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Gianna
Rohan
Aug 3 2016, 4:03am
Post #1 of 35
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Are you a Harry Potter fan?
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With the Cursed Child craze sweeping innocent bystanders to their knees, the question must be asked. Are you a Harry Potter fan?
("Other" being an option because if I didn't include it, someone would ask for it  )
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Starling
Half-elven
Aug 3 2016, 8:21am
Post #2 of 35
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In fact I find it all quite annoying, and fail to understand the appeal of either the books or films.
I staggered my way through the first book and thought it was derivative tripe.
I really must learn to form an opinion.
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Elarie
Grey Havens
Aug 3 2016, 10:38am
Post #3 of 35
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A mild fan in the sense that I enjoyed the books and movies but when they were over I didn't go on thinking about them. The early books were my particular favorites because they made me laugh and reminded me of the make-believe games we played when we were kids, so perhaps someday I'll re-read them. 
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HOBBITFAN13
Lorien
Aug 3 2016, 1:29pm
Post #4 of 35
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The books are amazing and so well written and the movies are so well done! I think it's the only series with a really bad movie or book! Each one is so enjoyable and each one has some flaws but not enough to make a horrible thing altogether. Sorry Star Wars, LOTR, etc. but...
Harry Potter Forever!
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Meneldor
Valinor
Aug 3 2016, 4:47pm
Post #5 of 35
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I read the first 6 books and saw the first 4 movies,
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but then I lost interest and I still haven't found out how it ends.
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Kilidoescartwheels
Valinor
Aug 3 2016, 7:52pm
Post #6 of 35
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Maybe not a HUGE fan, but certainly a fan of both books and movies. I confess, I've read all the books only once (my girls read them dozens of times), but have seen the movies repeatedly (though not as much as the Hobbit or LoTR). Since you mentioned "Cursed Child," I have just finished reading it. Since it's a screenplay, a lot of Rowling's more descriptive writing is obviously missing. The story is a good one, I think, but maybe more for grown-ups than children - possibly for grownups like my daughters who read the books as children. The focus is on the parent-child relationship, and as a Mom I can relate the desperate desire to do ANYTHING for your kids, and protect them from both the unseen evil we all fear and those annoying (usually false) rumors that go around schools. Also that, as a parent I can't really do very much and some things our children have to figure out for themselves. J.K. Rowling may not be the BEST writer in the world, but I think she's very good ("good" is so subjective anyway), and if there's one thing she gets right it's the different attitudes that people have at different ages. I think she got "adult" Harry down really well, just as she showed the difference between 11-yr old Harry and 17-yr old Harry. Well, hope I didn't give away too much of the book for anyone!
And may I add, I am particularly looking forward to "Fantastic Beasts," both the movies and the eventual book written for the movies!
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OldestDaughter
Gondor
Aug 3 2016, 7:55pm
Post #7 of 35
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Doesn't come to the same extent of being a fan of LOTR's, but I'm a fan. (A new fan at that, only got into the stories at the end of last year.)
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Annael
Elvenhome
Aug 3 2016, 9:40pm
Post #8 of 35
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I read the books & saw the movies. That's about it.
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cats16
Half-elven
Aug 3 2016, 9:47pm
Post #9 of 35
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And I don't plan to revisit them in the near future, simply out of interest in other things.
I enjoyed it all well enough in the moment, but it didn't stick on me like Tolkien.
(And that's coming from someone of the HP generation.)
(This post was edited by cats16 on Aug 3 2016, 9:48pm)
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sevilodorf
Tol Eressea
Aug 3 2016, 10:21pm
Post #10 of 35
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On a scale of 1 to 5.... a 3.5
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They're better than most and worse than others in the genre.
Agree with the comment of derivative... but so are all fifty million Shannara books, and the Mortal Instruments, and Eragon and etc etc....
I can however say I am sooo glad my daughter has started reading Harry Potter to the grandson (7) thus distracting him from his previous quest to read allllllllllllll of the RL Stine books.
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Aug 3 2016, 10:27pm
Post #11 of 35
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I think they're funny and sad and (mostly) well-plotted
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Silverlode
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Aug 3 2016, 11:28pm
Post #12 of 35
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Although I've seen enough people talking about it that I have a fair idea of how it ends.
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Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal
Aug 4 2016, 2:53am
Post #13 of 35
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my daughter is such a fan. During her high school and college years we went to the midnight book release parties. She'd always buy the book at midnight and finish it before morning. I'd take more like a week.
We went to the midnight party for the Cursed Child, and it was such a nostalgic time, but mostly because of being together with her and my sister. As usual, my daughter finished the book by morning. I took 4 days, because it was a fairly short one. And as usual, we went in costume. Academic robes are perfect for a witch costume. Here's a photo
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Gianna
Rohan
Aug 4 2016, 3:29am
Post #14 of 35
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My opinion being half yours and half Starling's (though milder ;) )
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I ended up enjoying the story well enough, but they were poorly written and I have to say the occult aspect is off-putting - not even just as a Christian but because the occult is dangerous and Harry Potter is recorded as leading some children to get involved in it.
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zarabia
Tol Eressea
Aug 4 2016, 6:28am
Post #15 of 35
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Hey! I happen to like derivative tripe!
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I may be a puerile dullard with no taste (and a dash of passive aggression ), but I enjoy the HP books.
Yes, the books may be derivative--most stories are. But though Rowling draws from the same (overused) cultural well as many writers before her, she adds enough interesting twists and detailed touches to make old story elements seem fresh.
