I wasn't being mean. The only way he couldn't have heard of any of those writers would be if he was uneducated or still in grade school. It isn't my fault that being either of those is undesirable.
Escapism? This is far too unoriginal to be escapism. Let me outline the Plot of Harry Potter.
Young, seemingly unimportant Harry Potter is discovered to be an extraordinary, one of a kind, powerful wizard, who is the only hope of saving the new wizard world he finds himself in. He meets Dumbledore, an old, wise man who is a master of wizardry, which harry is discovered to be a prodigious at. Dumbledore allows himself to be martyred by Snape, Voldemorts right hand man and apprentice, so that Harry may defeat Voldemort who wants to destroy good. After Dumbledore's death the Harry steps up and fulfils his destiny as the savior of wizardry, and defeats Voldemort, bringing balance back to the wizard world.
Now, let me outline the plot of Star Wars
Young, seemingly unimportant Luke Skywalker is discovered to be an extraordinary, one of a kind, powerful master of the force, who is the only hope of saving the new world of the force he finds himself in. He meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, an old, wise man who is a master of the force, which harry is discovered to be a prodigious at. Obi-Wan allows himself to be martyred by Darth Vader, The Emperor’s right hand man and apprentice, so that Harry may defeat the Emperor who wants to destroy good. After Obi-Wan's death Luke steps up and fulfils his destiny as the savior of the light side of the force, and defeats the Emperor, bringing balance back to the force.
Now, to her supposedly extraordinary ability to be descriptive in her writing. You actually believe she is a better figurative writer then Ray Bradbury? Let’s see:
Books bombarded Montag’s shoulders, his arms, his upturned face. A book landed, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings fluttering. In the dim wavering light a page hung open and it was like a snowy feather, the words delicately painted thereon. In all the rush and fervor, Montag had only an instant to read a line, but it blazed as if stamped there with fiery steel. – Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
No contest.
There's a totally different feel to the Star Wars series and the Harry Potter series. There have been enough books written that in each escapist genre, originality is hard to come by in a fundemental sense. If you expect a completely original plot, original setting, characters, chain of events, feel, and everything else, you're setting yourself up for a serious disappointment. In the example you provided, you're looking at three movies (following Luke) in the series. Potter's already hit five, and has two more coming, and the books were much, much longer than the movies. Needless to say, there's content there that wasn't touched upon by Star Wars, and a lot of it.
Yeah, if you want to pick and choose your quotes it's going to come out in your favor. Shocking, I know, it's funny how those things work out? If you take one of the most climactic and important scenes in a legendary book written by a great author and match it up against a description of a minor character. Anyway, I wasn't talking about specific instances like the quote you offered. That was, like you said, figurative. Comparing the book to a dove, personifying it by saying it acted obediently, or implying that it was there for a purpose, that's not descriptive. That's what makes Bradbury a great writer, that he's not only a genious and figured out roughly how humans would act in the future, but because he can make these comparisons and use figurative writing. Rowling's strength is her descriptions of places. Open the seventh book and tell me you can't see Malfoy Manor. Read the series without watching a movie and you get a senses of what Hogwarts is like, and it's on a scale that Hollywood could never imagine. I guess it really comes down to opinion, but it seems that you are either in the minority or just trying to compare apples to oranges and disproving things that nobody ever claimed to be true. If you believed for a moment that people believed Rowling to be up there with Bradbury, Harry Potter to be up there with 451, or that Rowling is a bad writer, I really don't buy any of it. Seeing as the series was meant for enjoyment and nothing else, it't escapist. Very few great works of fiction are. The immortals never are, because the immortals are taught in schools, people grow up around them. Fahrenheit's immortal, Potter's great. And I still don't see how someone with seven best-sellers can be called a bad writer. It's just inexplicable logic to me, but to each their own. _________________ "If you're going through hell, keep going."
This guy is entitled to his opinion, and should be able to discuss his views on the Potter series with Potter fans. There’s no need to flame him because of his opinion on a franchise.
Seriously, people > books.
