Anyone else hate British cuteness?

[Daystar Clarion]

Wow, there are just no words one can say about this thread. I'll let Dr.Cox handle this one.

When I come into power, Big Ben will make that noise.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Britain? Cute? You obviously haven't been to Glasgow on a dark Saturday night.

and sir wins the thread.

From the example you give I think perhaps 'quirky' is a better word than 'cute'
In Britain we seem to have the two extremes when it comes to entertainment. On the one hand you have the ultra-misanthropic and cynical stuff, which Yahtzee demonstrates perfectly on this site, and on the other there is stuff like Harry Potter, Dr Who, Monty Python and Michael McIntyre. I wouldn't exactly call it an obsession though.

 

[Alexi089]

And here I though this was about cute things from England (or Great-Britain).

-snip-

Legend!

Edit: Dammit! How do you do this quote thing properly without unnecessarily filling space?

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

So if non-magic using people in the HP universe were called Cara'sin instead of Muggles, maybe I wouldn't be posting this on the net, but as it is, Muggles is a word that forces me to accept the fact that I'm reading a book written for an 8 year old even though the later novels grow with the audience.

So after 7 or 8 or 9 years, an 8 year old is magically an old adult now?

Seriously?

Really?

Get over it. You're reading a kid's book.

You might want to rephrase that. It makes it sound like you're denying the process of ageing.

 

[noeggsforyou]

Another Brit here to join the chorus of "what the crumpets!?" but in a vaguely welsh accent

 

[Stasisesque]

Remember Lord of the Rings, the granddaddy of modern fantasy? British, not particularly cute.
And 'muggle' is actually kind of a racial slur withing the Harry Potter universe. The word itself is a tad strange (originally the books were for a very young audience), but the connotations are anything but cute.

So yeah, I join with my countrymen in asking what the hell?

Uhm, Muggle is not a racial slur in the books. They even have "Muggle Studies". You're thinking of Mudblood.

If you look at the later books, the dark wizards certainly treat 'muggle' as a slur- they see them as lower forms of life, creatures to be eradicated. I always saw it as kind of a holocaust reference.

Yeah, I'm a massive geek.

And I don't like to have to watch a bloody ad just to get my captcha and make a forum post.
Huh, my captcha seems to agree with me, it's 'axe to grind'

That still doesn't mean "Muggle" is ever used as a racial slur in the books. The Death Eaters and certain Ministry officials certainly believe the magical community are better than Muggles, but their name never became a slur. Mudblood, however, was referenced time and time again as being the racial slur.

 

[Spacewolf]

why would britain use oriental words for its books we have our own mythology after all and if you really want lots of apostropes read the welsh version

 

[Torrasque]

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110629225160/callofduty/images/0/04/Not-sure-if-trolling-or-just-stupid.jpg

^ This.

If you are actually serious, and not trolling, you're completely wrong.
The Japanese make everything cute, literally. The British just make everything silly with satire and sarcasm.
I can't think of a single horrible thing that British comedy hasn't satirized yet, or just made silly.

Cute? The fact that Muggle is remotely close to Moogle, causes you to think that the British label everything cute?
I hope you never realize that "Pony" is very close to being "Porn"
Wait...

 

[Littlee300]

snip

I'd like to see you be able to spell.
_______________________________________________________________
This thread really should be locked...

 

[Scarim Coral]

British cuteness? Since when is that a proper words? I think the word you were looking for is term or glossary?

As for OT from what I can make out no I don't find it annoying since that is one little thing that J.K Rowling had come up with yet you say it's a huge thing that the Brit had only come up with?
I pretty sure that there other other UK fantasy book that had make up their own terms used in their books (e.g. the book Eragon had its own terms like Urgals, Brisingr and Ra'zac) and also Harry Potter is just a fad at the moment due to the last film.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

i love how this is four pages of 'no, your an idiot.'

 

[DracoSuave]

So if non-magic using people in the HP universe were called Cara'sin instead of Muggles, maybe I wouldn't be posting this on the net, but as it is, Muggles is a word that forces me to accept the fact that I'm reading a book written for an 8 year old even though the later novels grow with the audience.

So after 7 or 8 or 9 years, an 8 year old is magically an old adult now?

Seriously?

Really?

Get over it. You're reading a kid's book.

You might want to rephrase that. It makes it sound like you're denying the process of ageing.

I dunno where you come from, but where I live, an 8 year old kid can't become an adult in 9 years.

The books weren't trying to be for young adults... they were trying to be a series of books for kids growing up to become young adults. That means that yes, you're going to get writing that geared towards attracting kids. Because, and this might be a shock... that's what the series is about. Kids, growing up.

