Harry Potter and why its world building is so boring? - Avada Kedavra vs M16

[NyQuilninja]

I'm pretty sure that the bigger question is why no wizard went off the deep end and used both an modern handgun and a wand?

It's england they don't have guns or personal freedoms

 

[Vecr]

It's england they don't have guns or personal freedoms

Nah, it's set in the 1990s (in theory, Rowling screwed up when writing the first book), enough AR-180s got smuggled in from the US through various channels that they'd be able to intercept some, either before they got to NI, or from a cache they could detect with magic.

 

[NyQuilninja]

Nah, it's set in the 1990s (in theory, Rowling screwed up when writing the first book), enough AR-180s got smuggled in from the US through various channels that they'd be able to intercept some, either before they got to NI, or from a cache they could detect with magic.

The British have a ingrained distaste for guns and personal freedoms it would break the suspension of belief.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

lol muggle guns? might as well shit in toilets you fucking mudblood

 

[Tablet County]

King James Bible: 783,137 words
Harry Potter books 1-7: 1,084,170 words

You guys complaining about plot twists in the later Harry Potter books have got to be closet fans or something. How do you read the first couple of hundreds of thousands of pages and go, "well this sucks so far but I just have to know if Professor Snoozlewoozle defeats the Rumbley-bumblies"

The bible isn't written as compellingly.

 

[Señora Airi]

Given that Stephen King references Harry Potter in the Dark Tower series, I'll bet that Stephen King wouldn't refer to Rowling in that way.

So he calls Robert E Howard a lazy hack and says sword and sorcery are for losers with no power, but praises fucking JKR and her quarter baked mess?

And all the people brushing it aside saying "it's a children's book", it's the main reason we have so many retards today. Like others have stated, there were novels and series for kids in that same decade with more depth, yet HP got popular cause of fundie screeching and the media reporting on said screeching.

 

[Midwit]

The Weasleys read as a 60s standard working class.

The Weasleys are country bumpkins replete with the incredibly outdated family car.

he calls Robert E Howard a lazy hack and says sword and sorcery are for losers with no power

The greatest irony in that statement is that Robert E Howard was also an amatuer boxer and would easily have beaten the absolute shit out of Steven King if he wanted to.

 

[Gorillion others]

The greatest irony in that statement is that Robert E Howard was also an amatuer boxer and would easily have beaten the absolute shit out of Steven King if he wanted to.

So he calls Robert E Howard a lazy hack and says sword and sorcery are for losers with no power, but praises fucking JKR and her quarter baked mess?

Remember, King is a dipshit in the end.

 

[NyQuilninja]

Remember, King is a dipshit in the end.

Robert e Howard was also a possible sped who loved his momma a little more then some here would be comfortable with. That being said his writing is way better than Kings will ever be

 

[grump]

Sure HP is filled with more holes than a colander if you think about it. But none of that matters. The school setting is very 'comfy' and thats THE major reason its so popular. For people, especially social rejects or those who like to larp as social rejects who make up such a large portion of the youth in the early 2000s. Imagining themselves in Hogwarts or in a relationship to one of its characters as an escape. It partially draws some of its appeal from the inherent nostalgia of school settings in general. Many people have a certain yearning for their school years even if in reality they didn't have a good time there.

Unfortunately it suffers from a problem many franchises do where the universe revolves around the school and the world outside is boring. Same as in Star Trek where the universe revolves around starfleet and everything else is boring and halfbaked and star wars where everything revolves around the jedi and everything else is boring etc.

This might have been partially alleviated if JKR could have produced a well written Beasts series following its original intention of being a zoological story rather than the Dumbledore prequel it ended up being.

 

[I Do Not Post]

lol i want a gun with a wand attached to its bayonet mount

 

[Janusz z Gliwic]

So he calls Robert E Howard a lazy hack and says sword and sorcery are for losers with no power, but praises fucking JKR and her quarter baked mess?

While King does have talent, his creations are essentially Big Macs. I'm absolutely convinced he'd write the most generic S&S with the nudest girls if he lived in 1930s.

And all the people brushing it aside saying "it's a children's book", it's the main reason we have so many retards today. Like others have stated, there were novels and series for kids in that same decade with more depth, yet HP got popular cause of fundie screeching and the media reporting on said screeching.

Yes, these are kids' books. That, and the fact that entire setting is wacky satire of contemporary Britain, means that worldbuilding was a mess because it was unimportant to story at large - it was only background. The issue is, plenty of kids who read it at that age never grew up, and most of them never read any other book in their life.
I do not know what exactly made the books popular but I doubt it was fundie screeching - if anything, it appears to be reaction to said popularity.

 

[Gorillion others]

contemporary Britain

I've come to understand Brits less and less.

Perhaps even lesser than I understand people who get off on dirty diapers. (which should tell you something)

Not for a lack of trying, mind you. I did try. And try, and try, and try, but for some reason, they really don't want people to understand them.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

his creations are essentially Big Macs

iirc he uses that comparison himself, but not as smart to phrase it like Mark Twain about the great classics being wine and his stuff being water

 

[Midwit]

I've come to understand Brits less and less.

It's quite simple really, it's a story about how a boy discovers that he has a magical ability (being intelligent) and thus gets to go to a fancy boarding school on the other side of the country that's run by a weird gay man wherein he works hard to get good grades so that he can eventually achieve the British dream by becoming a civil servant. Simple as.

 

[Gorillion others]

It's quite simple really, it's a story about how a boy discovers that he has a magical ability (being intelligent) and thus gets to go to a fancy boarding school on the other side of the country that's run by a weird gay man wherein he works hard to get good grades so that he can eventually achieve the British dream by becoming a civil servant. Simple as.

Sounds normal enough. I heard he ends up being a sorry bitch in the end, though.

That's rather typical with the British.

 

[Tragi-Chan]

, and the fact that entire setting is wacky satire of contemporary Britain, means that worldbuilding was a mess because it was unimportant to story at large - it was only background.

Speaking as a Bong, it always felt like a really dated portrayal of Britain. Less like the 90s, more like the 50s.

 

[Janusz z Gliwic]

Speaking as a Bong, it always felt like a really dated portrayal of Britain. Less like the 90s, more like the 50s.

I will take your word on that, because for outsider, it's all just Britain.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Speaking as a Bong, it always felt like a really dated portrayal of Britain. Less like the 90s, more like the 50s.

there was a playstation in one of the early ones I think, Dudley was big mad about not enough presents for xmas or birthday and it was very uniquely dating that he wanted or got an og PS1

 

[Vecr]

there was a playstation in one of the early ones I think, Dudley was big mad about not enough presents for xmas or birthday and it was very uniquely dating that he wanted or got an og PS1

That was a continuity mistake, I think the correct formula is 1990 + book number for the ~"before Christmas" section of each book, and 1991 + book number for the ~"after Christmas" section. Maybe that's off, but there's no way an early book was actually supposed to be set in 1995 in the "real continuity" (A.K.A. after J.K. started planning stuff out in a reasonable manner)