‘Why I hate Harry Potter’. I have to confess that I agree with Robert Winder on this completely. While I’m all for anything that encourages people to read, I’d much rather read something good, myself. Yes, I’m a curmudgeonly old fart, I admit. I also hate trash TV and almost all advertising and become irritated quite quickly with hype of every kind. Maybe I should go and live in a cave.
I LOVE HARRY POTTER.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you people actually read the books fully?. Please read it completely and then rubbish it. I do not understand why people should commment about things that they do not understand about.
I have indeed read all seven books about said character and I have found them all to be the worst, perhaps an exaggeration but I have such a strong hatred towards J.K. Rowling, books published. I agree with Marion’s comments, I found myself wishing that the main characters would all get killed off so that perhaps, by some extraordinary circumstance, the author would create some half decent likeable characters. But it’s not just the abominable characters that I detest, it is badly written no matter what people say. A story such as this should be a cumulative build of tension and character relationships; instead the method of tension building seems to be: Major Event, Minor Events, Major Event, Minor Events, Major Events, Minor Events, Final Major Event, Conclusion. This method does not aid the plot at all. I am aware that some may say the plot is not about tension but let’s look at it for a moment, the idea of the story is that a powerful and evil mage is returning and the only person capable of stopping him is a naive teenage wizard. Surely the presence of such an evil character is cause for tension in the plot.
Secondly character relationships, I have essentially covered this earlier when I mentioned Marion’s comment earlier, I cannot fault the analysis of the characters at all and whole-heartedly agree with said analysis. The language style is simplistic at best and not entertaining, during scenes that were meant to be exciting I found myself desperate for the intricate writing style of Spot the Dog. I re-read the books several times, determined to find something good to say, but alas I found not one redeeming feature.
Yet this is not even the thing that irritates me the most, I may be able to ignore the childish writing style, the hateful characters and boring plotline were it not for the fact that Rowling has become undeservedly rich, contemptibly famous and worshipped by the troglodytes who believe her work to be good. This is a woman who takes sales away from wonderful writers; there could be many people who have ideas for splendidly intricate plots and fascinating characters. But these good people are shunted aside because the limelight is already full with Rowling and Harry Potter.
In addition it is not just new writers that are overlooked but old ones too, superb classics such as Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”, “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury and the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft. I know the argument that Rowling’s books are for children and some may not find the works, such as those which I have just mentioned, very interesting or easy to read, but children should be encouraged to read good books that will lead them on to better ones, rather than supping at the proverbial teat of Harry Potter. Even more distasteful is the number of adults who read the books, surely fully grown adults have the ability to discern between a good book and the written excrement of Joanne Rowling. But rather than reading good books these adults are more content to become obsessed to the point at which they dress up as characters and wait for days for the new book to be released, however since the series has finished I hope that such practice will no longer occur.
Joanne Rowling, the talentless hack, is poured down the collective throat of human society and I can but hope that one day we will vomit her work out and leave it to die as an empty husk.
Can I just ask – how can you hold such a strong hatred for someone you have never met?
Plus does no one think that if the characters were all perfect, you would be complaining about how unrealistic they are?
Why can’t we all just applaud one woman’s success? I can’t be doing with all this negativity!
Ah, Hannah. Might I ask you a question? Who wastes more time? The person who dislikes the works of J K Rowling, and searches the words “I hate Harry Potter” for an agreeing opinion? Or the person who LOVES the works of J K Rowling, and decides that they would rather like to bicker on a site DEDICATED to how impotent and distasteful the books are?
The thing is, we don’t dislike J K ROWLING. I am certainly not jealous of her skills. Perhaps as a beginner writer (not yet published; not yet applied) I am jealous of how she has ALL THAT MONEY and I don’t have it, but that’s a little obvious, isn’t it?
No, I dislike J K Rowling’s work.
J K Rowling sold BECAUSE she painted an unrealistic picture. Adults read this idealistic tale of back in the 1970s and sighed, “Yes, that was just like it was,” they lied to themselves. Despite the absolute foulness of the real 1970s, the adults reading the books fantasised that it was just like that. Looking back on the ‘good old days’.
For the life of me, I can’t see why anybody with a reading age over 6 and a memory over 20 would want to read Harry Potter. I may not be the best at picking out crapness, but twenty minutes of reading that book almost sent me crazy with Harry’s hero worship, his vast amounts of money, the sheer boredom, and the way you knew that the good guys were going to win. It was like reading Enid Blyton – BAD Enid Blyton. Blyton is packed with 1930s morals – if you’re a good, honest, dull little girl you’ll get along just fine.
Harry Potter is almost the anti-thesis of morals. If you’re rich, and popular, and a teacher’s pet, and lucky, and a martyr, and a bully, and a liar, you’ll get broomsticks, magic maps, friends, girlfriends, a cloak of invisibility that fits two people, put on the school team as the most important player, and everything you ever really wanted.
Harry is a most unpleasant person, fictional or not.
