I always like to include the addendum that she's also a bad writer. It's great when people are excited to read, but success is not an indicator of quality.
themeatbridge 58 points a year ago
rmuk 23 points a year ago
I tried reading them as a kid and thought they were shit then. I realise now the biggest problems I had with it were the total absence of brick jokes (or whatever the literary equivalent is), the utter refusal to engage in foreshadowing, and the lack of character development.
Harry Potter was the best person but everyone else was a dick. "Gosh I wish something fun would happen" said Harry. Then Magic Headteacher turned up and it turns out that Harry is famous and rich and amazing! "Come and learn to be wizard and a celebrity" said Haggis, "you are amazing and have no choice". And he did. And his stepbrother was fat. Then Harry learned to play Quitit. Albino McVillain said "I've been playing my who life. You'll never be as good as me". And Albino was correct, Harry could only win if he was given a broomstick called a Plonko 9000. Then, Harry got a mystery package. It was a Plonko 9000 and he won. "I am a wizard!" whispered Harry, "but I will still share my chocolates because he is a good person". And he was. "Special people are born special and that's why they're special," said everyone.
Flocklesscrow 21 points a year ago
Then he banged his best friend's sister.
burntbacon 2 points a year ago
Which is honestly pretty standard for the real world. Limited social circles and hot times blended well for millennia, why not continue the tradition at this point if both parties are willing? That's probably the most accurate character portrayal rowling ever made.
Scubus 1 point a year ago
Kid's parents get murdered by hitler and he ends up with his north korean foster parents
This guy completely misses all the characterization
Completely misses on maliciously skips the entire 0lot revolving around sirius black
Completely misses that the point is that its your choices that define you, not the circumstances of your birth
themeatbridge 16 points a year ago
My general complaint is that there really isn't any nuance to any of the characters in the books. If you're thinking of complexity, you're probably thinking about the performances created by various excellent actors in the movies.
Also, none of the twists are executed well, as they are either deus ex rectum or they are telegraphed to the point where you don't even realize they were supposed to be twists.
There's no internal consistency within or between books. Macguffins come and go to serve the story, and every story is just repackaged public domain mythology.
Actually, the fan theory that all of it is the delusion of a mistreated orphan boy does tie several things together. The entire arc reads like the fantasies of a sad, lonely kid playing with a stick in his room by himself.
Simulation6 0 points a year ago
I count the lack of brick jokes and foreshadowing as a plus in any book. Also, it is a series of young adult books, you can't read too much into it. Rowling may be a shit person, but the books are the books.
rocketpoweredredneck 2 points a year ago
brick jokes
Huh, now I know what to call that kind of joke. My DnD group love them.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In 10 points a year ago
She's not a bad writer. She's slightly above average.
Before she was outed, her pseudonym Robert Galbraith had sold 8500 English language copies across all formats (hardback, eBook, library and audiobook) and received two offers from television production companies.
For a "first time" author those are reasonable numbers.
themeatbridge 9 points a year ago
She's a terrible writer. She has no original or clever ideas, her imagery is boring and vague, and her characters are one dimensional at most. The Robert Galbraith book that I read was really bad, too, and the television offer came after she revealed that it was hers. Fucking Cormoran Strike? What the fuck kind of hacky bullshit name is that? She's a dipshit, which is nothing compared to the fact that she's a hateful bigot.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In 1 point a year ago
I've not read any Robert Galbraith books. I was just giving an objective measurement.
People also say Dan Brown is a bad writer and he sells millions of books
JandroDelSol 5 points a year ago
eh, they're not great, but not the worst thing ever. ive seen worse debut novels (id argue that the divergent series is worse, though i enjoy it far too much lmao). the series is definitely ruined because of rowling's awfulness.
themeatbridge 3 points a year ago
I never read Divergent, but I'm sure there are worse books. And I enjoy plenty of books that aren't well written. I enjoyed reading the Harry Potter series, the same way I enjoy a fast food burger and milkshake. It always bugged me that everyone kept praising Rowling for what an amazing writer she was, but I never cared to criticize her because kids were reading and she seemed to be a genuinely decent person.
