Mostly Harry Potter
May. 3rd, 2004 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenmillionAlrighty. Got two new pieces up over at PA. (Much easier to post than new EMG storefront stuff.) Still have more work to get up, but I wanted some freshness on the main page. Also worked a bit on the Making Stuff pt 2 article and actually got some drafting done, too.
Time for coffee to get me through 'til lunch.
(coffee-ates)
I've been reading the Harry Potter books. Becca had a stack of them for Isaac when he's old enough to read them, and I decided I'd cruise through them for fun.
They read like badly edited fanfic. Fun, frivolous, quite silly, plot holes conveniently filled with magical devices, characters that are often (but not always) flat but entertaining, DRAMA and MAYHEM and BAD GUYS. Did I mention the bad editing? I think that's what bothers me most. I mean, honestly, as popular as these books are, you'd think an editor with a spine would say 'this scene doesn't work, get rid of it' and 'since when does Ron threaten to punch people with so little provocation?' and 'keeping folks in character doesn't mean they don't have any other catch-phrase' and 'why the hell would Hogwart's teachers go to a place crowded with Hogwart's students and gossip secretively about The Student in a voice loud enough to be heard from a nearby table?' and 'Don't you have a better plot device than having Harry learn *everything* by overhearing people talk about him?' Geez, that's used so often you'd start to think he's a pervy little eavesdropper. And clean up some of the awkward phrasing, too. They're good, but they could be a lot better, that's what gets me. Cute books, I'm entertained, but I'm surely not impressed. Catie's Right Angles is much better.
I can totally see the appeal for fanfic writers, though... tons of offshoot ideas and again, it's a *fun* setting.
Oh and does anyone else think Harry feels like Buckaroo Bonzai? Next thing you know he'll start a boy band.
Time for coffee to get me through 'til lunch.
(coffee-ates)
I've been reading the Harry Potter books. Becca had a stack of them for Isaac when he's old enough to read them, and I decided I'd cruise through them for fun.
They read like badly edited fanfic. Fun, frivolous, quite silly, plot holes conveniently filled with magical devices, characters that are often (but not always) flat but entertaining, DRAMA and MAYHEM and BAD GUYS. Did I mention the bad editing? I think that's what bothers me most. I mean, honestly, as popular as these books are, you'd think an editor with a spine would say 'this scene doesn't work, get rid of it' and 'since when does Ron threaten to punch people with so little provocation?' and 'keeping folks in character doesn't mean they don't have any other catch-phrase' and 'why the hell would Hogwart's teachers go to a place crowded with Hogwart's students and gossip secretively about The Student in a voice loud enough to be heard from a nearby table?' and 'Don't you have a better plot device than having Harry learn *everything* by overhearing people talk about him?' Geez, that's used so often you'd start to think he's a pervy little eavesdropper. And clean up some of the awkward phrasing, too. They're good, but they could be a lot better, that's what gets me. Cute books, I'm entertained, but I'm surely not impressed. Catie's Right Angles is much better.
I can totally see the appeal for fanfic writers, though... tons of offshoot ideas and again, it's a *fun* setting.
Oh and does anyone else think Harry feels like Buckaroo Bonzai? Next thing you know he'll start a boy band.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 01:11 pm (UTC)TNH pointed out that there can get to be a difficulty with telling authors that their books need editing, when the books in question are popular beyond belief and the readers are snatching them up like they're going out of style. It's something of a 'why change horses mid-race' mindset.
I think you're *right*, mind you, and that the books would be much better if they were well-pruned, but the millions upon millions of people buying the books must, in general, be satisfied, or they'd stop buying 'em. And they *are* fun books. Fluffy silly fun books, and if they draw thousands of children into reading the fantasy genre, well, I, a fantasy writer, am not gonna complain about that. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 02:57 pm (UTC)As for Harry starting a boy band... what's it going to be called? Harry and The Muggles? XD