Harry Potter VI

[Gurm]

Ok, so for those of you who haven't read it yet (most of ya, I wager)...

IF you are the sort of person who likes to flip to the end of books and read the last couple pages... DON'T.

You have been duly warned. You will be very sad if you do so.

Maybe you're thinking to yourself "if I flip to the end, I'll find out who the half-blood prince is!"

You won't.

Maybe you're thinking to yourself "I always like to read the end, it gives me an idea of the overall tone of the book".

It won't. It'll give you an idea of depression and dismay, as well as EXTREME CONFUSION.

[Fluff]

In Harry Potter VII he apparently dies?

Is it quite a dark book for the Harry Potter series?

[Rakido]

Someone from BBC News read it and posted in a blog while reading, you can found that here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ts/4672183.stm

Didn't found a really spoiling spoiler, so check for yourself

I am now past the 400-page mark and a mere 205 pages remain.

I'm not sure whether it is the lateness of the hour or the paucity of the plot but I am definitely beginning to flag.

The book is creeping towards a conclusion but there appears to be little rhyme or reason to much of what happens in the book.

R.

[schmosef]

I'm not a HP fan and haven't read any of the books.

I have a question:
Have the # of books in the series been set or is JKR just milking this until the fad dies down?

BTW, Kudos to JKR for ignighting the imaginations of a new generation of readers. I'm glad for her that she's enjoyed so much success from these books. It gives all of us adults the inspiration to follow our dreams too.

[Tjalfe]

apparently the next book will be the last of the potter series...
my girlfriend spend all saturday reading it and now wants me to do the same ...

[Brian Ellis]

Anyone who reads this rubbish has more time than sense. At the behest of my granddaughter, I read #1 to the end and was bored to tears by both the plot and the standard of writing. She then persuaded me to try #2; I gave up after a few score pages.

I'm not even sure it is really OK for the target audience which is probably 60 years younger than I.

HP is NOT great literature and after all the hype has passed with #7 and the last film has been made, I believe it will fall the way of Just William, What Katy Did, Heidi and so on, almost into obscurity. Those who have spent £/€/$ on it are, IMNSHO, richer in the pocket than the brain.

Brian dixit!

[Jammrock]

Anyone who reads this rubbish has more time than sense. At the behest of my granddaughter, I read #1 to the end and was bored to tears by both the plot and the standard of writing. She then persuaded me to try #2; I gave up after a few score pages.

I'm not even sure it is really OK for the target audience which is probably 60 years younger than I.

HP is NOT great literature and after all the hype has passed with #7 and the last film has been made, I believe it will fall the way of Just William, What Katy Did, Heidi and so on, almost into obscurity. Those who have spent £/€/$ on it are, IMNSHO, richer in the pocket than the brain.

Brian dixit!

I haven't heard anyone say it's great literature, just a fun and interesting story. At least ... most people that read them say that. Rowlings is by no stretch of the imagination Tolkien or the like, just a decent story teller that has captured a very huge fan base.

For those interested, here's a list of "Ten Books Better than Harry Potter:"

http://teenwriting.about.com/cs/sfandfantasy/tp/betterthanharry.htm

Jammrock

[Jon P. Inghram]

Those who have spent £/€/$ on it are, IMNSHO, richer in the pocket than the brain.

OMFG, SOMEONE ACTUALLY BOUGHT A HP BOOK?! BURN THEM!

[Brian Ellis]

For those interested, here's a list of "Ten Books Better than Harry Potter:"

http://teenwriting.about.com/cs/sfandfantasy/tp/betterthanharry.htm

Jammrock

That's an interesting web site. I went back several papges and clicked a few links. Thanks.

[KvHagedorn]

Anyone who reads this rubbish has more time than sense. At the behest of my granddaughter, I read #1 to the end and was bored to tears by both the plot and the standard of writing. She then persuaded me to try #2; I gave up after a few score pages.

I'm not even sure it is really OK for the target audience which is probably 60 years younger than I.

HP is NOT great literature and after all the hype has passed with #7 and the last film has been made, I believe it will fall the way of Just William, What Katy Did, Heidi and so on, almost into obscurity. Those who have spent £/€/$ on it are, IMNSHO, richer in the pocket than the brain.