Harley is now my personal hero on this board
Ok back the reality, there now talking about having the next movie in 2 parts. that’s twice the crapness immortalised on film, and once again the author is taking about the “maybe i’ll do a book 8” Just do it or shut up already. How can you expand the book…follow it from his children point of view who live at Harry Potter hall named for there famous dad. Making them realise after all the talk that’s he basically a tosser
I have read all the Harry Potter books, and so far all I’ve noticed is that the only that happens is people die. Could this be why people love it? It seems to me that these books were Ms. Rowling’s exercise in anger management. When somebody gets her upset, uh-oh, must be time to kill somebody knew. When I first started the books I wondered why she had so many characters that you can’t keep track of them all. Now I realize it’s so she’d have some people left when she got through with the massacre!
For those of you who havent been following the news, JKR, has declared war on her biggest fan, who spent 9 years building an online references guide which the author has confessed to using instead of actually re-reading her own work and made sure it won awards for its ingenuity because the site is about to be published in book form. Now there must be a good hundred books about there about Potter some creative, some critical. But this author had got there ahead of JKR in writing this book and now she has declared war on a fan and made him cry like a spoiled play ground bully as she weeks ‘I don’t want to cry because I’m British,’, no love if you were British, she would have stayed at home like a normal person instead of deliberately creating drama for yourself. Seriously this woman really makes me sick but finally the rest of the world is waking up to this, she bleats on about the millions she has helped raise for charity, even though she sits ion a personal fortune on a billion dollars, if shes so concerned about charity a good 10percent of her fortune wouldnt go amidst.
At times, she claimed, Vander Ark showed ‘utter laziness’ in copying her creations and had ‘plundered’ her own guides Quidditch Through the Ages, and Fantastic Beasts, yeah and that; s why you lauded glory over him this time last year and thanked him for his devotion to you. Shes so confident to of her own importance that apparently in court today The judge presiding over the Harry Potter trial to decide if a publisher stole JK Rowling’s copyright has said that an encyclopedia to explain the “gibberish” would be handy. A cloud descended over her face and saw a flash of anger. Miss Rowling, who is now worth more than Ł500million, was a struggling single mother when she wrote the first Harry Potter book in longhand in an Edinburgh cafe. This woman makes me sick, from the initial bleating of the I lived in a poor council flat, with asbestos on the wall, and rats nibbling on my feet, No. in reality it was a nice 2 bedroom cottage, near her well off sister, near her well off parents all paid for by the taxpayer. This woman tries to sell herself as something out of Oliver Twist, when she was a middle class, university educated, traveled the world type of girl. Indirectly insulating her audience when she claimed to have sobbed as she brought rompers for her baby daughter in Oxfam, like millions have before her, including my own parents. Perhaps the cottage was in her mind like the council estates in her mind since it must have been a million miles away from her Enid Blyton childhood
The best ending to this is that yesterday JK Rowling fought back tears yesterday as she told a New York judge what Harry Potter means to her.
A shed load of money is all as she lost her integrity as a writer a long time away, when she reduced people to tears with your self righteousness and bullying tactics.
In my opinion, JK writes the way I used to write fiction when I was eleven. I thought my stuff was fab untill a few years later and I cringed! (passive voice, words repeated over and over, adjectives galore…)
I think it’s odd to see writing I would have strived to improve get JK so much money. I also think she wrote the last book the same way I write essays; lots of glitter and filler. Great for getting marks and a decent word count, but not a good read for enjoyment.
She strikes me (JK) as someone who cannot critique their own writing, or at least her fans won’t.
Dissagree?
Oh Wijjpip, your writing would be so much better if you kept your sentences at a sensible length. I’m not an expert by any means, but if you want to write a convincing argument – especially one that considers the talent and worth of another writer and her books – you simply have to take more care. For example:
“Secondly character relationships, I have essentially covered this earlier when I mentioned Marions comment earlier, I cannot fault the analysis of the characters at all and whole-heartedly agree with said analysis.”
What a mess. Your sentences go on for miles. You say earlier twice in the second sentence. The said in “said analysis” is wholly unnecessary, and you use “have” instead of “had”. This would be a lot better if you changed it to the following:
“Secondly, character relationships. I had essentially covered this earlier when I mentioned Marions comment. I cannot fault the analysis of the characters at all and I whole-heartedly agree with it.”
Now go and apply the above to everything you’ve ever written! GO! QUICKLY! Good luck, old chap!
In response to what Barry said, Wijjpip’s writing did seem a bit overwritten, but that’s not what’s on trial here. It seems to me that if anything is overwritten, it is indeed the Harry Potter books.
As for what C.U said about JK Rowling’s writing, that’s probably the most intelligent thing I’ve heard about these books in a long time. I’ve never read anyone’s work that used so many words to say so little, with the possible exception of Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. I must say I’m not fond of either of them, but at least you can learn to respect some one with talent, not a billionaire writer who only seems interested in writing something that will make her money, not in writing something’s worth something to the literary world.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to go off the point there!