Now we know she's a hateful bigot, and her shitty writing is providing the funding for her to attempt to oppress people and generally be horrible. So no reason to keep pretending she's not a hack writer.
latenightnoir 16 points a year ago
Do make plenty of memes pointing out the myriad plotholes and the nonsensical developments/elements! I hear she just LLLOVES that;) (the only sarcasm here is "LLLOVES").
Saleh 95 points a year ago
There was two times, he used proper curses:
In book 5 he tries to use Crucio to torture Beatrix Lestrange, but she shows him and tortures him instead, as a little boy doesnt know how to torture.
In book 6 he used Sectumsempra on Malfoy without knowing what it is and seemingly completely oblivious to the fact that most spells are just latin word. Subsequently Malfoy almost dies of bloodloss, everyone is chocked how Harry is using dark arts all of a sudden, but Dumbledore bails him out as always.
LaLuzDelSol 17 points a year ago
Nah that's in the books too
Saledovil 23 points a year ago
Doesn't that spell even break the rules of the setting? What I'm meaning is that with basically all other spells, just saying the words isn't enough, there's a mental element to it, which is related to what the spell is supposed to do. So, casting a spell without knowing what it does should be impossible.
uniquethrowagay 10 points a year ago
I love Harry Potter but facing the facts it is very badly crafted and full of inconsistencies like this.
Obligatory: JKR turned out to be a horrible person and dies not deserve any of our money or attention.
coriza 82 points a year ago
"I fear not the wizard who has practiced 10,000 spells once, but I fear the wizard who has practiced one spell 10,000 times."
Actually Harry also used Expecto Patronum alot (aka, the deus ex machina spell that can do anything and give you a blowjob at the same time)
So he had 2 go to spells.
hakunawazo 14 points a year ago
Combined with a BJ, erecto patronum works better.
_stranger_ 4 points a year ago
Considering "expecto patronum" it's jkr pseudolatin for "dad's coming"...
SaharaMaleikuhm 49 points a year ago
Trying to apply logic to JKR's writing leads to madness.
agamemnonymous 19 points a year ago
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality? I think it clocks in at like half the length of the entire original series.
e8d79 7 points a year ago
Oh great the foundational work of the rationalist community. Enjoy 650 000 words of Eliezer Yudkowsky' preaching and his self-insert smartly destroying straw-man after straw-man while everybody claps.
agamemnonymous 5 points a year ago
Eh, did you finish it? That's certainly how it starts, but that's not really where it winds up.
lagoon8622 4 points a year ago
"The most ethical thing you can do is be unethical. QED. Now buy my book using this affiliate link."
flying_sheep 2 points a year ago
Ironic, you're describing a strawman version of it. The writing in the beginning might have sine resemblance to it, but if becomes something very different.
agamemnonymous 6 points a year ago
There's a pretty decent audiobook in YouTube if you're into that
burntbacon 0 points a year ago
good
You and I have very different ideas of what the word 'good' means, lol. The first, like, two chapters were fine as lampooning the poorly thought out logic of rowling's world, but by chapter 8 or so it just was the same thing over and over again: mary sue thinker boy immediately noticing the giant flaws of the main author and having already rationalized the perfect exploit in a split second.
If it really became good later, well, first impressions matter and it had a pretty bad one.
burntbacon 5 points a year ago
O.o wait what.
ArsonButCute 4 points a year ago
You mean the one by the AI wackjob/rationality cultist?
burntbacon 5 points a year ago
Bingo! Double 'nothing but a walking stick' carrier.
Junkernaught 42 points a year ago
Fake: Magic. Gay: Also magic.
Junkernaught 5 points a year ago
Stop, it's too fabulous
cryptiod137 4 points a year ago
Does this imply the ultra rare holographic clussy?
rockerface 14 points a year ago
It happens three times, if we count the one when he was 1 year old
Deceptichum 6 points a year ago path: 0 18410303 18410483, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0
lessthanluigi 4 points a year ago
That pic made me laugh way too hard
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Obligatory JK Rowling is a bad person. Don’t support her or the Harry Potter series.
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