't that always going to be the case when the majority of the cast are kids though?

Yes. Doesn't make it any less grating.

I wasn't impressed with a lot of the star name actors in the first one tbh.

 

[Reno]

Isn't that always going to be the case when the majority of the cast are kids though?

There are directors like Spielberg who get great, natural performances out of kids.The child actors in ET were fantastic for instance. The children in the Potter films seem really stiff and uncomfortable in the first couple of films.

 

[fogbat]

No, seriously where have I said that? I haven't. I said here come the pseudo literati. I didn't say who I meant but you and dub (and to a certain extent OU though I think he was just tarting) jumped ont he comment. I've never said no-one's allowed to think something is shit but by the same token I'm allowed to think that the same offenders who trot out he same seemingly affected opinions are psuedo's who think belittling something so popular makes them somehow superior There are other people saying they don't like it but they manage it say it in a way which doesn't seem to suggest that people who do like it are some kind of intellectually challenged fish food.

Ah, ok (and I think OU's always tarting ).

But I'd say my criticisms were of the book and the writing. I said nothing about those who read them.

And yes, part of my objection to them is related to the fact that they're popular. I'm not attacking them on the basis of their popularity, but so much attention is heaped upon what I consider to be markedly inferior books. Their ubiquity just increases my hostility.
In much the same way, if football was just a minor sport that I wasn't interested in, then I probably wouldn't care too much either way about it.
But the fact that during the football season, during the world cup and European cup, it's bloody everywhere, completely unavoidable, just really fucks me off.

Popular stuff that's brilliant - brilliant.
Popular stuff that's shite - still shite.

 

[Orang Utan]

What's tarting?

 

[ymu]

Same here. It's not the kind of thing I would read, though friends of mine who are well read and whose opinion I respect said basically the same as you about the books.

I thought that unlike the first two films which seemed to be structured like books, the third one actually worked as a film, was beautifully directed, very atmospheric and surprisingly dark. The fourth one was pretty good as well. I still find the child actors irritating, but as you said, they have been getting better. Anyway, I'm going to a preview screening of the new one next week and I'm quite looking forward to it.

Yep - the books get progressively darker and generally better (and gradually a bit less generic in structure). This last book will be interesting as it may not be set in the school very much at all, which removes a lot of the easy options for writing it. Harry's skipping his last year to go and hunt down Voldemort.

 

[fogbat]

What's tarting?

Y'know, I'm not actually sure, but I bet you do it

Probably while dressed in that suit...

 

[Agent Sparrow]

IMO Harry Potter is a good book when you're depressed and can't concentrate on very much at all. The plot is engaging enough, and the otherwise basic writing style makes it easy to read when you can't read anything else. Some of those books were a bit of a godsend for me at the time.

So I'll always have a soft spot for it for that if nothing else. Because of that, whilst I certainly wouldn't be buying it, I do have a passing interest in how it's going to pan out in the end.

 

[scifisam]

It's the most contrived kids story ever, a rip of the worst witch, and the sort of complete tripe that could of been written by anyone with half a brain cell.

I started reading the first book just as fuel to argue with anyone who dare says it's anything other than the above.

Got 3 chapters in and gave it to a charity shop.

Complete Toss.

IMO of course.

A rip-off of the worst witch?

Hahahahahaha!

That would be because it's about a school for witches and wizards, yes? And because of all the other similarities - not that I can think of any. Actually, there aren't any, are there?

A similar setting does not mean that the entire story is a rip-off. Otherwise every hospital drama or comedy is a rip-off of general hospital and every cop show is a rip-off of Dixon of Dock Green.

Harry Potter's pretty good in my opinion; I think the writing's decent, the characters are developing well and the plots are fast-paced enough to keep you interested. After all, there must be some reason the books sell so well and so many people like them. It'll never win the Nobel Prize for literature, but that's not what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to entertain, and it does.

I don't really understand why people who don't like something feel it's so very important to tell everyone about it. Especially in a thread where other people are saying they like it. Do you guys also go round your friends houses and shit on their birthday presents?