Excuse my English, it is very bad today. _________________
while everyone is entitled to my opinion here is mine: why join a forum is you're just going to try an antognize the posters? we love harry potter. you dont. fine. join a star wars fan club or whatever. this person just wants to start problems. if we like harry potter, just leave us alone. why do you want to try and take something we love so much away from us??? you're rude and unnecessary posts will not tarnish the bond we have with the books. sometimes its not about which book has bigger words than another. i grew up with harry potter. i love the series. i get offended when anyone insults the series. what im saying is, if this poster is just posting to bash harry potter just leave and get a life.
btw this is a forum. not an essay contest. using shorthand doesnt make us ignorant. im a very avid reader so why dont you just shut your trap! _________________
[[CREDiT: HARRY'S GAL]]
www.myspace.com/far_from_reality101
If you expect a completely original plot, original setting, characters, chain of events, feel, and everything else, you're setting yourself up for a serious disappointment. .
I couldn't have said it better myself. Also, if you think that selection from Farenheit 451 isn't descriptive then you need to go back to 4th grade english and find out what the word "descriptive" means, or finish it.
What color was Mr. Dursley's hair? What about the hue of his skin? Does he sweat? All these could have been answered, but they wern't, though they would have been relavent. However, as many have said, J. K Rowling is overly descriptive. Case in point: Book 4. The color of the cover of ther book was irelivant to what Ray Bradbury was trying to convey in that parahraph. You see, unlike J.K Rowling, good writers don't bable on about unimportant drivel. They have direction, and don't add words for the sake of having more of them. If you think you really could have written a better, more descriptive book then Farenheit 451 then I would like you to post it here.
Now, to her supposedly extraordinary ability to be descriptive in her writing. You actually believe she is a better figurative writer then Ray Bradbury? Let’s see:
Books bombarded Montag’s shoulders, his arms, his upturned face. A book landed, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings fluttering. In the dim wavering light a page hung open and it was like a snowy feather, the words delicately painted thereon. In all the rush and fervor, Montag had only an instant to read a line, but it blazed as if stamped there with fiery steel. – Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
No contest.
Ok, so she may not write as excessively as Ray Bradbury does when describing a character but I get sick of reading crap that really is not needed. I mean she could have written:
He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Harry could make out a scar on his cheek that he received one cold, chilly winter night when racing young Bob, the rising Kid Popularity at his muggle Kindergarten home on his red Tricycle down the daunting, unforgiving Alps. He had received the scar when he hit Black Ice at a substantially high speed that he had never been at on his Trike and lost control sliding over an edge and falling to what surely should have been his doom, however he was snagged by an old, wiry, leafless branch sprouting from a crevice in the face of the mountain just 8 feet above a bunch of stalacmites that would have most certainly impaled him leaving him with death to face. As the branch gave way he landed face first receiving the scar that harry was now noticing...
Ok so my writing skills are pretty poor but what I am getting at is you can describe someone as much as you want but really there are only a few basic things that are important. I prefer to be able to make up all the fine details of a character in my head. _________________
^Sig by Master Patronus^
Now, to her supposedly extraordinary ability to be descriptive in her writing. You actually believe she is a better figurative writer then Ray Bradbury? Let’s see:
Books bombarded Montag’s shoulders, his arms, his upturned face. A book landed, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings fluttering. In the dim wavering light a page hung open and it was like a snowy feather, the words delicately painted thereon. In all the rush and fervor, Montag had only an instant to read a line, but it blazed as if stamped there with fiery steel. – Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
No contest.
Ok, so she may not write as excessively as Ray Bradbury does when describing a character but I get sick of reading crap that really is not needed. I mean she could have written:
He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Harry could make out a scar on his cheek that he received one cold, chilly winter night when racing young Bob, the rising Kid Popularity at his muggle Kindergarten home on his red Tricycle down the daunting, unforgiving Alps. He had received the scar when he hit Black Ice at a substantially high speed that he had never been at on his Trike and lost control sliding over an edge and falling to what surely should have been his doom, however he was snagged by an old, wiry, leafless branch sprouting from a crevice in the face of the mountain just 8 feet above a bunch of stalacmites that would have most certainly impaled him leaving him with death to face. As the branch gave way he landed face first receiving the scar that harry was now noticing...
