T
Tantum_ergo
Guest
Well, chacun a son gout and all that.
I personally find quite a bit that I don’t care for in the H.P. series but for those who enjoy it, maybe they’re more skillful than I am in finding ‘pearls’, not just in this book series, but in other books, in other situations, etc.
We’re all different. Now, I think that a lot of us have faced, oh let’s say unrequited love.
Now, before we faced it, we probably loved all the stories in which unrequited love was treated. Before we faced it ourselves, if the story line was treated ‘humorously’ we probably found it amusing. If it was treated sympathatically, we probably found it sympathetic.
But once we did face it, the way that we reacted to it changed. If we were the ones who inspired someone’s crush (and we didn’t return the feeling), and then we read a story where unrequited love was treated as a joke, we probably wouldn’t think it was all that funny. If it was treated such that in the end, the love was actually ‘requited’, we’d probably feel nauseated or upset. And if the person who was ‘crushed on’ was treated as a nasty tease, we’d be infuriated. . .because that person was ‘us’.
And it might take a long time before we became ‘impartial’ enough to read about the situation and not take it ‘personally.’
Same thing with HP. There are lots of situations and lots of moral judgments etc. throughout the books.
The more a person shares the point of view of Ms. Rowling, the more he or she will like the book. Ms. Rowling in her opinions on good and evil is pretty much in line with the average Protestant Christian contemporary Western point of view. Much of that view is admirable. But in several areas much is at least problematic, and some of it is downright wrong.
To me, the areas where she goes ‘wrong’ fundamentally upset the balance of the book and the storyline itself. And it just gets ‘worse’ with each book. When I read the first, the magical idea of Hogwarts, the train, the wizarding world etc., were just starting to be ‘laid out’ and the protagonists at 11 were so young that one could look at various incidents in the book with a slightly ‘ambiguous’ or ‘problematic’ focus and think, “well, obviously as the books go on, we’ll see these dealt with and it will be shown WHY the decision made here and here, which were ‘applauded’ at ages 12 or 14, were not really that good and as the heroes age they’ll look back and say that they should have done X instead, because with age will come experience and wisdom.”
And when instead of those areas being understood more clearly and the moral ‘ewws’ addressed, the heroes actually started being even ‘worse’ morally and the ‘applause’ for the moral wrongs was more pronounced, as I said, the balance ‘toppled’ and even the totally enjoyable things like the descriptions of the country and all the cool ‘trappings’ and things like Quiddich couldn’t be seen outside the really ‘off’ morality. For me, anyway. As I said, I’m probably not as skilled in being able to divorce the ‘fun’ of a story from its moral underpinnings.
I personally find quite a bit that I don’t care for in the H.P. series but for those who enjoy it, maybe they’re more skillful than I am in finding ‘pearls’, not just in this book series, but in other books, in other situations, etc.
We’re all different. Now, I think that a lot of us have faced, oh let’s say unrequited love.
Now, before we faced it, we probably loved all the stories in which unrequited love was treated. Before we faced it ourselves, if the story line was treated ‘humorously’ we probably found it amusing. If it was treated sympathatically, we probably found it sympathetic.
But once we did face it, the way that we reacted to it changed. If we were the ones who inspired someone’s crush (and we didn’t return the feeling), and then we read a story where unrequited love was treated as a joke, we probably wouldn’t think it was all that funny. If it was treated such that in the end, the love was actually ‘requited’, we’d probably feel nauseated or upset. And if the person who was ‘crushed on’ was treated as a nasty tease, we’d be infuriated. . .because that person was ‘us’.
And it might take a long time before we became ‘impartial’ enough to read about the situation and not take it ‘personally.’
Same thing with HP. There are lots of situations and lots of moral judgments etc. throughout the books.
The more a person shares the point of view of Ms. Rowling, the more he or she will like the book. Ms. Rowling in her opinions on good and evil is pretty much in line with the average Protestant Christian contemporary Western point of view. Much of that view is admirable. But in several areas much is at least problematic, and some of it is downright wrong.
To me, the areas where she goes ‘wrong’ fundamentally upset the balance of the book and the storyline itself. And it just gets ‘worse’ with each book. When I read the first, the magical idea of Hogwarts, the train, the wizarding world etc., were just starting to be ‘laid out’ and the protagonists at 11 were so young that one could look at various incidents in the book with a slightly ‘ambiguous’ or ‘problematic’ focus and think, “well, obviously as the books go on, we’ll see these dealt with and it will be shown WHY the decision made here and here, which were ‘applauded’ at ages 12 or 14, were not really that good and as the heroes age they’ll look back and say that they should have done X instead, because with age will come experience and wisdom.”
And when instead of those areas being understood more clearly and the moral ‘ewws’ addressed, the heroes actually started being even ‘worse’ morally and the ‘applause’ for the moral wrongs was more pronounced, as I said, the balance ‘toppled’ and even the totally enjoyable things like the descriptions of the country and all the cool ‘trappings’ and things like Quiddich couldn’t be seen outside the really ‘off’ morality. For me, anyway. As I said, I’m probably not as skilled in being able to divorce the ‘fun’ of a story from its moral underpinnings.
I found the story line from book to book too repetitive. It seemed like each book had the same plot structure as the last. However, I could see how some readers enjoy this and like it because it lends a kind of continuity to the books.
(Though obviously some teenagers go through phases like that, the Lord knows some of my siblings did 
).
I would think many teens around that age go through similar ages, and it can be somewhat cathartic to read. I remember reading it thinking “well, no wonder!”
).