The Book Thread Book • Page 68

That Harry Potter single-handedly dumbed down a generation and caused them to lose interest in literature? Seems like a hilariously misguided opinion to me

 

There are a lot of adults who barely read anything but constantly re-read Harry Potter.

 

Yeah and there’s a ton of adults who don’t read anything. I’d rather they re-read Harry Potter than nothing at all. Blaming the rise in illiteracy rates on Harry Potter is absurd. Yeah it was a book series that did that, not the fact that people can’t put their phones down, disconnect from the internet, or turn off Netflix. I’m not familiar with this Will Self dude but holy shit he sounds like an asshole.

 

Harry Potter reignited both my mother and sisters passion for books. Yes; they reread them from time to time but who doesn't read their favourite books over and over?

 

I’m not saying Harry Potter is bad but a lot of people don’t move on from that kind of stuff and never challenge themselves, which is the problem. How is reading YA fantasy as an adult any more beneficial than just watching tv all day?

 

Whoo boy

 

a stance that involves a blanket denouncement of YA lit is really not one I want to entertain.

 

I don’t see what’s wrong with saying adults shouldn’t read exclusively books written for kids.

 

the distinction between a lot of YA and Adult lit is so arbitrary. yeah, i'm certainly all for people expanding their horizons and starting to read things out of their comfort zone, but it's shitty to draw hard lines when you talk about what people read. it sucks to undermine these books that are geared toward teens as somehow "less than" by nature of their genre--it speaks down to the teens and adults that have a hunger for them and it feels like some weird gatekeeping between something you think is serious and something you think is not. in the end it's a trend that keeps the genre from expanding AND keeps people from trying new things and that sucks for everyone.

it's late and i probably could be explaining myself better but this attitude does a disservice to the books and the people who read them

 

1. People that only read Harry Potter would either not be reading otherwise, or they would be reading some other series exclusively. Harry Potter is not heroine, it’s not the books fault.

2. If you don’t understand why people would fall into a pattern like that, you are a lucky person.

 

I'm a 28 year old and if I didn't start reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn/Stormlight Archive at 25, which is classed as YA fantasy, then I would not read at all. As book lovers, how is reading YA any different from reading any other book? Both would be "expanding as an adult" and i'm most certainly better for it. I read these more than I watch TV anyway so I guess we shouldn't encompass everyone with the same views.

Personally, if I like a genre then im more likely to read from the same genre. I will try something else but if I don't like it them im not going to continue with that genre and that applies for all sources of entertainment.

 

Guess I should go pick up a couple of picture books to look through at the library today.

 

YA is more of a distinction of the age of then protagonist and not the reader. Which is a common mistake, too.

The Catcher in the Rye is YA, for example.

 

I feel like people hate on YA because they’re usually shorter, easier to read and hover around a main “coming of age” late high school / early college theme compared to Hemingway, Tolstoy or whoever. Which is probably factually true to a large extent (at least for me) but that doesn’t make them any “less” of a book or literature than other things.

 

I have read and enjoyed A LOT of classic literature and I like Harry Potter just as much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

I have a degree in literature and enjoy HP as much as most classics (if not far more). Also studied HP in multiple classes, so it’s already been accepted into the academic canon. *shrug*

HP has some deserved criticism. But YA is thriving and vibrant and to dismiss it is horrible.

 

There are so many very good criticisms of Harry Potter (its muddled social/political message, the insufferable fandom and culture surrounding it) that the fact that its YA seems entirely irrelevant

 

The fandom is literally keeping kids alive so who cares if they argue about Snape

 

Seems like a little bit of a jump to assume I was talking about suicidal children with that post but okay

 

I think the fandom is not the fault or a flaw of the book because it’s not part of the book itself, and that the fandom overall does much more good than bad

 

Harry Potter sucks. I also can't stand J.K. Rowling, she is insufferable

 

Uh, I don't really think you can separate the fandom from the books at all. I mean, we can examine them independently as works of literature, but then all that is left is technical aspects of writing or storytelling. Which is fine, but definitely incomplete. Doesn't make sense to examine works of art without considering the cultural context and impact. I think, other than maybe preventing children from committing suicide (which I have no knowledge of but I'll take your word for it) the largest cultural impact of the books is turning JK Rowling into a person whose opinions people care about, and I would say she most definitely hasn't used that platform responsibly.

 

Haven’t there actually been studies that linked Harry Potter to declining youth racism in the UK or something similar

 

JK Rowling: Charity Work & Causes - Look to the Stars

You can not like her/her politics, but to say she isn't actively using her money to affect positive change in the world is a bit of a reach.

 

Lol based on what? How many non white characters are there even in the series? One of them is Cho Chang, whose name is literal racist nonsense. (Cho is a Korean name, Chang is not. They're also both last names. She might as well be called Ching Chong.) Or the hook nosed banking goblins? Or that Harry's dream job that he ends up getting is magic cop whose job it is to make sure wizards don't use their magic to like, feed starving muggles? What exactly is the anti-racist message?