Death to Harry Potter!

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What are you talking about that the harry potter world is more wizardish . I saw the movie and iirc harry goes from a 'real' world to some other dimension via that train.
So the world where harry lives in the beginning knows no magic and harry learns it at that zweinstein or whatever.

The forgotten realms however has the magic on the world itself and with that comes the problems of a 'real' world, corruption, politics stuff like that. It's only normal that ambitious young mages want to learn those spells as fast as possible and likely fail but still.

So as to what world is more believeble I would have to say: none --> it's fantasy and no matter what world someone comes up with, the reality of the place will be made out in the mind of the person who reads it. and yes some authers can write worlds more realistic then others --> Tolkien

 

First off as many have said, you cant compare different fantasy setting with eachother in terms which is the 'real' or the best. That is just silly. Nor can you compare magic systems and the like, I for one think that FR have a really crappy magic system from a book point of view as it is designed to work in a game. But all fantasy settings has its own magic system, some work almost on a scientific level (WoT) while others are a bit more inexplained and mysterious (FR and HP). I would actually say that FR and HP has more in common in that aspect than most other fantasy settings.

I was also a Harry Potter basher back in the days but that was mostly because I tend to dislike all big masspsychosis' that strike mankind now and then. People seemed to have stopped to think critically when it came to HP which is never good. But after reading the book I as many others have said were hooked, sure the books have flaws but what doesnt? I would put HP on the same level as the FR books, easy reading with no real depth or originality. Heck I would say that HP is alot better than most FR books I have read.
Rowling has managed to write books where you want to read that next chapter before you go to bed and all of a sudden you have read 150 pages in one go, thats something that indicates a pretty good book imo.
No one has come with any valid criticque here against HP, only worthless whining and comparing against other settings. You havent even compared stories and HP has some serious story and character flaws imo but no one has really mentioned them as no one that has read them seems to join the crowd of spitters.

 

HP is a book for children and just for fun. Let's say, every author does not need to write a book with a point. I like LotR more, but it is really annoying that nearly everybody compares them. About the Satanism thing. Its their own fault. They take it seriously. And then the stuff happens and everybody blames HP, SW or even Pokemon and Digimon. If you try hard enough, you could label even these boards 'satanistic', heck, you could label EVEN macaroni satanistic.
My 3 cents.
Eze
(Me have no believe in Jesus, me a satanist, me must die)
Ezellohar laughs and rips apart few pictures of the Pope

 

I hate Harry Potter because of that overmarketing. I hate Digimon for the same reason. Ihate the same aspect in pokemon and all that are overmarketed. (Though i have played through Pokemon red, blue, gold and crystal on my gameboy)

 

Harry Potter has everything it takes to make a good story: interesting characters, problems the reader can identify with (more on that in a sec!), and a compelling plot. The lack of these things is what soured me on much SF/F for many years. As an aside, thanks to everyone on this board for recommendations of quality fantasy novels.

The two things, imo, that makes HP specifically a CHILDREN'S book are:
1) The plot is straightforward, with only a few twists or surprises; and
2) The characters are generally exactly who they seem to be - there aren't 14 layers of Machiavellian manipulations, as often happens in adult literature.

When I say that readers can identify with HP's problems, it's because the books address things like getting all the schoolwork done, making time for sports, dealing with rivals/enemies, and growing up in general. HP may have different resources available to him but he still has to choose how to use them to solve his problems and then deal with the consequences - skills all children need to learn.

I have to agree that any book that turns so many children into avid readers can't be all bad. And while I'm the first to say that popularity and quality are often mutually-exclusive, how many other books resulted in the NYT creating a new category of Bestseller List?

 

I read (and have read) a lot of fantasy. I ignored HP for a while because of the hype. My wife received the first book as a gift, so I read it. It was quite entertaining. The writing is good, the characters are interesting, and the little touches are great.
That said, I have only read the first book and may not read any of the others. I found it fun, but not interesting enough to read over other books I already own (and haven't read).

 

Hmmm - so do you hate The Lord of the Rings as well?? I would certainly say that it is becoming "overmarketed." Sorry, but I would have to disagree - product marketing should have nothing to do with liking or disliking a book, even if it does spawn toys, games, and frosted cereals.

 

I was like so many others that have posted here: wouldn't touch the books for a while because of overmarketing. One of my friends told me to give it a read and he's like me in reading preferences so I thought about it. I borrowed all four of the books (on tape) from another friend and found I had a serious problem on my hands: couldn't stop reading them!
HP isn't LoTR, nothing like it which is really a good thing. I realized that one cannot have a narrow mind about fantasy because the genre is so broad. OK, so HP has it's falts but so does LoTR and WoT, what series doesn't? is that a reason to disregard HP out of hand? no not really.

 

ok lets make a nice little sequel here...

HP: I am gonna kill you you stupid Forgotten Realms sorcerer. Oh f*ck. Where did i put that little stick calling itself a wand again?

FR Sorcerer: Oh no... He found it. I am gonna run like hell now. Arent i suposed to do that or something? O wait... I summon a hobogoblin...