Brian dixit!

Honestly, in my opinion any book which uses correct spelling and grammar and manages to entice a young person to read it (and of course doesn't teach them horrible things) is a good book.

[spadnos]

A little harsh there, Brian.

Some people read for entertainment, and these books are good for that. As one musician says "if it sounds good, it is good" - same applies here - "if you like it, it's good". I read the Half Blood Prince Saturday night, and it was entertaining (which was all I wanted from it).

I can see that the writing isn't "great", that the names of spells, for instance, are a heavily butchered Latin-esque mish-mash. She uses a modern "Deus Ex Machina" all the time (lookit that new spell, lucky we just found out about it 3 minutes before it was needed to save the day). Nonetheless, I enjoy the experience of reading the books.

I personally can't stand to read Shakespeare, but he doesn't automatically suck because of that.

- Steve

[Jon P. Inghram]

Spadnos got it right: it's art. Do you go around calling people stupid because they like Salvador Dali's paintings for example?

[Umfriend]

Spadnos got it right: it's art. Do you go around calling people stupid because they like Salvador Dali's paintings for example?

HELL YEAH!

[Gurm]

I was talking with a friend about the success of Harry Potter this past weekend.

JKR lucked into finding a gigantic untapped market - one that my brother and I identified 15-odd years ago, long before she began penning "Philosopher's Stone" (the actual title of the first book, which makes SENSE if you know anything about alchemy).

That untapped market is... a school of wizardry.

Oh, there have been some stabs into the genre. Some fantasy authors have done it, but really JKR did a few things right. She's very savvy. Here's the list:

1. It's about a school of wizardry. This was a gigantic market waiting to be tapped. Many people found Roke Island to be the very best part of "Earthsea", yet Le Guin spent so little time there. Several other series have sort of touched on this and yet failed to ever delve really deeply into it... partly because either you have to make a completely new universe (a la Earthsea) or reconcile certain... difficulties. Such as children bopping off to a school of wizardry which normal people can't see or even be aware of, without social services getting their knickers in a twist.

2. It's targeted SQUARELY at children. Children's fantasy has always been an odd little market. It's always done surprisingly well, all things considered, but has never gotten the critical acclaim, perhaps, that adult works have achieved. Some of the series whose influence I will always personally feel are:

- Narnia (C.S. Lewis)
- Prydain (Lloyd Alexander)
- The Tripods (John Christopher)
- Tarzan/John Carter (Burroughs)
- Young Wizards (Diane Duane) ... this one bears a little further investigation.

Rowling realized her weaknesses. While there are certainly those adults who really like the HP novels, a good deal more find them trite and silly. I think that Rowling knew full well that she couldn't be a good ADULT author. Many of us know that we are perfectly capable of stringing together a decent story, using flawless grammar, and yet we feel that we aren't "good enough" to write for grown-ups. Some who feel that way are WRONG (Stephen Donaldson took 20 years off from writing the Thomas Covenant series because he felt that the ones he had already written were juvenile and poorly crafted... although they seem to have sold tens of millions of copies EACH), but others are justified. Grown-ups demand a bit more consistency, and her casual ripping-off of half a dozen prior sources wouldn't have sat well with grown-ups.

Rowling also plays well to the kid audience. She includes a lot of elements that kids really appreciate - which again, of course, adults might find silly or trite.

3. It is BASED on themes which most adults have outgrown, but which SUCK IN the fantasy audience as well as kids of all ages. All teenagers feel like outsiders, as do many pre-teens. The geeky little kid who is different and alone - that's all 12-13 year olds everywhere. Again, adults see this theme for how contrived it really is. There have been a great many articles about how really silly the HP universe is, but fans are willing to take it at face value.

---------------------------

I am wandering with this a little, but in essence I feel that a mediocre-to-lousy author has capitalized GRANDLY on her own weaknesses, played up to her audience, and made a killing.

We could explore why, for example, the HP books have become a BILLION-DOLLAR enterprise, and the Lemony Snickett books have not... a different day.

[Jon P. Inghram]

HELL YEAH!

Is that a "HELL YEAH, I agree with you!", or "HELL YEAH, anyone who likes Dali is an idiot!"?