 

[bluestreak]

well, chippy at least - it just seems that whenever anyone dislikes something you like, you need to couch it in all this "trying to be cool", "trying to be intellectual" nonsense.

perhaps you should accept that people like different stuff, and perhaps have the courage of your own convictions, eh?

this post categorises the things i hate most about urban. it's impossible for certain people to criticise things with out being accused of trying to be cool or intellectual when they are trying to be neither of these things. it's a crass lazy argument that only serves to make me think less of the person making the argument.

now my argument on harry potter. for kids it's a great read, and i like the way it's got more complex and twisted as it's gone along. i think that's good for kids. and for adults, well, as part of a diet of a wide variety of literature i don't see a problem. i just can't understand the adulation amongst adults when it's not a great artistic work, and most of the adults who seem to worship it, IME, are unaware or dismissive of the assorted works that rowling was influenced by. however, for her work in getting kids reading and into libraries and bookshops she deserves every penny she's earned. am i going to read it. eventually probably, when a copy shows up in a charity shop, cos i've read the rest (hated the first three, btw, but the later ones are readable) and would hate to not know how it shows up.

thanks, i've been bluestreak, and this has been my fence.

 

[bluestreak]

I got the first two as a present for a kid down the road who was always coming round when his mum couldn't be arsed. mad: at her but for me).

Turned out his reading age/confidence wasn't good enough so we read them aloud together, imagined them as films (he thought films were better than books) and drew the characters from the descriptions. He loved it, and his older brother and younger sister started coming round to join in.

It's not great literature - it's painfully badly written in places, very derivative and with a very repetitive structure used in all the books, but it actually is a good over-arching storyline across the 6 (7 now).

I'll support it because it gets 8 year old kids reading huge tomes - as books 4-6 have been - and wanting to do it. That's a great thing - even if there are much better books out there (there are). I hate the hype, but if it's getting kids who wouldn't normally read to do so, I think that's great.

that's a really cool thing to do ymu, nice one.

 

[onemonkey]

seems like stephen king is in the fan club.

me too although not to the extent of count the 15 sleeps remaining till HP7 day

 

[onemonkey]

and would hate to not know how it shows up.

dumbledore dies on page.. oh wait..

 

[scifisam]

this post categorises the things i hate most about urban. it's impossible for certain people to criticise things with out being accused of trying to be cool or intellectual when they are trying to be neither of these things. it's a crass lazy argument that only serves to make me think less of the person making the argument.

now my argument on harry potter. for kids it's a great read, and i like the way it's got more complex and twisted as it's gone along. i think that's good for kids. and for adults, well, as part of a diet of a wide variety of literature i don't see a problem. i just can't understand the adulation amongst adults when it's not a great artistic work, and most of the adults who seem to worship it, IME, are unaware or dismissive of the assorted works that rowling was influenced by. however, for her work in getting kids reading and into libraries and bookshops she deserves every penny she's earned. am i going to read it. eventually probably, when a copy shows up in a charity shop, cos i've read the rest (hated the first three, btw, but the later ones are readable) and would hate to not know how it shows up.

thanks, i've been bluestreak, and this has been my fence.

I know that I've read all the books that people saying Rowling plagiarised, and they just aren't that similar. Funnily enough, I think they're more like Blyton's boarding school books than any magic books. A lot of things in the story are basic fantasy tropes, too - the phoenix and so on.

But Hell, all that's saying is that some book is indirectly influenced by some other books and by the common memes of fantasy. There isn't a single fantasy book that you couldn't apply that to.

One of the reasons I like Harry Potter and some other YA fiction is that there isn't so much of an emphasis on love and the battle of the sexes - hope that doesn't come up too much in the next book just because they're getting older. At least it was very much in the background in the last couple of books.

 

[Vintage Paw]

I'm looking forward to it about as much as having a tooth out.

I work at a branch of a large chain of bookstore and for some unknown, and rather stupid, reason decided a couple of months ago to put myself forward to work the midnight opening *smacks forehead*

Actually, all I really begrudge is having to wear the pathetically stupid t-shirt they are giving us. If I'd have wanted to wear a uniform I wouldn't have applied for that job in the first place (I don't like uniforms).

I might ebay it though afterwards