I’d like everybody to take a deep breath here. This site is not dedicated to disliking JK Rowling, however rich she has become. It’s dedicated to disliking Harry Potter.
Now, I’ve spent a long time saying how Dumbledore looked like an idiot for saying how Snape’s not that bad.
I’d also like to say, remember that post where I predicted that in the last book, Snape and Voldie would die, and I guessed that Snape would pull a good guy turn? See how I was right? That’s how predictable Rowling is.
And Snape died. Straight after redeeming himself, I’m told, because I haven’t read the 7th book. I’m sure I will sooner or later, don’t you worry. It’s bound to be unbearable. And Snape died. That’s not a twist. A twist would be him living and him and Harry making up.
You know something else? The entire Weasley family. They exist purely so that Ron has a good big family. You hardly learn anything about any of them, ever. Just Ginny and Ron, and a bit about the Twins.
There are so many vacant, pointless characters and we learn nothing about what they do. Their lives revolve around Harry.
Harry is like a male version of Rowling, too. He starts with his life all sucky (a million times worse than hers was, but that’s what happens) and becomes so happy and rich. He’s what Rowling wanted to be when she wrote him, although admittedly being rich and having vengenace on those who wronged you is not an uncommon desire. When I’m writing my book and doing a fight scene, I just think of all the eyes of the bullies I want to gouge out a bit and it all comes ninjaing out.
For those who think the Houses are equal, ALL the Gryffindors stayed for the final battle. ALL the Slytherins left. The other two houses were inbetween. And remember that song of the hat? An entire verse each was devoted to Gryffindor and Slytherin, while the other two houses were lucky to get a whole line to themselves.
“Hufflepuff is the sucky house, everybody says so,
And Ravenclaw I don’t know a thing about but uh… I’m given to understand… uh… average and dull?”
Harry Potter is such a Mary Sue. Yes, I know he’s canon now that there’s published books, but if there weren’t, and he was played as an Original Character in a fanfic, personality totally intact, he’d be recognised as a total Mary Sue. He’s mean to everybody, and nobody says a word against him except the bad guys. Not even the people who should be standing up for both sides. He’s so totally popular. He’s got a cool scar. He’s AMAZINGLY SKILLED at Quidditch even after just one match. He gets the girl he wanted. He’s so lucky that he gets Snape’s old potion book and then he gets the potion of luck. He’s based on what Rowling wants, believes and some of her history with magic thrown in.
No wonder so many fanfic writers end up turning into a Canon Sue. He was a Mary Sue in the freaking BOOKS.
And I thought I hated the Books….. Wow. I was about 10 when I first read books 1,2,&3; and I must confess that I loved them at the time, even when the 4th book came out, I still thought it was pretty good…. then did not read the rest until last year. I am now 20, and by god, I cannot stand any book after no.3! The first three to me have a childish nostalgia and are relatively inoffensive in their brevity. They are the only ones that seem to be childrens books. The unwieldy later tomes are purely quantity over quality, and have way too high a body count and unnecessary violence for a childrens book, while not being as dark as I would personally like.
Much has been said about the annoying adjectives etc, of Rowlings writing style, but the thing which frustrates me most about her is her description. Hogwarts castle is merely ..a vast castle with many turrets and towers . Amazing. I have to admit that I am an artist, and hence think in pictures, but it shows that Rowling never does. There is no real sense of place other than the barely necessary and the bleeding obvious, and many things are just downright silly if you try to draw them. I know that too much atmosphere and description is just as bad as the total lack thereof, but I pity the production designers for the movies.
Another thing is the distain with which all the wizard characters treat normality. Why no databases? No communications? I find the old-fashioned nature of the wizard world unbearably annoying. Ever heard of a gun or a bomb, you idiots? O.K., it might not finish off the tiring and unimaginatively lame villain, but good luck to Harry surviving a bullet through the skull. If Voldemort made a habit of carrying a gun, we would not have had to endure the last three books.
And as for Harry himself HE IS AN EMO TURD WHO CUTS HIMSELF AND WARES HIS FRINGE OVER HIS EYES!!!!!!! (caps lock of rage). Maybe not exactly, but he is such a Nancy boy. Its not like his life is too perfect or anything, and nor is he, but the imperfections only serve to make him more hateable: I can stand arrogance if there is actually something to be arrogant about.
I am in the early stages of writing my first novel, and I find that the Potter books are a great source of negative inspiration: when something annoys you sooooo much that you feel compelled to do the opposite or do the same better. It worked for Tolkien with Shakespeares Macbeth.
as always jkr had jumped on the bandwagon ans as before will eventually make out it was all her idea to begin with like everything else. pulled from imdb
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has joined rival fantasy writer Philip Pullman’s campaign to block publishers’ plans to introduce age guidance limits on books.
Pullman, who penned the His Dark Materials trilogy from which the 2007 film The Golden Compass was adapted, is at the forefront of a group of authors and illustrators who are all unhappy about the scheme.
