I can’t stand Harry Potter. I’m sick of him. If that little puke ever went to public school and not one of those pompous, private, wizard schools, I could almost guarantee you that that little shit would get his fudge packed on a daily basis.
I feel bad for the kid that has to play his sorry-ass in the movie. Hes probably gonna kill himself by shooting himself in the face w/ a 12 gague by the time hes 20. I mean seriously, he’ll go to the club, try pickin’ up chicks and they’ll all be like “hey, aren’t you that guy that played Harry Potter in those movies like 7 years ago? You used to be sooo cute! Wheres your broom? C’mon, fly away, we wanna see some wizard trick!”
Harry Potter’s awesome. It’s more than a kiddie book. Anyone who can see beyond the stupid promo stuff will see that the story is amazingly well crafted and done.
BTW - unless you read all of Harry Potter from beginning to the end, you should NOT criticize the series since you have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.
Pat I’m sorry but please explain this drunkness with a stripper shit. You know I don’t approve of drinking with whores. Oh wait yes I do. But hey what are you talking about? Sorry Stella I was just being hilarious as usual. Braahahaha me so funny. gag
Harry Potter is well written, and fun. It’s not the most original series ever, it’s not the most exciting series ever but it’s an enjoyable read - and strangely enough, I thought that was the point of reading, to enjoy it.
Perhaps more importantly, however, HP has brought millions of kids back to the written word; and that is priceless.
Frankly I’d rather read JK Rowling over Ayn Rand any day of the week - I prefer my heroes to be less self-absorbed, and my philosphy to be less…well on the same planet is nice.
People are right in saying that all the hype is annoying, but that’s not the fault of the author, nor is it the fault of the book - don’t write off the stories simply because the money people are having wet dreams about it.
I’ll get to see you tomorrow nad possibly Ike if he decides to see Pat compete. I’m already in Portland, staying at Hilton Executive Tower in downtown. Where are you btw?
Holy shit, iscariot, how can you say you’d rather read JK Rowling than Ayn Rand? Any true book-lover who reads that comment there probably has the urge to pimp-slap your ass back to the stone age, as do I.
I fail to understand your logic, or lack thereof. Yes, Ayn Rand’s views on life may be a little out there. However, can’t you respect the amount of work and time she put into her ideas and belief system? I guess JK Rowling is still better simply because she wrote a couple books about a kid learning how to cast spells on people.
Also, yes, the Harry Potter books may have sparked some reading interest in today’s youth. However, do you see these kids flocking to books that don’t have a picture of a nerdy, pre-pubescent kid on the cover?
Its easy to see where any number of book lovers would prefer JK Rowling to Ayn Rand. You know you can see that viewpoint Chris, even if you disagree with it. You say, “I fail to understand your logic, or lack thereof. Yes, Ayn Rand’s views on life may be a little out there. However, can’t you respect the amount of work and time she put into her ideas and belief system?” Who said they didn’t respect that? The word was “prefer”. Frankly, I find Ayn Rand to be a great writer - but she has her place in the world just as so many others do. She also casted things in very black and white images that were a little out-there. But yes, fantastic writer nonetheless.
I think the point is that JK Rowling isn’t necessarily ‘better’ than Ayn Rand or the other way around - but for what JK Rowling does, she does it very well and it definitely does lead people to read more.
Lastly, you asked, “However, do you see these kids flocking to books that don’t have a picture of a nerdy, pre-pubescent kid on the cover?” Come on, we all start somewhere. Don’t tell me that your first book was The Fountainhead, and then you moved on to The Republic. I can tell you that other than exhausting the public library supply of Beetle Bailey Comics, I had a healthy diet of Hardy Boys, Choose-your-own Adventure, Chronicles of Narnia, and other relatively ‘light’ books. I’ve read a lot more since then, of varying degrees and on varying topics. I’m sure I’m not the exception on this - reading engages the imagination and the mind. People discover the pleasure of that, and they will read more.
Chrismcl: I didn’t say Rand had no merit - I said I’dprefer to read JK Rowling. I can’t stand Rand, I find her philosophy Black and white, selfish and exclusionary.
