Why no Harry Potter, eh?

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

So I looked at ONTD's "Ten of the most Epidemically Overrated Books," and was incensed to find that books like On the Road and The Great Gatsby made the list but the Harry Potter series didn't (though at least the Twilight series did). I mean really, Harry Potter is the epitome of an overrated book series, given that there are people seriously making the point that it's so deep and meaningful and needs to be read in AP English classes. Never mind that it's a children's book series!

Well, these were the people who said that a bunch of authors besides Rowling disliked the idea of fanfiction without bothering to consider WHY they might feel that way (specifically, that Rowling is the only one who's all that fandom savvy because she's modern in a way that the others aren't). Maybe they just think Rowling is their darling author too, and you can't say anything bad about her.

Comments

[malic-ba.livejournal.com]

'Worldbuilding'? I, too, really hate hearing this applied to HP. Because to me this is one of the series' real weaknesses. JKR did throw together lots of interesting elements, but for it to be worldbuilding, you have to put some thought into how the world would actually function away from your story. You have to set up the 'laws of nature' for your world, not throw in extra random things when you need to get out of a plot hole. Internal consistency!

Speculative fiction is my favourite kind, and 'worldbuilding' is probably the main reason why. How could the universe be different? What would the consequences be? I love books where it takes time to decipher what these context rules are. (It's probably the roleplaying background :) ) To hear JKR praised for this when she just fundamentally hasn't done the work makes me crazy. Not only has she not done the work, she looks down and dismisses the whole genres of people who do. ('Oh, maths' ?!?)

There are some brillant essayists and writers in fandom who find / create / retcon a WW which hangs together from the fragments JKR has (intentionally or unintentionally) given us, and it is an intriguing and mythical place. They are the real worldbuilders of the WW, to my mind, and I really wish my slice of the millons JKR has made could go to them.

/end rant/

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

... but for it to be worldbuilding, you have to put some thought into how the world would actually function away from your story. You have to set up the 'laws of nature' for your world, not throw in extra random things when you need to get out of a plot hole. Internal consistency!

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES.

:-)

That's what I detest about Rowling and those slavish fans who rapture over her 'worldbuilding'. She just threw things in willy-nilly, without any thought (her "oh, maths!" personality probably made it difficult for her to see how 'internal consistency' was knocked for a loop). And then when she had to tie things together and make things work, in her series' endgame ... she FAILED. Horribly.

It's the fans who attempt to give her a free pass on that which vex me. It's *easy* to build something, anything - a book, a car, a bridge, a house - if you're not going to be held accountable for the end result. Who cares if the car doesn't start? IT LOOKS PRETTY!!.

Bah. The real world shouldn't work that way. A travesty that it did, for Rowling.

There are some brillant essayists and writers in fandom who find / create / retcon a WW which hangs together from the fragments JKR has (intentionally or unintentionally) given us, and it is an intriguing and mythical place. They are the real worldbuilders of the WW, to my mind, and I really wish my slice of the millons JKR has made could go to them.

Yes. They've put so much *thought* into their work, so much more than Rowling. The satisfaction from reading their material is sometimes an order of magnitude greater than that which is obtained in reading the HP books.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Before DH I read so many fan essays on how the spells work, how are spells invented, what the Dark Arts are. Or how wizarding economy works. But now it is clear Rowling never thought that far. As usual, much of the praise for 'world-building' is for things readers put into the world in attempt to make sense of the snippets Rowling tossed here and there with little thought. People like Jodel or pharnabazus did more Potterverse world-building than Rowling.