His criticisms of Harry Potter seem directionally right but overstated. Rowling does write in cliches and her style is workmanlike, but the story as a whole contains a lot of invention and shows impressive narrative control. She's also decent at channeling personality through dialogue. I think he read the first book in a bad mood or something and didn't bother continuing the series.
>>25171303dunno about your picrel, but this is what I disliked when reading HP:>worldbuilding is ass, you're telling me murica did not have several wizarding schools? After the New Age?>the main villain and his goons can be killed ez by the american sniper and some mortar strikes, no climactic final battle required>magic is whatever rowling wants it to be, no thought put into how certain magic spells (like the one that creates more space inside a small room) would affect the socioeconomic structure of wizarding society>also, you're telling me we have ways of reducing the weight of things and creating space AND time when we have little of both? Yes, it may be spells, but why didn't wizards get employed by the capitalists in the Industrial Revolution? Capitalist $$$ will be far, far better than the pocket change they'd otherwise get.
>>25171320>muh taxes in lord of the rings
>>25171320never write a book, please
>>25171303the arch of the story is almost entirely derivative or based on existing folklore. what she invented was this gobbledy gook snide use of language that never develops into anything (diagon alley! so drolll). the story is standard bildingsroman and half you can likely find much of it on the previously gnerations fantasy novels. and her writing is shit.we just like the hero tale retold. thats it.
>>25171550facts but everybody reads these as kids, so it's not even "retold" to them usually, it's just that the hero tale just werks.I've never looked into it but now I'm kinda curious how these even blew up in the first place. I was like 7 years old and they were just everywhere.>>25171320you can do this with any book, "why didn't something different happen". It simply didn't, take it or leave it I guess. It's a kids book about magic, expecting realism is silly. Not even trying to defend HP I read them when I was a child and barely remember it
>>25171303>>25171320it's just fun mindless popcorn flicks in book form for kids and teenagers, no point in overthinking it
>>25171320dude it's for kids aged 8-10
>>25171303imagine my surprise when i realized that /tv/ worked me into believing that the ''leg stretching'' prose meme was real
>>25171629She uses the word 'stretched' seven times in the first book, but Bloom claims she uses 'stretched his/her legs' several dozen times. Several dozen = 36 at a minimum, so he's off by 29 instances very conservatively. He just seems to lie a lot about quantitative stuff; see his claim about being able to 'easily' read 1,000 pages an hour, which is literally an order of magnitude more than the scientifically verified limit (500 wpm without loss of comprehension).
>>25171558trueshe duped a generation
it's the fastfood of books
Harry Potter isn't a character, he's a self-inserting vessel. He's neither a boy nor a girl, neither a child nor a teenager; he's a blank slate to be written on. He's surrounded by stereotypes that can be reduced to "those who liked him were good, those who didn't like him were bad." The wizarding world is a mirror of our own, where the most ordinary things are replaced by trinkets and wonders, like an owl replacing the efficient modern post office. The course of the plot depends on what Potter is about to experience; nothing happens outside of him, and "without him" means "until the time without him."In other words, this is a novel written in accordance with cognitive narcissism. Typical of children and women. Even someone like Bloom, despite always bending reality to suit his Kabbalistic beliefs, had a certain level of maturity that prevented him from succumbing to Potter's charm.Personally, I like Hogwarts as a model setting for erotic fiction, and for that reason alone. I hope someone someday writes something better than the crappy fanfiction from Tumblr, something on par with 1970s novels.
>>25172521the owl replacing the post is a great emblem of rowling's nostalgic luddite's psychology, now that you mention it>Personally, I like Hogwarts as a model setting for erotic fiction, and for that reason alone. I hope someone someday writes something better than the crappy fanfiction from Tumblr, something on par with 1970s novelssounds like you know what you have to write
>>25172534>the owl replacing the post is a great emblem of rowling's nostalgic luddite's psychology, now that you mention itIt just occurred to me (I'm an ESL) that the world of Potter resembles Edwardian England, or even a slightly later one, from the early 1920s, but Mosley (Voldemort) is already in play.If you look at it that way, Potter would act as a time machine for the British psyche, where they can escape to a time of true Britishness, but without the guilt that the BBC imposed on them after 1990. Heritage films disappeared, replaced by Potter.>sounds like you know what you have to writeI still believe they'll launch my writing career. However, if the serious novels don't pan out, I'll definitely write something along those lines. In fact, I've even started. I'm not touching on it yet, but who knows...
>>25172521Harry isn't a blank slate or self-insert. He's an impulsive airhead, which is a distinct personality to have
>>25171320>t.
>>25172566the pagan idol of the owl as a stand-in for the post is certainly no accident. joanne stands in frozen wonder before the kafkaesque mystery of timely magazine delivery. btw, are you the czechanon reading mccarthy? i think your english is more than fluent enough, for him. i look forward to reading your smut, either way
>the bad guys are bad because they are extremist racists, but we are the good guys so our racism is good :)>slaves deserve to be slaves because they like it and it is in their nature to be slaves>trying to change society is bad, the status quo should be preserved at all costsharry potter is the quintessential neoliberal story