The new guidelines would see children’s books stamped with age limits, in a similar way guidance ratings are given to movies.
And now Rowling is the latest recruit to slam the proposed move, alongside children’s literature giants Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Dame Jacqueline Wilson.
Pullman explains his decision to boycott the move: “You simply can’t decide who your readership will be. Nor do I want to, because declaring that it’s for any group in particular means excluding every other group.”
me thing it’s because her books would probably be graded for anyone under the age of 10 for there content
I’ve read the books many, many times. But as the series progressed I found that I really didn’t like Harry. Fictional or no, a character needs to be liked to be a ‘hero’. My favourite characters in the books are the Malfoys and Snape. My least favourite characters are Harry and Dumbledore. Both are arrogant know it alls.
Every time I read Half Blood Prince I cringe at the way Harry speaks to Narcissa Malfoy in Madame Malkins. Is this really the way you speak to an adult who has never done you any harm. Oh but wait – it’s Harry Potter. The boy who lived to be rude to everyone.
If J K Rowling had been a truly good author she could’ve given her characters some three dimensional shape by having them change. She did not.
If you want to read a similar series where the characters learn and grow then try Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series. Artemis Fowl starts life as very similar to Draco Malfoy, but his author gives him room to adapt and learn.
Harry Potter never learns a thing in the whole series of seven books. He just gets more and more arrogant as the series progresses.
I prefer to read fan fiction – the writers of Harry Potter fan fiction have so much more imagination than Ms Rowling. And in fan fiction characters can grow and learn.
From book one we see the 11 year old Draco Malfoy treated with disdain and arrogance by people like Ron and Hagrid – who should know better – because he’s ‘in Slytherin’. In Book 7 we see Ron with the self same attitude which he used against Malfoy at first meeting, at his first sight of 11 year old Scorpius Malfoy. Plus we have him encouraging his children to behave in the same way.
The Wizarding World went through two World Wars – and ended up with exactly the same failed system as that which started the rise of Voldemort in the first place. But apparently in Harry Potter world it is fine to sneer at Pure Bloods, but not fine for them to dislike this and react according to muggle borns.
Harry and his friends inability to grow and change means the whole series is pointless.
I’ve been wondering a few things. 1: what is the point in killing people like, say, Dumbledore when all ‘Arry Potty has to do is go and find a painting of said person and chat away with them? 2: What did they do with all these dead bodies laying around after the final battle? Did they sell their body parts on the black market, or just plant them out back and use them as fertilizer to grow their magic crap? I reread the last few chapters and actually started laughing, because I just got this picture of them carrying everybody out back and tossing them in great big stacks like bricks. The books are kind of funny if you look at them from the right point of view.
One of the things that annoys me about the potter franchise is the fans telling us that the books must just be too difficult for us and that we can’t be too bright if we go off and actually enjoy something more adult, with a better title character. I laugh though, when people sneer at stuff from Ursula lee guin and T.Pratchett and say they ripped off JK, because of course, she invented fantasy, nay, literature itself. as as for people being jealous of all those riches she’s got, i doubt anyone would mind if she passed a grand or two on to us.
you guys won’t believe this, my best friend who works at an airport just called me and told me this. Today a certain actress who is the only lead female and who needs to be saved to become Harry’s best mate came through and snubbed her fans when they came up to her and asked her for an autograph. What kind of person says that to little kids…uhhh ego’s like that make me sick
Haha, indeed Barry my writing was rather dis-organized during my rant. I’m afraid when i get angry about something it does tend to impair my ability to function. However i would like to thank Anne for making the point that my writing is not on trial here but that of Miss Rowling. I would like to add that i am naturally averse to child protagonists in novels such as these because i find the idea that a child could overcome a powerful antagonist to be foolish. In addition, Rowling continually insists that the reason the protagonist wasn’t killed as a baby was because of his mother’s love. I’m afraid i can’t remember if there was another reason for this because it has been a long while since i read any of them, and unlikely that i ever will again. However is she saying that no other person loved their family enough? Also the protection of love is a cliche that is really over-used.
first off, i love how long this thread has been going on for, seriously, i have no idea who’s blog this is, it just popped up in a search, ha!
I’ve got to say I’m not one for hype, but I’m proud to say that I’m an avid Harry Potter fan (HELL YEAH) because I first read it in 1997. When the second came out, I bought it on the day of release, and on the third, I was amazed to see a crowd of people flocking around dressed as wizards, wanting to buy Prisoner of Azkaban just as soon as I did. Admitadly I was a cool little pre-teen, but even so, it was nice to know that I’d got into it without the hype and publicity around it (which i know makes me sound like one of these pathetic “I liked them BEFORE they were popular!” indie kids or something, but ho-hum).
