• TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]
    ·
    3 days ago

    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.

    • barrbaric [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      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.

      • AcidSmiley [she/her]
        ·
        2 days ago

        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.

        • Delzur@vegantheoryclub.org
          ·
          12 hours ago

          I enjoyed them, they were the first big books I read. They did send me on the path of reading books, and it's not a one person thing, it's a very common story for people around 30.

          So she did have an impact, whether it's because of ads or quality is a different story.

          I would definitely not say she deserve a fucking statue though. The world of harry potter is not consistent, and any critical thinking ruins it completely (a reason why i couldn't watch the movies is that I got older). It's not very good, but it was nice to read as a kid.

          And yeah, the other issues.

        • Lussy [any, hy/hym]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          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 parentsshrug-outta-hecks

          • Belly_Beanis [he/him]
            ·
            2 days ago

            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.

            • Lussy [any, hy/hym]
              ·
              2 days ago

              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

        • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          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.

      • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        2 days ago

        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.

    • lil_tank [any, he/him]
      ·
      3 days ago

      Even outside of reactionary garbage it's definitely not great literature

      • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        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).

        • Rose Thorne(She/Her)@lemm.ee
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          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.

          • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]
            ·
            2 days ago

            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.

        • Carcharodonna [she/her]
          hexagon
          M
          ·
          2 days ago

          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.