Does anyone else not like Harry Potter?

Robert632

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thaluikhain said:
Hermione works hard, she's responsible, thinks things through, and gives good advice. She cares about the house elves when nobody else does.
That's actually another thing that bugged me. If they can use magic, why fuck over the house elves?
Because most wizards and witches believe they are superior to the other races. I mean, just remember the description of that fountain in the Ministry.

O.T: I like the series...And I have no idea why. Seriously, I just sort of do.
 

the rye

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They were ok but at the time i was reading the harry potter books i was already reading 1984, Brave New World. So Harry Potter just never stuck with me, also i have always preferred sci-fi to fantasy. Magic really never seemed interesting to me.
 

Kermi

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kaioxs said:
Well living in England and growing up when the books were coming out i naturally loved them. i can still read them with happy nostalgia. But i am now a literature student and yeah even for a children's book they're pretty shit.The films were definitely worse. But overall i still cant say i dislike harry potter its just one of dem tings. HOWEVER, there is one glaring hole nobody ever seems to point out. throughout the entire series the muggles are portrayed as weak and defenceless before the power of dark wizards. Fair enough you can do some funky shit with magic but all your death eater problems could be solved with one SAS squad. see how fast you can say avada kedavra with an mp5 in your face.
I wasn't going to reply to this thread, but this amused me, because you seem to think a wizard vs. SAS would result in them standing at opposite ends of a room shooting at each other.

Firstly, the wizard can cast a spell to detect human presences, so he'd know where his enemies were and where they were coming from. With no prior preparation he has access to spells that can incapacitate, stun, blast through solid objects, create smoke and fire, make himself invisible, protect himself from damage, confuse the enemy, take control of the enemy, and kill - and he can do all of these things without speaking. If things got really tight, he could just disapparate and live to fight another day.

You best chance against a wizard would be snipers, since the bullets would strike before they heard the shot, and even then you'd best hope that first shot is a kill shot. That's assuming you can locate the wizard, that he's not hidden in a place undetectable by Muggles.

I studied literature at university myself. While I'd hesitate to call the Harry Potter books well-written, they're certainly not 'shit'. The world is well-imagined, and the narratives are compelling. I don't see why every piece of literature needs to be graded on a curve.
 

Laser Priest

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Mar 24, 2011
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Nope.

You're the only one in the world who dislikes something as well known as Harry Potter.
 

Thaluikhain

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The_Waspman said:
You're not the only one. I only read the first book, and IMHO, it is actually very poorly written. I kinda understand why kids like it (because its a fucking kids book) but honestly have no idea why adults all jumped on the band wagon. Considering there are so many other intelligent (a term that can not be applied to the Potter books) well written genre books out there.
Er...you are able to judge how intelligent the entire 7 book series is by reading the first book?

kaioxs said:
HOWEVER, there is one glaring hole nobody ever seems to point out. throughout the entire series the muggles are portrayed as weak and defenceless before the power of dark wizards. Fair enough you can do some funky shit with magic but all your death eater problems could be solved with one SAS squad. see how fast you can say avada kedavra with an mp5 in your face.
Not this again. The wizards go to extreme length to make sure that nobody else even knows they exist.

Secondly, only schoolkids can beat Death Eaters, and you have to be an adult to be in the SAS
 

jumjalalabash

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Read first book and thought it was dull as all hell. Got 40 pages into the second one and said fuck it. But movies 1-4 and 8 were alright.
 

zohmbee

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I enjoyed it up until the fifth book, which is when my friend got into the slash pairings on fanfiction and started talking about them nonstop. Literally nonstop. Including 'story time' with her favourite slash pairings, where she would read aloud several chapters of one fanfiction that scarred me and the rest of my friends for life.

That kind of killed it for me.
 

Najos

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I actually read them all when the last book came out (I was probably 23 or...25? I don't remember.) and I thought they were decent for what they are. I mean, they're written specifically for children, especially the first few. I probably would have thoroughly enjoyed them if I read them when I was a kid, but I hated reading when I was kid...so maybe I wouldn't have!

Anyway, they aren't amazing literature or anything, but they aren't really supposed to be. I think the series is an excellent way to introduce a kid to reading, though. The books manage to tell a story without all of the undertones of books like The Golden Compass (whatever that series is called) or anything by C.S. Lewis. I'm not sure how reading is handled these days, but when I was in school we read shit that just wasn't that interesting or age appropriate A LOT. I remember being assigned stuff by Dickens as early as 7th grade and...well, he's just really hard to read. Wait, I'm starting to ramble now. Anyway, I wish schools had books like HP on the list when I was a kid instead of Dickens, it probably would have eased me into reading a lot better.
 

