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Post by simple on Oct 7, 2022 12:40:36 GMT
I think one of the smartest things about the Potter books is how they grew up with their audience. The first couple are very much pitched at 7-9 but they age up into YA fantasy progressively across the series and it doesn’t feel forced, the story matures and darkens as the characters do.
So yeah His Dark Materials or Mortal Engines are the much ambitious and probably better series for example but Potter was perfect for its audience.
All the books marketed as the next Potter - Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson etc - that landed very middling responses from the kids show how easy it is to get the balance wrong.
(Writing as a librarian at the time most of these series were being published)
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Post by rhaegyr on Oct 7, 2022 12:48:13 GMT
Ah, forgot about HDM - the only series I loved as much as HP during my youth.
Still not read the 'sequels' yet.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Oct 7, 2022 13:42:11 GMT
The first few Harry Potters were ok, but the latter ones were bloated rubbish in desperate need of an edit. People were already on board at that point, though, so their rubbishness did not hurt their sales.
Nfi what the appeal of the Robert Galbraith stuff is, though. Even disclaiming the weird meta-commentary in it, the latest one is literally longer than the Bible. She's pretty clearly gotten to the point where editors just don't bother saying no.
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ozthegweat
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Post by ozthegweat on Oct 7, 2022 13:46:25 GMT
I admit, I had a "he's not so bad, is he" phase. In my defense, it was extremely short. And over way before this pandemic.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Oct 7, 2022 13:48:38 GMT
Then there's stuff like Ursula Guin's Earthsea which is hugely better than the Potter books
I'd also place the Discworld YA books above Potter. And the Discworld in general of course.
I honestly out Potter on the about the same level as Percy Jackson etc. It's fine, and enjoyable enough, but I really don't understand why they caught the zeitgeist and became so popular.
I'd even put Hunger Games above Potter.
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geefe
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Post by geefe on Oct 7, 2022 13:53:24 GMT
I'll add an asterix in the "owns dog" column. Probably for the best. You may also want to keep a running tally of when the heating goes on.
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geefe
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Post by geefe on Oct 7, 2022 13:54:58 GMT
The first few Harry Potters were ok, but the latter ones were bloated rubbish in desperate need of an edit. People were already on board at that point, though, so their rubbishness did not hurt their sales. Nfi what the appeal of the Robert Galbraith stuff is, though. Even disclaiming the weird meta-commentary in it, the latest one is literally longer than the Bible. She's pretty clearly gotten to the point where editors just don't bother saying no. Some of it made its way into GCSE exam texts. Load of bullshit.
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Oct 7, 2022 13:55:27 GMT
I dont know how wide spread this is but seeing how quickly my daughter and her friends have dropped off Harry Potter is genuinely quite astonishing. When we went to florida, we only went to Universal because all she wanted to do was hang out in the Harry Potter bit. She listened to the audio books every night, had the stationary, robes, the lot.
Then virtually overnight she wont even watch it when it comes on TV and it is 100% because she thinks JKR is a dickhead and her friends are all the same. It seems like venn diagram of people who are pro-trans rights and the kind of people who loved Harry Potter are almost a circle.
The various rights owners must shit a brick every time she posts a dumbass tweet like that.
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geefe
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Post by geefe on Oct 7, 2022 13:58:51 GMT
Well aren't Warners essentially trying to work out how to have the rights without being associated with her?
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Oct 7, 2022 14:03:27 GMT
They are seemingly trying to airbrush her out of stuff going forward but she is, for better or worse, inextricably linked to the entire thing.
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Post by 😎 on Oct 7, 2022 14:05:26 GMT
I think it depends on the age. My girlfriend is a big HP fan, pro trans rights, acknowledges that JK is a piece of shit whose tarnished her reputation, but still re-reads the books and films, still looks forward to new media in that world etc.
I get the argument around still giving her money and all that but I get kind of annoyed at the whole “you cannot enjoy these anymore and if you do you’re a horrible person” rhetoric. Let people enjoy what they want, if you go down the rabbit hole of buying this partially funds something bad then you can practically never buy anything tied to any kind of corporation. It’s not the hill most would choose to die on.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2022 14:08:48 GMT
Wish I'd read that before I binned my Cosby Show boxset.
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Post by Jambowayoh on Oct 7, 2022 14:15:48 GMT
You're lucky I bought a clearance sale of multicoloured jumpers I was going to give as presents for Christmas.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Oct 7, 2022 14:19:37 GMT
I've nothing against people who want to enjoy the art of a dickhead.
Rohl Dahl had some cuntish views I think, but his books are great.
Stepping outside of literature and looking at film, it especially music, there are some creative people whose work I think is great but who are worse people than Rowling.
If people want to enjoy the Potter novels I won't stop them, I think it's perfectly adequate and largely free of any author diatribe. I just think there are better things out there.
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Post by Jambowayoh on Oct 7, 2022 14:27:34 GMT
I mentioned it earlier but Kanye has really made it hard for me to enjoy his stuff again because I really think he's made some fantastic stuff, Donda not so much but it pains how much of a bigger tool he's become. He's always been a tool but I could tolerate it. Now, not so much.
