"Dumbledore is Gay" sez Rowling

xp She'd never manage to put the spin on it douglas adams did

Order of the Phoenix was the movie that made me go "you know what, fuck all of this"

Harry Potter himself is such an intrinsically boring character. To a certain extent, it doesn’t matter because having a relatively bland lead character your readers can identify with is a fairly standard part of children’s literature. But when a series has such a huge adult audience, and one of the few things I think about these books (having recently read the last one when I was...22?) is how much more interesting the side characters are, I wonder what people get out of it on repeat reads once all the plot twists are known.

My older kid is rewatching all of the films right now and I am usually in the same room (though generally have headphones on) - was struck by how good HP&POA looks, like I would be really happy to watch a whole series like that, and how homogenised HP&OOTP looks, suits the source material I suppose.

This was a good comment from under the article, btw

The series has a sorting hat and kids go into their thematically and temperamentally appointed social circles. Conservative essentialism was always baked in. Labeling gives freedom when you name your own, but it's always also been accepting a structure at the same time So what happens when you want to break that structure? Elves are happy as a servant class, and though Rowling tried to change that, she couldn't imagine a way out. (it's a magical world, but the essential never changes.)

This always seems like a story about fandom and hero worship to me--and maybe don't do the latter? Make no mistake, Rowling is a fan of Rowling's work at that's part of it. The same constricted reading of text is in her own opinion and that of fandom. Dumbledore was always gay? That's a fan's reaction to aligning the work to their beliefs. And here we have an author and fans, labeling themselves to different ends, one end labeling for protection and another to break and remake the culture that allows things to happen, mixed in with a mess of hero worship.

was also working in a bookshop at Goblet Of Fire time, also stopped reading there as she was now obviously too big to take any scrap of advice from an editor, let alone cut the book down to the reasonable size of the first three

(I'd only read them in the previous year, taking store copies home to read on the train to and from work)

(mostly from tbh, I got good at putting my head on the vibrating window at 6:54 and waking up at 7:37)

i had to tap out after order of the phoenix which i could not remember a single thing about after reading it.

i will see re: goblet of fire, at the time ppl were just hoovering up as much HP content as they could so 200 superfluous pages was in some sense welcome even though it made for bad pacing/construction from the standpoint of trying to write a good novel

Was also working in a bookshop when some of these were oozing out, which is a small part of why I hate them. So many adults wandering in, demanding to know when the next one would come out, insisting I put in a preorder for them for a book not yet announced, then wandering off and never coming back.

Quidditch is a terrible sport that's improved about a thousand times over if finding the Snitch merely ends the game without adding any extra points (so if you find it when losing you have to renounce it) or maybe only like 30 points or something

JK Rowling didn't understand sport dynamics or game theory though

It would so be helped if the Seeker could be assisted by the other players, who might notice the Snitch in passing and take time out from their bashing and hurling to relay the info idk

But none of that stops it from basically being aerial water polo

And water polo is the worst spectator sport in the entire world

it's not a sport, it's a one on one match with many diversions

they should be able to destroy the snitch and then nobody can ever stop playing

LJ how much of the last 20 years have you spent thinking about this

I wonder what people get out of it on repeat reads once all the plot twists are known.

I'd say it's like wanting to crawl back into the womb, but instead it's the urge to live in a fantasy world that feels more welcoming and wonderful than their real life.

xpost honestly when I read the rules of Quidditch in whatever book it was introduced, I spent 20-30 minutes unable to move ahead, fixated on the stupidity of a sport in which the majority of position players have no outcome in the results of the game

but enough about Sheffield United

I have spent surprisingly little time thinking about Quidditch, but plenty thinking about sport as a whole

Goblet Of Fire was the one that killed it for me, didn't read the last three

Reading that Vulture article, every time a name of a character Rowling had invented came up, I wanted to spit blood. She's George Lucas-level.

it's easy to make up Rowling names

Ansel Thimbleknocker

Theo Bumblesnatch

Vera Spinabifida

It would so be helped if the Seeker could be assisted by the other players, who might notice the Snitch in passing and take time out from their bashing and hurling to relay the info idk

I literally wrote that bit as I thought it up

_I wonder what people get out of it on repeat reads once all the plot twists are known._

I'd say it's like wanting to crawl back into the womb, but instead it's the urge to live in a fantasy world that feels more welcoming and wonderful than their real life.

i liked these books tbh, I just think the hyperfandom is nauseating. but I feel for everybody who feels betrayed by Rowling - a lot of my LGBTQ+ friends who were megafans are still dealing with how to deal with Rowling's ultimate betrayal.

just realized I said betrayal twice. ooof...tired brain

xps - I would appreciate your explaining why that simile is unacceptable, instead of just darkly hinting about it. idgi and if there's something to 'get' I'd rather know it than stay ignorant.

Was also working in a bookshop when some of these were oozing out, which is a small part of why I hate them. So many adults wandering in, demanding to know when the next one would come out, insisting I put in a preorder for them for a book not yet announced, then wandering off and never coming back.

― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Tuesday, December 22, 2020 7

No offense, but I find this a weird take. I worked at an indie bookstore between 2001-2004 and Harry Potter adult fans, if they didn't buy other books, brought relatives, friends, etc. who did.