Ok so my writing skills are pretty poor but what I am getting at is you can describe someone as much as you want but really there are only a few basic things that are important. I prefer to be able to make up all the fine details of a character in my head.
Exactly. She is bad at descriptive writing and unoriginal. I am glad that is cleared up.
I guess I'm just simple, but I like to hear nice basic things in a description, like colour and size. Something that gives me a big picture idea of where I am with reasonable detail. When I hear about a large man with little neck I get the idea.
this amuses me.
you don't like harry potter,
and yet you go on a harry potter fan forum and add the effort of registering and making long posts?
it's really a waste of your life.
go outside or something, alright, bud? _________________ www.theboywholivedd.piczo.com
name: mona
house: gryffindor
wand: 11" cedar, phoenix feather
this amuses me.
you don't like harry potter,
and yet you go on a harry potter fan forum and add the effort of registering and making long posts?
it's really a waste of your life.
go outside or something, alright, bud?
Why are you bothering to talk to someone if you think their thread is a waste? Go make some friends, finish grade school, and stop bothering the rest of us.
Wow way to piss off the masses.
What are you doing, sure it isn’t the greatest or most in depth reading in the world but it is a good series.
And don’t just sign up so you can diss harry potter and piss every one on this forum off
not cool man _________________ Karl Stevanovic is a robot!
Because you are uneducated, in the fourth grade, or, more likely, both and because her book has succeeded in selling on hype alone, not on the merit of her writing.
You obviously think you're so right, yet you're so wrong. I'm neither, buddy. I'm 20 years old and attending a 4 year university. Maybe I've read a book for English that was written by one of those guys, but do I remember it? Obviously not. Why? Probably because the book was completely boring as most books you read for English class are. Yes, you can analyze them all you want, pick out the different themes and motifs and argue about how awesome they are. But none of those books have captured me and my imagination. None of those books inspire into me loyalty, justice, defiance of evil and have made me think about what happens when you take the easy roads in life.
So Rowling doesn't work for you? Great, fine. Not everyone is a fan. My problem is that you come on here.. I asked a simple question as to why I don't know any of those guys, and you insult me. I was hoping for a good discussion on why you don't like Harry Potter.. but it's obvious you just came on here to flame like most idiots do.
Bottom line: look at how popular Harry Potter is. It is obviously a good book. Maybe not one of your favorites, but you cannot argue Rowling's writing sucks when so many other people love it. We all have opinions, but Rowling has accomplished something that very very few authors have. That demands some respect from you, doesn't it? _________________
^ HP Chat & Games
So realist the general consensus is that you are wrong and unless you want another verbal beating from the very articulate Fiendfyre I suggest you leave.
good day _________________ Karl Stevanovic is a robot!
Because you are uneducated, in the fourth grade, or, more likely, both and because her book has succeeded in selling on hype alone, not on the merit of her writing.
You obviously think you're so right, yet you're so wrong. I'm neither, buddy. I'm 20 years old and attending a 4 year university. Maybe I've read a book for English that was written by one of those guys, but do I remember it? Obviously not. Why? Probably because the book was completely boring as most books you read for English class are. Yes, you can analyze them all you want, pick out the different themes and motifs and argue about how awesome they are. But none of those books have captured me and my imagination. None of those books inspire into me loyalty, justice, defiance of evil and have made me think about what happens when you take the easy roads in life.
So Rowling doesn't work for you? Great, fine. Not everyone is a fan. My problem is that you come on here.. I asked a simple question as to why I don't know any of those guys, and you insult me. I was hoping for a good discussion on why you don't like Harry Potter.. but it's obvious you just came on here to flame like most idiots do.
Bottom line: look at how popular Harry Potter is. It is obviously a good book. Maybe not one of your favorites, but you cannot argue Rowling's writing sucks when so many other people love it. We all have opinions, but Rowling has accomplished something that very very few authors have. That demands some respect from you, doesn't it?
If you had bothered to read the whole thread you would find that I have given many reasons why she is a bad writer. Also, you are very obviously a child. If you had ever read anything by any of thse writers (which you undoubtably would have, were you not in grade school) then you would remember them. You are very obviously a child, and should stop denying it.
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Karl Stevanovic is a robot!
