Harry Potter / J K Rowling

[CharlesX]

Just to share your thoughts on GB's JK phenomenon, your praise and criticism of the franchise, how you think it may have influenced Fantasy and Fighting Fantasy, and anything that might be gamebook related. I believe there's a big online adventure game based on Harry Potter, which I didn't get into.
   I think the age range for Harry Potter is a few years younger than Fighting Fantasy. The themes are about the opposite of what you might get in a moralizing CYOA or Endless Quest, rules can be broken if the reward is worth it, the 'evil' Slytherin is painted as basically cool or OK when Harry Potter describes Severus Snape as 'the bravest man I knew'. It's very tolerant, which is why some religious types hate it. This is in certain ways more powerful than The Chronicles Of Narnia, which I always found unsubtle (like Michael Moorecock in his Epic Pooh essay).
   From an artistic point of view, Harry Potter surely has its shortcomings, I agree with Ursula K. Le Guin who wrote Harry Potter could be 'rather mean-spirited'. I don't normally believe in luck but I can't entirely see otherwise how Harry Potter became so successful, I read even J K Rowling said she only expected Harry Potter to sell a thousand copies.
   I haven't read J K's non-Harry-Potter works but I've heard good things about them.

[kieran]

I think I said this in another thread but there's nothing really original about Harry Potter, it just takes its sources and put them together in a really appealling package - the whole surpasses the sum of its parts. It's much like Star Wars in that respect.

The books are essentially mysteries and they're well plotted if you can forgive her introducing magic that never existed in previous books and ought to have a far bigger impact on the world than it does.

They also have a good coming of age vibe, I think readers can relate to the different phases of life Harry, Ron and Hermione all go through. And the teachers are fun characters who tread the line between cartoonish and serious well. Dumbledore is a ridiculous character but there is grit there too for instance.

So yes I'm a fan. Not so much of JKR herself but don't mind separating the art from the artist. In fact I think it's pretty much essential if you want to enjoy 95% of media.

[CharlesX]

Jul 4, 2022 18:40:26 GMT kieran said:

I think I said this in another thread but there's nothing really original about Harry Potter, it just takes its sources and put them together in a really appealling package - the whole surpasses the sum of its parts. It's much like Star Wars in that respect.

The books are essentially mysteries and they're well plotted if you can forgive her introducing magic that never existed in previous books and ought to have a far bigger impact on the world than it does.

They also have a good coming of age vibe, I think readers can relate to the different phases of life Harry, Ron and Hermione all go through. And the teachers are fun characters who tread the line between cartoonish and serious well. Dumbledore is a ridiculous character but there is grit there too for instance.

So yes I'm a fan. Not so much of JKR herself but don't mind separating the art from the artist. In fact I think it's pretty much essential if you want to enjoy 95% of media.

I believe you and I may have a similar 'negative' view of at least some of JKR's politics which it would be pointless and destructive to go further into here. Leaving aside her views themselves, I'm slightly surprised JKR has been so involved with politics, not merely in terms of voicing but bankrolling certain things to the tune of millions - but then I'm not a multi-billionaire as she is. I guess Rowling has yet to compare herself with Jesus as The Beatles once did (she wouldn't do that), and I think if I discontinued reading her because I mildly disagree with her politics it would be like not watching Monty Python because I'm Christian. Just in case you want to follow up, yes, I like Monty Python's The Life Of Brian.

[The Editor (Alex B)]

I don’t think they are particularly well written. Just reading the first chapter of the first book and I can see why it was rejected by so many publishers.