I prefer to take my definition of the superman and the ubermencsh from someone like Nietzsche. I like Foucault, I like Kierkegaard…I do not like Rand. I didn’t say you couldn’t.
BTW: Harry Potter didn’t get a few kids noses in a book it got millions. And what’s the cover picture image got to do with it, HP is all about wish fulfilment, dreams etc. If the image associated with the
test is your thing then I would guess you like Mills and Boon for the simple reason that there are muscle-ly men and big titted heroines on the cover.
Although I haven’t read the books YET, I have seen both movies and we own them on vid and they are fun.
Iscariot is correct when he put
Any teacher will confirm this, in fact a primary school principal said to my wife the other day that HP may have ‘rescued’ a whole generation from near illiteracy! I may not be quite that far along but I will say that it has completely changed my 12 yr old sons habits and attitude to books. Thanks to HP he is now a reader and reads other books as well as HP, reading is now a habit for him. His school work has improved as he is a better reader.
HP got a lot of kids reading, and parents reading to their kids again. That can’t be a bad thing. The only thing that makes me cringe is that creepy little “Dobby” character in the second movie.
I thought the purpose of this site was to HELP those nerdy kids to kick the asses of the bullies? As in the past few Atomic Dogs, it is our nerd weightlifter friends that develop the science that helps us effect changes in our bodies.
I grew up on Encyclopedia Brown. He is Harry Potter x 10.
The books and movies are overhyped, but they are well written, and don’t talk down to kids like many books do. If you compare the size of the average book written for an elementary school age kid, they are tiny compared to the Potter books. When have you ever heard of millions of kids reading an 896-page book? (896, is that right?)
Booksellers have talked about kids discovering reading and moving on to the Lord of the Rings, and other books. And don’t forget they got Richard Harris for the first two movies. He apparently found some escape clause to get out of the third movie.
I would not say the books are truly overhyped. The media and advertising blitz didn’t start UNTIL kids went nuts over the first couple of books. The excitement from kids came first.
I get sick of seeing it all over the place now, but it’s not fair to say the books are succesful BECAUSE of hype. They were getting kids to read long before that, although there is hype now.
And that’s the final equations: kids reading 800 page books. That’s always a good thing. Does my heart good. If you have to hype something, let it be books that get kids reading! Better than video games!
Neutered modern man to be offered back his missing pride in exchange for his wallet
He has been marginalised by the women’s movement, portrayed as a useless plonker in television sitcoms and told by scientists that his Y-chromosome is in decline. Now the modern British male is about to be fleeced as advertisers capitalise on his low self-esteem and target him with products to “re-empower” him.
A survey of more than 2,000 British and American men and their female partners has provided a blueprint for a new economy. As strong as the “pink pound” of high-income gay men, the “metrosexual” pound is burning a hole in the wallets of a new breed of insecure and “neutered” straight men, desperate to reassert themselves.
(…)
Metrosexual man
The "metro" refers to metropolis, and in the 1990s "metrosexual" meant young men with money and an interest in fashion and beauty, who lived within reach of a city
They were thought to be a sophisticated, deeply narcissistic breed, heterosexual, aged 21 - 35 and afraid of ageing. Metrosexual icons were David Beckham, and the Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe
Metrosexual man is now described as “any straight man who has a salmon-pink shirt in his wardrobe”. But he is less self-absorbed and vain. His two priorities in life are to grow old with his partner and have happy, healthy children
He struggles to take on feminine characteristics to adapt to the new gender equality which sometimes confuses him
He describes himself as caring, nurturing and open-minded and is unlikely to refer to himself as “sexy”. Although he fancies Kylie Minogue, he is not interested in affairs
He strives for a perfect body and approves of male beauty products, although not plastic surgery
He feels good grooming gives him a head-start at work
Metrosexual man has little interest in military hardware or heroism and wants his friends to support him “unconditionally”
I tried reading the first book, but I didn’t like it enough to finish it. (Patricia: Or was it the stripper that showed up that ruined my chances of finishing the book?) I do like the fact, however, that it has sparked so many of our mentally lazy and short attention-spanned children to read.