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Post by Vandelay on Oct 7, 2022 14:31:41 GMT
I dont know how wide spread this is but seeing how quickly my daughter and her friends have dropped off Harry Potter is genuinely quite astonishing. When we went to florida, we only went to Universal because all she wanted to do was hang out in the Harry Potter bit. She listened to the audio books every night, had the stationary, robes, the lot. Then virtually overnight she wont even watch it when it comes on TV and it is 100% because she thinks JKR is a dickhead and her friends are all the same. It seems like venn diagram of people who are pro-trans rights and the kind of people who loved Harry Potter are almost a circle. The various rights owners must shit a brick every time she posts a dumbass tweet like that. Although there does seem to be a lot of crossover, I would say there are lots of people who aren't interested in dropping it, not from the public not the entertainment industry. I was recently in LA and went on the Warner Bros Studio tour. Outside of Friends, it was probably the most prominent franchise on display. Obviously, they didn't have much in the way of sets (that is all in the UK), but they had a reasonably extensive museum section dedicated to it. Later in the holiday, went to Universal Studios and the Harry Potter land was once again very prominent and clearly attracting huge numbers of people (plus The Forbidden Journey ride is incredible, not quite Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland good, but not far off). Personally, I still like the Potter stuff. I know there are faults on a technical writing level, before you even get to her views, but there is something about the world that sucks you in. Much of it is just lifted from other places, but I guess that works in its favour to make it easy to settle into. Plus, as I think I've mentioned before, I actually only read the books quite recently during a pretty tough time and it was perfect piece of escapism. I'm not going to drop the franchise, even if I find JK vile. I feel if you were going to drop something because the creator is an arse you aren't going to be left with very much.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Oct 7, 2022 14:37:45 GMT
I still like the potter books and movies, even if JK is getting worse and worse.
Plus there's a whole segment of people who've never heard her views on anything. And big international markets. Anything Harry Potter is huge here, and there's been basically no coverage of the trans issue as far as I'm aware.
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Oct 7, 2022 14:51:13 GMT
They are seemingly trying to airbrush her out of stuff going forward but she is, for better or worse, inextricably linked to the entire thing. Even on the announcement of Hogwarts Legacy the devs stressed that JK wasn't involved with creating it. Like it's a selling point. May as well put it on the front of the box. It's like death of the author happening in real time, at least you don't see HP Lovecraft tweeting from the grave.
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Post by 😎 on Oct 7, 2022 14:52:11 GMT
I especially liked how every time she cropped up in the reunion event show there was a big “recorded before she went fucking mental” disclaimer.
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Post by Honk If You're Horny? on Oct 7, 2022 14:54:43 GMT
I was super into Hitlers watercolours until I started reading up on his political views.
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Oct 7, 2022 15:00:44 GMT
I can separate the art from the artist so have one hanging in my Lebensraum.
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Post by simple on Oct 7, 2022 15:08:29 GMT
Rohl Dahl had some cuntish views I think, but his books are great. I believe that cuntish view was “Hitler was right” when it came to Jewish people. As far as cunty views go its a real Champions League level one.
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Post by simple on Oct 7, 2022 15:10:59 GMT
I'll add an asterix in the "owns dog" column. Probably for the best. You may also want to keep a running tally of when the heating goes on.
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Post by 😎 on Oct 7, 2022 15:14:42 GMT
Dogmatix is Obelix’s dog, I can’t believe you people would make such an egregious error over Asterix canon.
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Post by RumMonkey on Oct 7, 2022 15:27:35 GMT
Michael Jackson has too many bangers to ignore. I can seperate the art from the artist.
Kanye hasn't had a a good album since MBDTF though, his music got worse when he became more of an arsehole. And because its over produced shite rather than what latest thing he's done.
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Oct 7, 2022 15:54:30 GMT
I'm not going to drop the franchise, even if I find JK vile. I feel if you were going to drop something because the creator is an arse you aren't going to be left with very much. There is a canyon wide gap between being an arse and leading an international persecution campaign, though.
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Post by Vandelay on Oct 7, 2022 16:18:27 GMT
I'm not going to drop the franchise, even if I find JK vile. I feel if you were going to drop something because the creator is an arse you aren't going to be left with very much. There is a canyon wide gap between being an arse and leading an international persecution campaign, though. True. I did try to balance picking up the Fantastic Beasts films and seeing the new one recently by sending Stonewall a donation. I'll probably do the same when Hogwarts Legacy comes out, as I'm sure I'll be picking it up.
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Oct 7, 2022 16:21:45 GMT
Yeah, the soft boycott here has been helped by the fact the new movies are absolutely wank
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hedben
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Post by hedben on Oct 7, 2022 16:33:42 GMT
I read Atlas Shrugged in my very early 20s because it said something about the author’s “bold new philosophy” on the back and I was studying philosophy at uni. I had no idea it already had a reputation as a “fuck you, I got mine” justification for people who wanted to seem intellectual.
I was only interested in the bonkers story about a hidden society of elites, and by the time it got to the 40 page John Galt speech, which was meant to be the crux of the whole book, I was so bored I skipped past it.
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Post by Vandelay on Oct 7, 2022 16:39:12 GMT
Isn't Atlus Shrugged regularly studied at high school in the US? Pretty much everywhere else it isn't taken seriously.
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