Rowling sales buoyed our other sales. I don't get the sneering.

they should be able to destroy the snitch and then nobody can ever stop playing

― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Tuesday, December 22, 2020 7:35 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

I once was told that they could easily be stitched up, so that shouldn't be an issue. Same person also told me to "watch yourself, PUNT" which is excellent advice for any quidditch player looking to improve their form.

The illogical and dumb rules of Quidditch was intentional I think. The wizarding world felt very small and sclerotic, with their political, media and education system rooted so firmly in tradition. (The slytherin house was still allowed to exist even after it was shown that its founder installed a monster in the school to kill minority students). In this world, there is no space for innovation and progress. The wizards know it which is why they seek “rejuvenation” through the Nazi-esque politics of Voldemort, who gains the support of the majority of the government, I think, almost immediately after regaining his bodily form. Theirs is a dying world, and its vulnerability lies precisely in its resistance to change.

I’ll take the fps.

agreed with Alfred. overwhelmingly Potter led to people buying other books they would not otherwise have bought. depending on the kid or the way the parent described the kid, you could at LEAST potentially steer them onto age-appropriate fantasy classics, and maybe even less genre-oriented stuff.

Yeah i agree with alfred too. These books are perfectly fine things for children and pre-teens and helped many kids kickstart a reading habit.

threesh i agree with your quidditch take, at least the part about it showing the limitations of the tradition-bound wizarding world, and that's how i always took it. however it didn't make it any less annoying to read about or watch actual adults try to retrofit for the real world.

During that era I had adults (no teens, alas) buying The Dispossessed, Borges, and Ballard when asked if I could recommend "anything like Rowling."

Maybe they threw these books in the rubbish bin. But they bought them.

I grew up on these books and I despise everything about them now. the cruel but saccharine worldview, the sub-blyton gender politics, the fanatical divine right of the author cult the writer encourages to shut down young fans' attempts at more imaginative readings. I think I would have been better off without them and so would the world

Thank you for your service, Alfred.

I grew up on these books and I despise everything about them now. the cruel but saccharine worldview, the sub-blyton gender politics, the fanatical divine right of the author cult the writer encourages to shut down young fans' attempts at more imaginative readings. I think I would have been better off without them and so would the world

― Left, Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Well, this is a novel interpretation.

No offense, but I find this a weird take. I worked at an indie bookstore between 2001-2004 and Harry Potter adult fans, if they didn't buy other books, brought relatives, friends, etc. who did.

― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 11:26 (two hours ago)

Rowling sales buoyed our other sales. I don't get the sneering.

― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 11:27 (two hours ago)

But that's the thing--there were numerous people who just seemed to wander into bookshops, demand an as-yet nonexistent book, and then leave, without buying or even looking at any other books.

Also, if someone buys a Dan Brown or a Jordan Peterson and also buys other books, I'm still going to sneer at them for buying a Dan Brown or a Jordan Peterson.

Part of the requirements of working at an indie bookstore is sneering at customers buying anything we don't like.

dan brown is such a bad writer it's kind of amazing in a way

Brown understands the need to move the plot along fast enough to glide past the other weaknesses of his novels, and knows how to select plot elements that readers will want to see resolved, so they keep reading with interest to the end. That's a talent, but it's just for making books people are excited by briefly, then forget a week later.

I suppose a person who doesn't watch sorts sports inventing a sport wasn't going to go well

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, December 22, 2020 4:38 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm a sports fan and probably my most unpopular opinion about any popular property is that rowling actually invented a good, well-balanced sport - she just had no idea what she was doing and clearly didn't spend a second thinking about how a game would actually play out, so she presented it in the stupidest way possible

i would lower the snitch value because 150 is ridiculous (just cut it to 75 to make ties impossible, but even 100 wouldn't be terrible) but it's good tbh, would be engrossing to watch assuming the teams are actually employing strategy to win which they never do in the books

But that's the thing--there were numerous people who just seemed to wander into bookshops, demand an as-yet nonexistent book, and then leave, without buying or even looking at any other books.

It definitely worked as a gateway to reading for many kids, as a very brief pathway to a bit of other reading for some kids, and I'm certain that James' personal experience is honestly reported.

none of those people read the Ballard. you just sold them paper

yeah, that's bad bookseller practice imo. sell 'em something that influenced Rowling but is very good, like Dianna Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series and Archer The Goon, or is popular fantasy but excellent, like Pratchett, especially the witches and young-protagonist novels. stepping-stone them in towards literature.

treeship. at 1:19 23 Dec 20
The illogical and dumb rules of Quidditch was intentional I think. The wizarding world felt very small and sclerotic, with their political, media and education system rooted so firmly in tradition. (The slytherin house was still allowed to exist even after it was shown that its founder installed a monster in the school to kill minority students). In this world, there is no space for innovation and progress. The wizards know it which is why they seek “rejuvenation” through the Nazi-esque politics of Voldemort, who gains the support of the majority of the government, I think, almost immediately after regaining his bodily form. Theirs is a dying world, and its vulnerability lies precisely in its resistance to change.
I’ll take the fps.