You have to start that somewhere, and starting a book with expressions and terms based around child-like wonder, rather than adult sensibility, is the correct way to go about it.

But the conflict is about Harry keeping his childlike naivete and kindness and forgiveness in the face of unspeakably villainous evil in a world of growing cynicism. That means, you keep some of the childlike bits in there. It supports the theme.

 

[AK 1 ASSASSIN]

Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves

 

[CaptVickHartnell]

Yeah. Australian here, so we're pretty much a mish-mash of British and American culture here, and the most nauseatingly cute stuff definitely comes from the U.S. (or maybe Japan) but definitely not the Brits. Many british things don't take themselves as seriously as many American TV shows or films (see. Doctor Who), so maybe that's what you're misinterpreting as 'cuteness'.

 

[Dogstile]

i love how this is four pages of 'no, your an idiot.'

This is exactly what I was going to post. I'm adding nothing to the discussion, but i'm still going to add "WHAT THE HELL". I'm british and I read harry potter and in the later books all cuteness is gone. What some of the characters go through is torture.

 

[YawningAngel]

As an American, I do like British culture, especially comedy, but I can't get over their obsession with making everything cute.

I'm not even sure if cute is the right word, it's just the best word I can muster. They don't just apply cute names to things like the Japanese do, but apply cuteness and expect everyone to take it seriously. I can't get into Harry Potter, though I'm sure it's brilliantly written, just because non-magic users are referred to as Muggles. To compare, the Final Fantasy series has creatures called Moogles, but FF doesn't force us to take them seriously.

Again, it might just be the fact that I'm American. I'm used to mystical things sounding sort of Asian or Middle Eastern and putting apostrophes in random places. An ancient secret society should be called Kal'sur and the mystical weapon should be Dor'salim. So if non-magic using people in the HP universe were called Cara'sin instead of Muggles, maybe I wouldn't be posting this on the net, but as it is, Muggles is a word that forces me to accept the fact that I'm reading a book written for an 8 year old even though the later novels grow with the audience.

As it is, I hate British naming of Fantasy things. Posters should feel free to add their own grievances.

It's a children's story, what did you expect? If you're approaching the book as an adult and expecting serious literature you're missing the point.

 

[orangeban]

Uh, never heard of British cuteness, I'm British and I've heard of British dark humour, and satire, and just plain old taking the piss out of things, but I've never heard of British cuteness. It would bizarre if in Harry Potter the muggles were Ir'norda or whatever, cause that would be weird. I think muggles makes sense, it sounds like a sort of slur against non-magic people, and a sort of slur that I could actually see created.

 

[00slash00]

yeah i kinda expected this to be about cute british girls or something. its a fact, the accent makes even unattractive british girls seem hot

 

[orangeban]

Remember Lord of the Rings, the granddaddy of modern fantasy? British, not particularly cute.
And 'muggle' is actually kind of a racial slur withing the Harry Potter universe. The word itself is a tad strange (originally the books were for a very young audience), but the connotations are anything but cute.

So yeah, I join with my countrymen in asking what the hell?

Uhm, Muggle is not a racial slur in the books. They even have "Muggle Studies". You're thinking of Mudblood.

If you look at the later books, the dark wizards certainly treat 'muggle' as a slur- they see them as lower forms of life, creatures to be eradicated. I always saw it as kind of a holocaust reference.

Yeah, I'm a massive geek.

And I don't like to have to watch a bloody ad just to get my captcha and make a forum post.
Huh, my captcha seems to agree with me, it's 'axe to grind'

That still doesn't mean "Muggle" is ever used as a racial slur in the books. The Death Eaters and certain Ministry officials certainly believe the magical community are better than Muggles, but their name never became a slur. Mudblood, however, was referenced time and time again as being the racial slur.

Maybe it's not a racial slur, but it's sorta like that thing where homophobes say like, "Those *gays*" and the emphasis they put on the word gays (which isn't a slur) makes it really sound like a slur.

 

[Hugga_Bear]

i love how this is four pages of 'no, your an idiot.'

This is exactly what I was going to post. I'm adding nothing to the discussion, but i'm still going to add "WHAT THE HELL". I'm british and I read harry potter and in the later books all cuteness is gone. What some of the characters go through is torture.

Several times, literally. In the 7th film (Deathly Hallows part 1) you even get a scene where Emma Watson is being tortured off screen, you still get to hear her scream and watch as she's silenced with a tear rolling down her cheek and her body lightly twitching.

But y'know. It's for kids right?

How is muggle 'cute'? It's intended as a derogatory term, it's likeness to moogle is coincidental and meaningless, it's like saying rape is close to rope therefore rape isn't bad. wtf?