I guess what I’m getting at is that there are plently of people, like myself who like these books simply because of the story, so much so that it’s become iconic, perhaps even a part of british culture. I’m not saying Harry Potter is the greatest literary work of all time or anything, just that there is some underlying basis to the hype.
oh, and “Wijjpip” (?) Try to sound a bit MORE precocious would you? Jeez. Besides, to put my Harry Potter swot cap on, it’s only because Voldemort, who has no apreciation of love, tried to kill Harry directly, that Harry’s mother’s sacrifice actually had any impact. I agree it’s a horrible cliche, but I like how it’s turned around that Dumbledore and Harry, who pride themselves in being adverse to Voldemort so much that in their attempts to have as much “LOVE” (what a fantastic oppurtunity for gay dumbledore jokes) that they have blind trust in their friends. And that of course works out great because Sirius gets killed because of it, which forces us to see Dumbledore’s trust towards Snape, and even Hagrid, in a different light, especially after Snape goes and kills him and all.
Anyroads, I’m rambling to a bunch of strangers, sorry
ok, I’m ranting again but i really dont care.
“Kate”?! god, you really HAVE read the book havn’t you? I mean, seriously, have you?
Although Harry Potter isn’t the greatest protagonist, he is at least relatable, for a number of reasons, prime amongst them in my opinion; he is flawed, leading the narrative along his own opinions which are not essentially shared by the reader, and, that his aleigances lie with those against prejudice!
I accept that towards throughout the book, Harry and Hagrid in particular do tend to show bias towards outcasts, and shun those that have conflicitng views, but this is understanable. Harry, after all has been victimised his entire life by his own family, then hailed as a hero against his will. Hagird grew up labelled a freak, as has been deemed a monster after being unjustly accused of attacking his fellow students (which, coincidentaly, is what the Malfoys hope to repeat). All the characters that stand against the status quo are perfectly entitled to, in my eyes; each of them has reason to reject the “pure blood” ideology” as, particularly in Hermione’s case, they should.
Besides, the “pure bloods” as you call them; the Malfoys and so forth, can’t all be grouped under this catagory surely? Voldemort’s mentality, that they so desperately uphold has been famed by a half blood, and as the Weasleys notably point out, is not shared by ALL pure blooded wizards.
FURTHERMORE (yeah. i WENT there) as an obective outsider to the magical world, Harry’s only real basis of influence is Hagrid, who merely tells him about Voldemort’s rein of terror, and the supporters who followed him. This causes Harry to see that not all witches and wizards will be as friendly as Hagrid, the only one he yet knows. He initially reacts against Malfoy after HIS disrespect to his mother and father, and the way he insults muggle borns. This, taken out of context, is surely reason enough to be at least disdainful towards a person? A brat that says anyone who isn’t born into the right circles is beneath him. Really, correct me if I’m wrong?
The Malfoys continue to a bane, attempting to have Harry expelled, trying to remove Dumbledore for protecting his students, making Ginny get posessed, trying to kill the D.A, supporting Dolores Umbridge, I mean, come on, anyone who assoiciates themselves with THAT, it’s a pretty blatant sign something is wrooong.
Seriously, you must be joking if you say that it’s worng for a narrative to sneer at people who sneer undeservadly? What has Dumbledore ever shown to any character, but fairness and humility, even Voldemort at times!
If you’re trying to be one of those “I LOVE YOU DRACO!” Harry Potter fans, first off, it’s sad enough to like Harry Potter in the first place, but sadder to try and be ironic to support the other side. Secondly, the only reason people like that, tend to like Harry Potter books in the first place, is to try and be different and ironic. When they realise that there actaully are some really immature nerds, such as myself, who geniunly like it for what it’s worth, they try and distance themselves from even them by taking another step to the “my favourite character is draco malfoy” stage.
If that’s you, then COOOOL GIRL.
if not, then I look like a pretty special guy, ha.
Harry? Flawed? Nooo, really?
The thing about Harry is, as “flawed” as the little twerp is, he’s unrealistically flawed. I just don’t find it believable.
I don’t think there’s really anything wrong with a person’s favorite character being Draco Malfoy. Some of us just like to see the twerp get taken down a notch or two.
Also, I’d like to say that as immature as it might be to have something as big as this going on and on about how we hate Harry Potter, how much different is it from having some place where people are going on and on about how much they like the books?
You know, I think the whole orphan plot has been used way too many times now, child protagonists are grating on me in general now, and harry is a bad example of both a heartwarming orphan (more like sickly) and a chosen hero, which he sucks at.
I challenge any writers out there to make fantasy characters who have parents and don’t always follow those bloody prophecies to the letter! (Got sick of prophecies after reading the Belgaraiad). Bit off point, nevermind.
Oh, and I agree with Ann, wouldn’t it be nice to see Harry get the slap he deserves?
JK Rowling went seriously out of her way to make Harry hate Voldemort. Kill his parents. Kill his godfather. Kill his headmaster-friend. Kill the guy who was protecting him secretly. All excuses for vengeace. If Harry was female I bet she’d have thrown in ‘rape’, just in case we didn’t think he was angsty enough. Except of course he’s a boy and boys can’t be raped.
