incredible contributions to literature
who else could have come up with names like "Cho Chang" or thought of loading up banking goblins with antisemitic tropes
Or making the only Irish character a pyromanic, mere years after the end of The Troubles
Or saying in an interview "the werewolves can be seen as an allegory for gay people and how they were treated during the AIDS epidemic", then making the leader of the werewolves in her next book a literal groomer who deliberately infects young boys with lycanthropy
Or implementing chattel slavery into it, then making it institutionalized in such a way that 99% of the cast ridicules the only person that wanted to do anything about it
Transphobia aside (I can't believe I'm saying this) what contributions to literature? I'm not the most well read person, but even I know that everything JKR has written is drivel: racist, homophobic, antisemitic garbage that's as devoid of literary value as advertisement copy.
I think one could argue that the HP books got kids to read more but I don't know to what extent that's true, and that's still easily counteracted by all the harm she has done with the profits of her book sales. In terms of actually "contributions to literature", IIRC even most of her fans agree that everything after the third book is pretty shit.
If one were to argue such, I would say it was a very poor argument. There were plenty of other, quality fantasy series out that were targeting the same age group at the time her books were being written. The genre was slightly novel and it was just pushed on kids at school as the new shiny series.
I think one could argue that the HP books got kids to read more but I don't know to what extent that's true
What got kids into it was the international PR campaign for the Harry Potter series. This shit was marketed hard back in the day, and "Harry Potter gets kids to read books again!" was a core selling point in that.
I’ll admit it, they were fun books to read back when I was a young shithead. I’d wait for their release with bated breath.
I mean, yeah, dumb as fuck in retrospect especially considering all the insane things she’s said but they were the definition of easy read page turners for kids, like Boxcar children.
Wish I could say I was weaving through House of Leaves at the age of 10 but it’s not my fault, blame my parents
I really want to see a House of Leaves movie or TV series, but I don't know that it'd work. Part of that book's experience is the fourth wall breaks and how the text itself becomes another puzzle. It's almost like a graphic novel (literally) with how the words turn into images or how they're organized on the page. I think the closest I've seen to anyone else doing this is Vonnegut and comic books have played with fonts/typography for as long as they've been around.
You would have a hard time re-creating this effect visually. I think they could try doing something fuckery like Bandersnatch on Netflix that was an interactive movie. Like watching House of Leaves messes with your TV.
I think they could try doing something fuckery like Bandersnatch on Netflix that was an interactive movie.
That would be reallh interesting. Or maybe a point and click video game would be a good format
I think the whole “it got kids to read” marketing point was just based on sales data. People have been bemoaning each generation reading less and seeing Harry Potter’s numbers at the time probably gave the impression that it “saved” literature.
I still stand that the first three books were good and the series could have held up better if it maintained the same level of quality. Goblet of Fire is where it all goes to shit. Every single complaint about the series that I’ve seen from Cho Chang to the elves liking slavery is from Goblet of Fire and every book after that.
Third one is the one with the time travel, which creates a bunch of plotholes
Even outside of reactionary garbage it's definitely not great literature
It's not even good children's literature. Unfortunately these days seems most of it is terrible.
It’s mid for sure. Lots of better kids books out there in terms of both literary quality and entertainment. As a kid I read them (obligatory for any kid who read a lot in my generation) but there weren’t even in my top 10 book series.
I preferred Artemis Fowl, Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, Series of Unfortunate Events, Bartimaeus Trilogy, Redwall series, Animorphs, Chronicles of Narnia, the Eragon series (not great literary quality but I still liked it), Ender’s Game series (good quality but another questionable crank author).
Wasn't the author in like his teens when Eragon started? I haven't read passed the third book, and its been ages since even that, but I feel like younger authors can get a bit of slack, especially with an attempt at a fantasy epic.
Yes he was like 17. It gets a lot of hate because of its juvenile prose and derivative plot and setting, but it does the job at the end of the day of being enthralling to its target demographic.
I’m glad I never read any of them, or saw any of the movies, or played any HP games. I feel vindicated for having avoided that.
They're gonna turn her into a statue?!?!?!
Like one of those monks?!?!?
Go for it! How long has she been eating the pine resin and stuff? We don't have to wait long do we?
Given that she's also a kook, I wouldn't doubt this is actually happening