BringBackBuck

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thaluikhain said:
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The_Waspman said:
You're not the only one. I only read the first book, and IMHO, it is actually very poorly written. I kinda understand why kids like it (because its a fucking kids book) but honestly have no idea why adults all jumped on the band wagon. Considering there are so many other intelligent (a term that can not be applied to the Potter books) well written genre books out there.
Er...you are able to judge how intelligent the entire 7 book series is by reading the first book?
I think reading a book by an author is pretty good way to judge that author's style. Is there any other way?

Very few authors change their style from one book to the next unless they are going for a completely different genre (Roald Dahl's adult novels anyone?). However a particular series from an author will generally be written in a consistent style, tone, pace, etc, i.e: reading the first book of Stephen King's DarkTower series, or Robert Jordan's WOT series will give you a pretty good idea how the series is written.


I think they are fine for kid's books and i will encourage my children to read it when they are about 10 years old. However, I am an old bastard so I was in my twenties when I read the 1st Harry Potter book (recommended by another adult who thought it was brilliant). I read it in one sitting and thought it was dull. I get that the spin is to put a bit of teen / high school / struggling to fit in angle, which I am sure is why so many teenagers identify with the novel, but I found it really derivative. All the monsters are straight out of Tolkien's world or Greek mythology. If you are into the whole wizard thing, read Terry Pratchett: original, amusing, well written, but devoid of a teen angle and not dumbed down for kids. JK Rowling is to Tolkien what Stephanie Meyer is to Bram Stoker.
 

Clive Howlitzer

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I don't care for the books but I care for the movies even less, at least the ones I have seen. The only way I made it through most of them was thanks to Rifftrax. Otherwise I think I would have died of boredom halfway through.
 

Rednog

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I read all the books in a vain attempt to find what all the fuss was about and before I knew it the series was over. I watched the first movie but was fairly bored and never bothered with the rest.
 

Smooth Operator

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Well those books do seem to be aimed at a certain age group, I enjoyed teen adventure books as a teen and now I find them lacking in depth because the "finding my way in this world" stuff is behind me, probably also why I get so easily annoyed with JRPG's nowdays.

I still watched the movies in the hopes to see some magix but they seem to have a quota of 2 spells per movie so that doesn't provide much entertainment.
 

Tiger King

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i tried to read the first one and just couldnt get into it.
i managed about ten pages before giving up.
films were not so good either, though i did like the settings and enviroments.
 

Badong

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of course some other people don't like Harry Potter

I personally do not like Harry Potter, at all. The movies and books were fine by my (abysmal) standards, but I just can't seem to get into it. To me, it all seems to be a little too anticlimactic in most parts, but just plain tedious in some.

The fans are... well, tolerable at the very least, like any other decent fanbase.
 

Crimson Butterfly

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I read the entire series simply because it was easier to defend myself when I admitted I was never in awe of Harry Potter. That and it made me feel better about explaining why a 20 year old was reading them.

As many have stated they are aimed at a young audience. I was an exceptionally bookish child however and cut my teeth on Tolkien when I was about 10-11 years old so perhaps I'm not well placed to say how these books would be received to the majority of the appropriate age.

I'm not saying Harry Potter is the worst literary phenomenon to ever hit our fair planet but it certainly doesn't deserve the hype and acclaim it has received in my opinion. The writing is mediocre, the characters are cookie-cutter and the plot is, as many have said, predictable. I spent most of the books feeling a strong deja vu at concepts and ideas that reeked of their predecessors notions and I felt J K Rowling missed an opportunity to put her own unique stamp and spin on the genre. This is not a series I would willingly return to given the choice.

All that being said, the heart of the books is in the right place and I will certainly encourage any children I have to give them a go.
 

Galletea

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They're not bad. I wouldn't read them again but they kept we quiet for a week or so. The stories are good, the writing and humour is not so good. I didn't like the movies, but that's more down to my cingeometer going into overdrive with bad scripting, than bad cinematography.
But yeah, of course not everyone likes Harry Potter, but I don't hate it.
Dan Brown's novels on the other hand are not worth the paper they are printed on.