-POOF-

Hobogoblin: Err?

FR Sorcerer: Kill that little "mighty" mage there.

Hobogoblin: OK boss...

HP: Here... Eat my wand...

-CRACK-

Hobgoblin: Mmm... Tasted like chicken.

HP: I didnt mean litteraly.

FR Sorcerer: Now I can kill that little mighty bastard calling himself a mage.

-FOOM- (a fireball on Harry Potter and now its a fried Harry Potter for food to the hobgoblin)

--------THE END--------

 

When Harry Potter came about I was totally against it (mainly because someone said I looked like him, so I cut my hair and bought thinner glasses ). But when I was coming home from a school trip, they showed Harry Potter on the telly, so I decided to watch it, purely for the sake of being able to mock it better. When it was finished though, I found I had quite enjoyed it. Interesting characters, good ideas (that whole shinty* on a broom stick was original, i think).

Although I've still decided not to read the books, maybe I'll give them a try in the near future

*Shinty is a game where you use both sides of a hockey stick, flick up the hockey ball and smack the thing at the net. Not exactly pleasant to play to say the least, especially if your the goalie

PS I don't play shinty so if my reference to it is wrong, sorry.

 

I read most of the books but I still don't like themm their really generic to the original thought of magic. And twigs!

 

"Although I've still decided not to read the books, maybe I'll give them a try in the near future"
Read the books, better than the movie (though in all fairness the movie was fairly accurate in its interpretation.)

 

The only one thing I realy don't like in HP is how elves are portrayed but thats just a personal opinion.
I didn't buy the books at first because the cover art sucked

 

Uhhh...my mom got my in to reading by reading me, The Hobbit. After that she said that there are three other books that are tied into the hobbit. I decided got barrow The Fellowship of the Ring from the Library, I got hooked soon after and I got my mom to buy me all thee books. That was about 6-7 years ago...

So you see, HP isn't the only set of books that are getting kids into books.

I think one of the biggest reason HP is so popular with kids, is because it has a bunch stupid children as it's main characters. That same thing happened with Star Wars: Episode One, I bet that Episode Three, or any of the original Star Wars will never be as popular with kids for one reason: there isn't a child as the main character.

Besides the child thing...HP is setting the steriotype that wizards are like the people involved in the Salem Wich Trials: pointy hats, big ugly warts, long pointy noses, and yes, magical twigs!

Oh, and Tal...FR isn't the only fantasy world that I know of, Iv'e read several Dragonlance series books, all the LotR books, and a book you might know called Willow. Speaking of magical twigs, Willow had the coolest magical twig, it's glowy!!!

[ December 06, 2002, 22:49: Message edited by: Kitrax ]

 

Is bad form IMHO to bash something that you haven’t spent the time to read. Granted that they have created a merchandising monster, so that they can cash in on the hype. Everyone needs to make a buck though even Tal. I started reading the hp books with my wife, so that we could understand what the kids where talking about, and I got hooked. I am glad that there are differences in wizards and elves and such. Diversity is a good thing.

 

May I point to the broom travel part that in the HP books there is a thing called Apparition and Disapparition which is basically teleportation, but you: A) can't do it in Hogwarts because of the wards, B) need a licence and C) have to be legal.

Also, the power is not in the wand. It is merely a way of concentrating the power. Like Snape said, in his class there was to be "No foolish wand-wawing"...

And the elves? well, to each to his own.

I don't care if it's all hyped up, I still loove the books. Nor do I care if they're for kids... If I want to read HPP that's meant for adults, I go read fan fiction. (My solution to everything.)

Harry Potter rocks, period.)

Ara
(Whatever... typos are a *female dog*)

[ December 09, 2002, 18:04: Message edited by: Arabwel ]

 

With a lor of opinions on HP, you run into the problem that a majority of people interested in anything *fantasy* have a fairly set view of what that world should be. Most of us here are more familiar with the D&D or Tolkien version of fantasy, and we couldn't see another, different magic world existing. Harry Potter is a work of fiction, and it is a good work of fiction, no matter how it portrays magic or elves, or anything else. It's Rowling's world, and no one can say that it's wrong. Just because Tolkien was a genius and came up with Middle Earth and imprinted in our minds what many of these things should be doesn't mean that his way is the only way. Rowling is, IMHO, a good writer, and an imaginative writer, and should be praised for making it big in the publishing world, which is, after all, a dog eat dog world. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

I say divesity is a very good thing. Whiole i do agree that HP books are WAY too much publicised and all.But they are good - i really like to be a kid sometimes

 

A recent programme by the BBC listing the top one hundred greatest Britons not only deigned to allow JK Rowling to be entered, but actually placed several spaces ahead of Tolkien, whom it seems to be the general opinion of this topic is the superior author.
Nonetheless, the Harry Potter books are a reasonably enjoyable read, simply not on the same level as the likes of The Lord Of The Rings, and it is their elevation by the masses to their being considered to be such that is the major source of inflammation to those who "bash" Harry Potter.