I have read the entire Harry Potter series (before she outed herself as being scum). And calling her writing bad is disingenuous. She isn’t a bad writer, or more accurately she wasn’t. (It’s notable that her writing started to degrade very sharply not long after she outed herself as a TERF).
She is a fucking horrid human being as are Orson Scott Card and Scott Adams along with a few others who’s true colors shined through due to the pervasive nature of social media. But to blandly call their works “shitty” just as a lazy dig at them degrades you, not them. It makes your opinion worthless.
J.K. Rowling is an absolute dipshit asswipe who should be tarred, feathered, and run out on a rail anywhere she goes. And more people should say so as loudly as possible. But the Harry Potter books were beloved by millions for a reason. If only she had gone blind, deaf, and dumb after she finished writing them. 😒
Eh, her works may not be so poorly written as to be shitty, but they’re just a pretty average story with a good editor. Her action scenes were average, tension building slightly above, and her characters were below. I’m sure if you went through the books with a fine tooth comb you could find a witty sentence or interesting paragraph, but nothing that would really stand out.
I too am roundly disappointed at the prose of that children’s series largely appealing to children and not adults who haven’t moved on after thirty years
As you should be. Kids books should be just as good as adult books. Maybe not for the adults, but for the kids reading them.
Having lower standards just because ‘it’s for kids,’ is ridiculous.
It’s not like disney or dreamworks to half ass their kid oriented movies. They’re often masterpieces in their own right. There’s good reason that the lion king, the land before time, the road to el dorado, etc., are all viewed fondly even today. Hell, take it out of animation, even. Secondhand lions, wizard of oz, charlie and the chocolate factory… great stuff.
Writing for kids can be just as complicated and well done in characters, setting, and ‘elements’ of a story like tension. Compare the hobbit to harry potter. The words tolkien chose may have been simple, in comparison to his the lord of the rings novels, but everything else was pretty damn good.
Brb reading Dubliners to elementary students and making fun of them when they don’t have an opinion on the themes of Irish nationalism and its implications in an ever more interconnected world.
This obviously has nothing on the complex thought presented by UP, of course. My 500 page thesis on its handling of grief (tl;Dr talking dogs heal all wounds) will shortly follow.
Compare Harry Potter with Animorphs and then see if you can still make this comparison with a straight face afterward. One of these two series treats it’s elementary student audience with respect, and is widely beloved because of it. It ain’t HP.
I have read the entire Harry Potter series (before she outed herself as being scum). And calling her writing bad is disingenuous. She isn’t a bad writer, or more accurately she wasn’t. (It’s notable that her writing started to degrade very sharply not long after she outed herself as a TERF).
She is a fucking horrid human being as are Orson Scott Card and Scott Adams along with a few others who’s true colors shined through due to the pervasive nature of social media. But to blandly call their works “shitty” just as a lazy dig at them degrades you, not them. It makes your opinion worthless.
J.K. Rowling is an absolute dipshit asswipe who should be tarred, feathered, and run out on a rail anywhere she goes. And more people should say so as loudly as possible. But the Harry Potter books were beloved by millions for a reason. If only she had gone blind, deaf, and dumb after she finished writing them. 😒
I thought the books were aggressively mediocre YA trash from the start.
Careful not to cut yourself on that edge.
Eh, her works may not be so poorly written as to be shitty, but they’re just a pretty average story with a good editor. Her action scenes were average, tension building slightly above, and her characters were below. I’m sure if you went through the books with a fine tooth comb you could find a witty sentence or interesting paragraph, but nothing that would really stand out.
I too am roundly disappointed at the prose of that children’s series largely appealing to children and not adults who haven’t moved on after thirty years
As you should be. Kids books should be just as good as adult books. Maybe not for the adults, but for the kids reading them.
Having lower standards just because ‘it’s for kids,’ is ridiculous.
It’s not like disney or dreamworks to half ass their kid oriented movies. They’re often masterpieces in their own right. There’s good reason that the lion king, the land before time, the road to el dorado, etc., are all viewed fondly even today. Hell, take it out of animation, even. Secondhand lions, wizard of oz, charlie and the chocolate factory… great stuff.
Writing for kids can be just as complicated and well done in characters, setting, and ‘elements’ of a story like tension. Compare the hobbit to harry potter. The words tolkien chose may have been simple, in comparison to his the lord of the rings novels, but everything else was pretty damn good.
Brb reading Dubliners to elementary students and making fun of them when they don’t have an opinion on the themes of Irish nationalism and its implications in an ever more interconnected world.
This obviously has nothing on the complex thought presented by UP, of course. My 500 page thesis on its handling of grief (tl;Dr talking dogs heal all wounds) will shortly follow.
Compare Harry Potter with Animorphs and then see if you can still make this comparison with a straight face afterward. One of these two series treats it’s elementary student audience with respect, and is widely beloved because of it. It ain’t HP.
If your books need real world themes and connections to be good, maybe you should try improving their writing instead.
Fucking lol