And seriously. I know all books need a star, but when there’s only one star, and all the other characters are background detail to that star… well it sucks.
Also, the epilogue. What a way to say “It ends this way, I said so, and the future doesn’t involve more danger, just glee.”? I’d say Hogwarts is aged about secondary school. And when you do have a boy/girlfriend in secondary school, is it really realistic that you marry them and become old? No. You generally remain friends, and eventually lose contact and make new friends and so on. But oh no, Rowling can’t be bothered to write any more books explaining how he met this new person and made new friends. Or suggest that the people you ‘love’ when you’re 15 aren’t going to be the people you love when you’re 30. Even when they’re the same people.
Then again, Harry’s so obnoxious I can’t say I’m surprised he didn’t make any new friends. He seems to think people are obligated to want him as a friend.
I’ll tell you what would be cool. College Harry. Going through puberty, looking up skirts, analising girls breasts. Real world stuff combined with a world that’s magic. Sex doesn’t go away just because you zap it with a wand.
That’s the problem with this book. Grab a magic wand and ZAP! All your problems go away.
It’s rather off the subject a little, but the whole argument of the “hero archetype” (or in this case, stereotype) and bad writing relationship reminds me of an exercise we did in our English class at college…..we had to write a character with our opinions and likeness, basically a literal effigy of ourselves, but as the opposite sex…I don’t know why, but the results were quite fascinating…..the people who showed the most promise in the creative writing area wrote themselves as REAL people, anti-heroes even as in my case, who seemed life-like….while the people who weren’t exactly Ted Hughes wrote two dimensional, goody-two-shoes characters…..remind you of anyone?!
Mary Mother of God, I couldn’t possibly hate those books, they are the equivalent of Jeremy Kyle every morning…nothing like a bit of social (or literary) decay…to make you feel a wee bit better about your own ability. How easy it is to do absolutely feck all and get paid for it. I only wish I’d thought of it!
Harley I like your post, made me chuckle a bit.
I like a character with realism, and even magic needs it to work. Rowling seems to break all her rules, including the fact that unforgivables are unforgivable for anyone to use. Harry got away with it at least twice cleanly, with no repurcussions, like always.
I can’t see the merit in a character who’s biggest achievment ever was surviving. I do that everyday, where’s my fame and glory? I know it was special circumstances but still, it was his mum who stood up to the bad guy. If Harry was mine, he’d probably be living under Lily’s shadow, under pressure to live up to her sacrifice, and eventually saving the day, maybe.
I’m not saying I’m a fabulous writer or anything, that’s just how I would write him. I still haven’t perfected my characters yet. Hope they don’t end up on one of these forums!
It always gets me when JK Rowling goes on about how she started out poor. Well love, I’m glad you’re out of that, but I bet you don’t live there any more. It’s fine that when she hit her success with the first book and said “Look how awful it was for me”, and if she could say “Look how far I’ve come!” it would be okay. But instead she uses it to act like she’s still there, still writing in that room, when ever she wants to complain about people and their online dictionaries and people stealing copyright. Like she wants pity still. People live in much worse conditions than that, even in the UK.
I also get riled up whenever people come and say “You’re a jerk for coming here and saying how you hate Harry Potter! Why can’t you say something nice?”
Well darlin’, that’s because I don’t like Harry Potter and came to this site because I wanted similar opinions. You on the other hand, DO like Harry Potter, but you came to this site to get at people. Can anybody say ‘loser’?
Maybe those people just wanted to change our opinions. Well, you failed, as much as we failed to change yours. Harry didn’t change over the books. He just got worse.
My major problem with Potter is that it seems to limit my options a little.
I know I’m free to write whatever I want about dragons and wizards and magic etc, but I can’t help but think that if I manage to publish something with witches and magic I’ll just get dismissed as a copycat, or jumping on the bandwagon, even if magic is not the main focus.
I know It’s pretty daft, and of course I want to steer clear of as many cliches as possible (unlike a certain author I know). But when people think of magic they think Potter! Even though there so many more witchy books out there, Like Witch Week.
It’s fun. ATP Subscribe to the RCC perhaps
You know what else bugs me about Harry Potter? The sexism. Girls are witches. Boys are wizards. Whatever happened to the gender neutral term ‘Mage’? Girls learn the exact same spells as boys, why are they still called witches?
And what happened to the other schools of magic? Are they just lumped into one heap? Druid, Cleric, Illusionist, Necromancer, Diviner… all lumped together in one cosy barrel.
Because JK Rowling adds nothing new to fantasy. And she doesn’t even know much about what she does write about. All magic comes from the same barrel.
There’s nothing original in her world. Terry Pratchett produced the popularly growing idea that female Dwarves look just like male dwarves. Tolkien invented Halflings as we know them. Both pointed out that magic is not to be used lightly.
What has Rowling given us that we didn’t already know? Nothing. And what’s her attitude? Magic is used for absolutely everything, from lighting candles, to killing people, to sports events. A flick of your wand, and all your problems are gone.
