Are you buying a copy of Harry Potter VII today?

[Tarantism]

I haven't read any just saw the first two movies I think...just like rac. It's not that I'm against it at all but it isn't a priority at all. MAybe I'll read them to my kids the day I may have some...

 

Maikeru, C.S. Lewis' books are quite more religious than fantasy to me so not really comparable with harry potter..

 

i think that i really have to stress that the movies have always failed to capture what is so good about the books. i have walked away from every single movie dissappointed, and not just because i am a fan of the books, but also because i am a fan of good movies...

[Boerseun]

Nope. Have to agree with Rac here, the little bespectacled apprentice wizard does absolutely nothing for me. I love sci-fi, and am partial to fantasy every now and then, but I've watched the first two films under duress and tried reading one of the books, but it simply didn't pique my interest.

 

Besides, JK Rowling simply got lucky as an author. Publishers receive thousands upon thousands of manuscripts, and simply cannot read more than 1% of the submitted manuscripts by first-time authors. It's physically impossible. Hers was one of the 1%, and with sufficient marketing spin, badabing badaboom, a winner was born. But by the law of averages, it's much more likely that there are some real gems amongst the 99% unread manuscripts that would have exceeded Harry Potter's popularity by leaps and bounds. Just a pity nobody'll ever get a chance to read it, though. The series' unprecedented popularity is more an artifact of marketing than it is due to actual literary ability. [/literary bitterness]

 

But Boerseun's interests and Harry Potter's appeal are members of two non-intersecting sets, and I don't see this changing very soon.

[Jay-qu]

I lined up for my copy, it was released at the civilised time of 9am here and I finished the book at 3am this morning

[Eclogite]

I voted No, but while I was in transit from Houston to the UK my wife bought one.

[Zythryn]

Bought it, loved it! Excellent end to the series.

Buffy, thank you for editing out the spoiler.

B, I don't agree with you that JKR just got 'lucky'. Sure, that can happen to someone with their first book. But she persevered. Her first script was actually turned down by many of the publishers.

She finally found a little publisher to release the first book. Made herself and her publisher a nice tidy sum and went on from there.

And her series is wonderfully written, in my opinion it is one of the most engaging fantasy series I have read in a very long time.

Now, not everyone likes the 'masters'. Some fantasy lovers don't like Tolkein, I know SF readers that never got into Asimov. It is ok that her writting doesn't turn your crank, but on the large scale of things I think her stories rank up there with the best:)

I look forward to JKRs next book/series;)

[CraigD]

I’ve read and enjoyed all the previous HP books, and expect to do the same with this last one. If I read it soon, however, it will be because I’m lucky enough to cross paths with some fan who’ll loan me a copy – I want nothing to do with the book-release spectacle part of HP fandom.

 

IMHO, Rowling is a very good writer, able to translate her personal experience with children and coming of age into a story that’s captivated millions of children and adults. I find the HP books compelling page-turners, which I can rarely resist reading in a few long sittings.

 

I don’t think the books say much profound. “Defeat the evil badguy who wasn’t always so evil but killed your parents but couldn’t kill you ‘cause of the power of love and lotsa other surprises to be revealed in the last book, and maybe you’ve an evil tendency or two yourself” is pretty old hat, but has never before, AFAIK, made an author the richest person in the UK, an occurrence which is due in most part, not to disparage Rowling’s storycrafting and writing skills or begrudge her fame and fortune, to skillful publishing and marketing. I think the books and their success have done will by encouraging children to read recreationally.

 

Though I’ve no concern of any great, dire consequence of it, I do find a few “dark sides” to the books’ message, their lack of a message, and their genre.

 

Concerning their message, I’m disturbed that the books preach hereditary elitism. Harry’s a hero because he’s a powerful wizard, and being a powerful wizard is a trait he inherited from his parents. There are no muggle heroes to be found in the books. The only character who exhibits any appreciation of muggles as anything less than a sort of inferior subspecies, Arthur Weasley, is portrayed as a bumbling eccentric for his interest. The message that one is only of consequence if one has an powerful innate trait is not, I think, a very good one. Sci/technophile that I am, I’m delighted to imagine a mash-up of the STTOS episode “Plato's Stepchildren” and the HP story, in which Kirk, Spock and company drop in and sort out the whole Voldemort wizard’s war business with a bit of tricording, synthesizing, etc. within a 60 minutes – commercials timeframe. :cup:, leaving a sensible squib or muggle in charge of keeping things on an even keel thereafter.

 

Concerning their lack of a message, I fail to find the connection to history, myth, and archetype I find in books of a similar genre. The scope of the story seems to extend only a generation or two into the past and future, with anything beyond that sketched in halfheartedly as a technical writing task to plug gaps in the story’s background, Tolkein, Moorcock, and numerous others wrote big in this way, while Rowling seems content to keep this facet of her story small.

 

Concerning the genre, my complaint is the usual. Wizards, witches, broomsticks, hippogriffs and the like spun forth with promiscuous abandon are fanciful fluff at best, encouragement for real superstition at worst. As much of the genre does, the HP books make no effort to explain their supernatural elements scientifically, and even portray muggle science with derision.

 

The fact that I’ve dedicated 4 times as many words to negative criticism of the HP books should in no way be taken to indicate I don’t thoroughly enjoy them, or hold their author in less than the highest literary esteem, just that I find their “magic” rather thin. Hopefully, Rowling won’t read my post – I just know that, despite her millions and international celebrity status, she’d be crushed :)