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

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

The only extra-curricular activity ever mention is Quidditch or the DA.

What no Chess club? We know wizards play chess. Ron could join, but then it would interfere with Harry being the center of his universe.

Snape's mother was the Gobstone champion when she was a student. Is there a competition while Harry was at school? Or was it discontinued?

Or how about study groups? Why is Hermione is a study group? Silly me she has Harry why would she need anyone else?

The problem is if it doesn't involve Harry it doesn't matter.

Another example of JK poor world building. It would be easy to throw in a reference to some other activity. A Quidditch teammate worrying about a schedule conflict with another club. A house mate mentioning that they had to go because x club was meeting. When Umbridge bans groups have other students complaining about their group no longer being able to meet.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Now that would have been cool, to see the depth and breadth of extracurricular activities wizards could do.

If Rowling wanted Harry to see everything important, all it would have taken would have been for him to run into the wrong clubroom by mistake, for example. Or Rowling could have derived some humor from doing what I did in one of my stories, where I had the protagonist deliberately seek out a food club he wasn't part of so he could peek on the cute girls get new ideas for recipes he could try.

[sunnyskywalker]

What really rankles is that she actually made a joke out of anyone trying to start up another extracurricular activity in print. Remember that anecdote about the time they tried to stage a play at Hogwarts, and not being Quidditch the mishaps were not considered something one should overlook as part of the experience, and they never ever had a drama club again? Yeah.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

She said that? Good grief.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Wow, she really said that? Is everybody at Hogwarts a dumb jock or something?

[sunnyskywalker]

I think it was in one of Dumbledore's notes in Beadle the Bard. Ages ago, Professor Beery did try to stage a play, and due to love triangles and magical mishaps (not Dumbledore's, of course!), it was a disaster and they never tried it again. Ever. Beery went on to found his own little school for drama or something and it's a total failure from what I remember.

He didn't have the aside about Quidditch, but if they don't give up on Quidditch after rogue Bludgers target particular players, Dementors swarm the field, etc., I think it's fair to say they value Quidditch more and will continue no matter what the obstacles, while they think of drama (and possibly other activities) as jokes which you can just ditch with the excuse that something didn't go smoothly.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

I think it's fair to say they value Quidditch more and will continue no matter what the obstacles, while they think of drama (and possibly other activities) as jokes which you can just ditch with the excuse that something didn't go smoothly.

Pretty much, this. I guess it's pretty clear where their priorities lie.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

where I had the protagonist deliberately seek out a food club he wasn't part of so he could peek on the cute girls get new ideas for recipes he could try.

My dad said he liked figures, that's why he took typing in High School. (That would have been in the 50s, when typing was full of girls)

[ladyzenobia.livejournal.com]

It would be easy to throw in a reference to some other activity. A Quidditch teammate worrying about a schedule conflict with another club.

We did have that. In OotP, I think when Harry thanked Angelina for accepting Ron to the team and Angelina said that there was some guy who flew better but who also had charms club and said that if it came to a conflict he preferred charms. The whole thing was treated as a joke. Silly kid with his charms club acting like it's more important than quidditch. Oh well...

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

That does seem to be JK attitude about anyone who cares about something that she doesn't. They are dismissed as being silly to care about such a dumb thing.

[oryx_leucoryx]

There was a Charms club, one of the DA members worried about time conflicts. But Harry wouldn't join academic clubs so we don't know anything about them.

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

Well, I there was S.P.E.W., I suppose.