It's shit

It's shit.

Yes, and so were the other HP books.

Taking arms against Harry Potter, at this moment, is to emulate Hamlet taking arms against a sea of troubles. By opposing the sea, you won't end it. The Harry Potter epiphenomenon will go on, doubtless for some time, as J. R. R. Tolkien did, and then wane.

The official newspaper of our dominant counter-culture, The New York Times, has been startled by the Potter books into establishing a new policy for its not very literate book review. Rather than crowd out the Grishams, Clancys, Crichtons, Kings, and other vastly popular prose fictions on its fiction bestseller list, the Potter volumes will now lead a separate children's list. J. K. Rowling, the chronicler of Harry Potter, thus has an unusual distinction: She has changed the policy of the policy-maker.

Imaginative Vision

I read new children's literature, when I can find some of any value, but had not tried Rowling until now. I have just concluded the 300 pages of the first book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," purportedly the best of the lot. Though the book is not well written, that is not in itself a crucial liability. It is much better to see the movie, "The Wizard of Oz," than to read the book upon which it was based, but even the book possessed an authentic imaginative vision. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" does not, so that one needs to look elsewhere for the book's (and its sequels') remarkable success. Such speculation should follow an account of how and why Harry Potter asks to be read.

The ultimate model for Harry Potter is "Tom Brown's School Days" by Thomas Hughes, published in 1857. The book depicts the Rugby School presided over by the formidable Thomas Arnold, remembered now primarily as the father of Matthew Arnold, the Victorian critic-poet. But Hughes' book, still quite readable, was realism, not fantasy. Rowling has taken "Tom Brown's School Days" and re-seen it in the magical mirror of Tolkein. The resultant blend of a schoolboy ethos with a liberation from the constraints of reality-testing may read oddly to me, but is exactly what millions of children and their parents desire and welcome at this time.

In what follows, I may at times indicate some of the inadequacies of "Harry Potter." But I will keep in mind that a host are reading it who simply will not read superior fare, such as Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" or the "Alice" books of Lewis Carroll. Is it better that they read Rowling than not read at all? Will they advance from Rowling to more difficult pleasures?

If you think Harry Potter is shit, then what the fuck do you like?

>inb4 namedrops some "famous author" or "undiscovered gem"

tl;dr

I'm a little confused on what you're implying here, are you saying that if he doesn't like Harry Potter that he can't like any books, because Harry P. Is somehow the preeminent novel?

It's the Harold Bloom review.
Find it on goodreads to see some twelve year old bitch trying to school Mr. Bloom on the 'Heroes Journey' in the comments.

No, I'm saying he doesn't like something that I like, and it makes me angry

Are you implying people *should* like Harry Potter?

Because it is shit. Always has been.

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as HP, is in fact, LOTR/HP, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, LOTR plus HP. HP is not an original work unto itself, but rather another derivative work of a wholly original LOTR universe made possibly by the fantasy tropes, archetypes and memes comprising a full genre as defined by the Enclopædia Britannica.
Many fantasy readers read a modified version of the LOTR universe every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of LOTR which is widely used today is often called “Harry Potter”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically LOTR, developed by JRR Tolkien. There really is a Harry Potter, and these people are reading it, but it is just a part of the formula they read.
Harry Potter is the core: the fiction that allocates original characters to the plot of the story. The core is an essential part of a story, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete universe. Harry Potter is normally used in combination with the LOTR fantasy tropes: the whole universe is basically LOTR with HP added, or LOTR/HP. All the so-called “Harry Potter” novels are really formulations of LOTR/HP.

wow what a bold claim thank you for letting us know a children's book is shit

/thread

Are you talking to me?

This.
JK Rowling is a hack and any respectable person should know that.
People never seem to be able to take off their nostalgia goggles to give actual criticism.

>steal a secret time turner even though they were all supposedly destroyed
>they go back and prevent Cedric from dying and uh oh the future got changed which directly goes against the rules of the HP universe where time travel is a closed causality loop and you can't create alternate universes by changing things in the past BUT WHATEVER LOL
>the world is now evil, Voldemort has taken over, and there's a grimdark Hogwarts
>everyone calls Scorpius (Draco's son) "The Scorpion King"
>lots of dumb shit happens
>eventually the kids and Harry himself go back all the way to the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents
>Harry goes totally out of character and tells his son that he's a failure which got a bunch of people on tumblr fuckin pissed
>turns out that the girl who said she was Cedric's niece was actually A SECRET LOVECHILD OF VOLDEMORT AND BELLATRIX LESTRANGE NO SERIOUSLY I'M NOT EVEN MAKING THIS UP
>they all fight, the good guys win and the day is saved
>the end

Here, saved you some time.

every time

Maybe it was a different time travel spell. One that actually allows you to change the future.

what

why does dfw have the best reaction faces?

It's a silly /g/ meem

Was that actually real? I was told it was probably a manufactured leak.

can confirm
I read a synopsis/review of the actual play online. Sounds like utter shit to be honest. People on this board talk shit on Harry Potter, but it's a kids book series. This one goes full retard, and I am honestly surprised Rowling just didn't even give one iota of a fuck about it.