And that is why JK Rowling is poison to fantasy readers.
well people happy belated new year and all that. ok something else that irks me was JKR so called revelation that Dumbledore was gay, this happened way after the last book came out. now i was thinking if it was mentioned in the book that he was gay, it would have been a good thing, may have got rid off the usual sterotypes, made him a gay icon like Willow from Buffy et al. But there is nothing in the books as an indicator of this. Like it occurred to her after the fact as she knew it would make headlines. Desperate much! Also does anyone else think the ruling against Vander ark was just pathetic. though i did love it when the judge demanded her own encyclopedia for comparison and she refused. probably because she hasn’t written it at all
Dumbledore should have been introduced as gay in the books. She once said that her books are about tolerance.
Has anyone ever noticed that a lot of things happening in the HP universe happen for no reason at alll? OK, they have a reason, certain things happen becaus those certain things should happen. The hero get’s the girl, witches ride broomsticks, werewolves change at full moon and vampires are feared and gorgeous, because that’s how it’s always been. This annoys me, because with so much alleged imagination, the author could only come up with the most expected of tropes.
I agree with just about all the people here regarding the sloppy writing, the obnoxious characters and the general glorifying of the main brat in the HP books.
Marionâs rather conservative ideas of how gruesome it is to cheek a teacher grated a little (but only a little) as one thing kids should be encouraged to do is to question authority. As long as both the encouraging and the questioning is done in an adult way!
What I hate about how this is done in JKRâs books is that the only teacher who gets cheeked is the oh-so-evil Snape, and this makes it neither good natured, thought provoking or particularly rebellious.
If, instead of the strict 1950s style boarding school style, the teachers actually had some relationship with the students instead of simply handing down banal words of wisdom Iâm sure this could have helped develop all the characters no end. Would McGonnagal (or whatever her name is) be able to take a joke from a student and return in kind? Iâm pretty sure the character would, so why make her simply a grumpy old biddy with a soft spot for people in trouble? God knows there are enough of those in fantasy literature already. Not to mention the rest of the literary spectrum.
This brings me on to another pathetic aspect of these books: the blatant ripping-off of characters, concepts, names and everything else.
Dumbledore and the orphan hero are simple archetypes used in so many pieces of fiction itâs not even worth going there.
Sirius Black â No-one with an ounce of reading experience would doubt where that whole debacle was leading.
The âMetamorphmageâ (her name escapes me at the moment) suddenly appearing in the wake of a popular movie using a female character described for the first time on screen as a metamorph? Oh give me a break.
And I do remember reading somewhere quite some time ago that even the name Voldemort was not original, but had been used before by a Polish fantasy writer. Not sure of the validity of this, but it wouldnât surprise me in the least.
While I know this is really a thread about hating the books and the character, not the writer I also have to mention a couple of things:
As a resident of Edinburgh I know at least 3 cafeterias where the âpoor, struggling single mother wrote the first draft on napkins because she couldnât afford notebooksâ Yeah right, but she could afford the bloody tea in these places, because I know that two of them makes a habit of telling you to sod off unless you buy something on a regular basis.
Poor struggling mother my hairy arse!
can we say that harry is judgemental in the book about the Chamber of secrets? and why? please answer me. thanks
You could pick out mistakes in every single fiction book under the sun if you wanted, really. Personally HP books arent too bad. The best part of HP is the complicated backstory and the plot
That’s true you could pick up many mistakes in anything, and admitedly I enjoyed some of them, maybe my frustration comes from the fact that the were so hyped up, I was expecting something completely new to the genre, but we still ended up with a high fantasy novel with a magical world tucked away in a corner somewhere, not so interesting anymore to me.
I was also curious about JK’s claim that the idea for HP came to her fully formed. In my experiance, it’s completely impossiible, as even when I planned to write a fantasy novel, it turned into a murder mystery, nothing like the story I was planning. I have several planned anyway, and for the life of me I can never write them without binning at least half my ideas, even for short stories. Oh well, she never admits to having any real influences either. Just bugs me.
Rowling doesn’t mention her influences because there are no original ideas in her work at all, and if she started naming her influences, she’d never stop. Her books are full of cliches, tropes, and things we already know – unicorns are innocent and killing them is evil.
Her books read like an Enid Blyton boarding school story (there were enough of them) with magic. And are just as ‘deep’ and ‘complicated’.
Oh yeah, and I don’t buy her pitiful story about being so poor. Or writing on napkins. Oh, maybe she wrote a few early notes on napkins, but when a large A4 lined paper pad costs about 99p or less,
And about rats nibbling on her toes, it was nothing like that. She lived in a small apartment, and the rent was paid by her mother, which gave her plenty of time to write seven books. I wonder where her kids fitted in to that?
I don’t like how she just randomly throws out plot twists. In book 7, I think it was, don’t Hermonie or whoever she is and Ron start smooching? Didn’t they used to hate one another? How come all of a sudden they just hop up and start cleaning each other’s teeth with their tongues? What were we the readers supposed to do, clutch our chests and yell, “Gasp, I never saw it coming!”?