And though I don't usually appreciate things just because they are popular (usually just the opposite), there's a reason these books are loved by so many. Of course some books are popular because the writer panders to their audience, but others are popular because they tap into something fundamental. I think the HP books fall into the latter category. Besides LOTR and TH, how many books excite readers seven to seventy? I think that's something to celebrate.
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Starling
Half-elven
Aug 4 2016, 6:47am
Post #16 of 35
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96% tripe after all.
Seriously now, I don't like it. But good on you - nice post. x
And luckily, no one gives a flying fruit bat about my opinion. Which is as it should be.
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Aug 4 2016, 6:53am
Post #17 of 35
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I ended up enjoying the story well enough, but they were poorly written and I have to say the occult aspect is off-putting - not even just as a Christian but because the occult is dangerous and Harry Potter is recorded as leading some children to get involved in it.
Excuse me if I take such accounts with great big bags of salt. I've seen and heard way too many such unjustified claims and outright lies leveled over the years against everything from comics to rock-and-roll to fantasy role-playing games to the writings of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis to take them seriously. I suspect such stories are as much hokum as the tales of non-existent witchcraft cults sacrificing babies that have ripped apart gullible communities.
I'm not a huge fan of either the Harry Potter books or films, but got into them through the interest of my wife.
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Aug 4 2016, 6:59am)
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zarabia
Tol Eressea
Aug 4 2016, 7:01am
Post #18 of 35
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Mmmmm! Grain free tripe...my favorite! :D //
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Elarie
Grey Havens
Aug 4 2016, 11:10am
Post #19 of 35
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I admit, since the HP series is about a battle between good and evil and doing what's right even if you die for it, I've never understood the criticism of the books on religious grounds. But then I've never believed in witches, magic, etc. so I don't take that part any more seriously than I would the little cartoon fairy godmother in Disney's Cinderella. To me, it's just imagination and fun story telling. I know there are people in the world who still believe in magic stuff, especially in the third world, but it really does baffle me that people who have been to school and taken science classes can believe in magic.
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Annael
Elvenhome
Aug 5 2016, 3:25pm
Post #20 of 35
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one has to believe in "the occult" to worry overmuch about it. I grew up on the Wizard of Oz and Disney movies full of witches, both good and bad, but I was never "led into" anything thereby, because I knew it was all make-believe and just for fun.
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Kilidoescartwheels
Valinor
Aug 5 2016, 4:32pm
Post #21 of 35
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Having read all the books, I find any actual "witchcraft" and "magic" to be such a small part of the story, and obviously nothing real. Try saying any of those chants, like "Expelliamus" and see what happens (hint: nothing!). This will surely date me, but I always thought solving whatever mystery was the most important part of the books, so it was like reading the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I even got into an argument with one fellow who insisted that reading Harry Potter was the same thing as practicing witchcraft, to which I replied that reading about Jack the Ripper must be the same as killing prostitutes!
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Dame Ioreth
Tol Eressea
Aug 5 2016, 5:25pm
Post #22 of 35
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...because you gave me that option.
I like the world JKR created and I like some of the characters, but I think I'm done now with all the hype. I took my kids to the midnight book parties, we went to one of the movies on opening day, I read the books as soon as my daughters let go of them because I was enjoying the story. My youngest is only 12 and she enjoys the world of muggles and wizards too. We even gave her a HP party for her 11th birthday complete with a trunk for her presents and a companion animal. But I find that the more an author beats a dead source of material (how many "revelations" about her books and characters has JKR come out with since the last movie was released?) the less I'm likely to care. And I've found better written fanfiction based on her books than some of her own writing. She created a fun, fascinating world, but after the first read, the writing shows its weaknesses.
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sevilodorf
Tol Eressea
Aug 5 2016, 5:44pm
Post #23 of 35
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...book parties, we went to one of the movies on opening day, I read She created a fun, fascinating world, but after the first read, the writing shows its weaknesses.
Exactly. A good editor might have reined her in but she got sooo popular sooo quickly that the editors just said MORE PLEASE without checking to see if it was well written
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Kilidoescartwheels
Valinor
Aug 5 2016, 7:24pm
Post #24 of 35
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It's like I said, "good" is subjective
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and I suppose "well-written" is also something of an opinion. I've got to give her some credit for writing adult mysteries under an man's name, and am curious about "The Casual Vacancy," which I don't own but could borrow from my daughter someday. And at least she's written some new material in the HP world, as opposed to that "Twilight" writer (talk about not so well-written - IMO, of course!) who just rewrote the book with a gender flip - really? This is all interesting to me because I'm hoping to self-pub a book later this year - kind of scary what people might think of it! You put a lot of time & effort into something and put it out there, hoping for the best, hoping people will at least like it, knowing they may trash it or ignore it altogether. I'm not sure which would be worse, really
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Aug 5 2016, 8:09pm
Post #25 of 35
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Having read all the books, I find any actual "witchcraft" and "magic" to be such a small part of the story, and obviously nothing real. Try saying any of those chants, like "Expelliamus" and see what happens (hint: nothing!). This will surely date me, but I always thought solving whatever mystery was the most important part of the books, so it was like reading the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I even got into an argument with one fellow who insisted that reading Harry Potter was the same thing as practicing witchcraft, to which I replied that reading about Jack the Ripper must be the same as killing prostitutes!
Yes, to agree with the person in your anecdote you would also have to believe that reading a story or watching a film set in L. Frank Baum's land of Oz (or Narnia or Middle-earth, etc.) was the same as practicing witchcraft. I feel completely comfortable calling out such folk as morons, nincompoops and uninformed idiots.
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Aug 5 2016, 8:11pm)
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