I can’t find any romantic hints in the books that any of the cannon couples would get together.There was Ginny’s tweenage crush and Hermione’s weird idea to attack ron with birds out of jealousy, Oh, and Tonks was all mopy over sirus (I think?) so she may have flung herself at Remus, but none of that should end up with them all falling in love. Does anyone think it would have been an interesting storyline if Draco found he had feelings for Hermione? It might have meant a bit of character development, or at least a disraction from the Hary/Ginny snogfest. Beside the point, I would probably have enjoyed it if JK had veered off away from the camping scene and into the scenes of the students actually fighting the deatheaters without Harry’s help. My (un)favrite scene at the very end was the obligitory scene where the hero is thought to be dead, gives everyone enough time to cry over it and then goes “Ta Da!” and pops up again, I hate the part where he lives, the little twit.
However, for all our complaining, if the characters were in any way sensible the book would probably been about three lines long.
“Once upon a time there was a dark wizard called Voldemort, He did great and terrible things, so Harry and co. shot him while he was busy monolouging, the end”
Yeah, the ending. That was stupid. On the whole, NOBODY ends up marrying their high school buddies, unless they got knocked up by them. Are we expected to believe that in 30 years, Harry never met somebody else he wanted to marry? That Ron and Hermione never met anybody else? That Draco married… that girl, whoever she was?
One marriage, maybe. But it’s hard enough to STAY IN CONTACT with high school friends, let alone marry them. It’s like, “Hey kids, all your fanfics came true!” People change and meet new people. All of them married their childhood sweethearts and are living happily ever after? That’s just… irrational. Stupid.
Now I know nobody believes Harry Potter is REAL. But if a world uses humans, they should act like humans. It should make sense enough that we can relate to them. That’s what Terry Pratchett foes. He has imperfect heroes we can relate to. And their lives are far from idealistic. Even their victories aren’t perfect.
In Rowling’s world, everything turns out okay in the end. PERFECTLY. And that’s the least realistic thing of all.
Yeah the whole relationship schmaltz was another piece of fantastic bollocks. Everyone in the HP universe from the brat’s own parents to Ron and Hermione, seems to marry their first childhood/school partner. Ridiculous in its own right.
And what happened to the Chinese girl from book 5 (I think it was)? Did they publishers suddenly find that such a cross nationality relationship would throw the conservative and xenophobic readers off the fan wagon, or did JK just decide to be xenophobic herself?
Over two years ago I predicted that two characters would die in the final book – Snape and Voldemort. I also predicted Harry would survive. I had only read three books properly, and didn’t care much for re-reading them. What does it say for Rowling’s predictability that I got it totally right?
well ladies and gentlemen, another summer another film out to bore us all senseless. i loved the fact from the trailer i could see the books which have been ripped off. Seriously this film and one more…then it’s over, really over. can i hear an amen!
Well, that was a half hour well spent. đ I never imagined that anyone else would echo the issues I have with the HP books using almost the very same words.I find it amusing that fans of the books can’t seem to find a decent argument to throw at us other than the popular “why did you read it if you don’t like it?” question. Personally I found books 1 to 3 pretty harmless in an insipid, while-away-the-time sort of way. (they were recommended by a friend who waxed lyrical on how amazing they were -and no, she’s never read any fantasy novels beforehand so that explains that) Then i read book 4 and thought “wtf?”. The books were making money so she fired her editor? Is that what happened? I painstakingly read all the books – yes, even the arrrrgh-worthy 7th book – simply because i can’t critique what i haven’t read. that seventh book was a bloodbath! she even killed that owl! and not in a “I’ll save you Harry, oh, help, squawk” kind of way. It just died. just died without even getting a chance to nip someone. (and before someone jumps on me and says that owls don’t go squawk, i’d like to make it clear that i don’t care.)
Pretty much everything else has been covered before by people who wield more pen-power so I’ll shut up now. đ
I thought they were going to put the sixth and seventh books together in one movie. What happened to that? Did they run out of fake blood? Or are they still doing it and I just haven’t noticed? Admittedly, whenever somebody brings up Harry Potter I go elsewhere and reread “Which Witch” (I don’t know if anybody’s mentioned this book yes, although I want to say they have. read it. It’s better than Harry Potter. No death scenes.).
To C.U.
“Does anyone think it would have been an interesting storyline if Draco found he had feelings for Hermione?”
– That’d be more interesting. I’m also disappointed at the romantic pairings.
If they’re putting the last two books together in one movie, it’s because there isn’t enough material in one (or both) to make a full movie, and the two of them can be compacted into an hour and a half/two hours.
That’s not a good sign of good writing…
Harley said: “If theyâre putting the last two books together in one movie, itâs because there isnât enough material in one (or both) to make a full movie, and the two of them can be compacted into an hour and a half/two hours.
Thatâs not a good sign of good writing⌔
Especially as it takes a week to read just one of the books…