Faking Harry

[tp4tissue]

What do you guys do,  when people start talking about harry-potter.. and you've never read more than the first 12 pages.. ?

Sigh......


It would be disingenuous to read the spark notes..   perhaps these are not the droids i'm looking for.

[sncbraxsc2]

Just ask them why Harry didn't call on the great eagles to fly him into King's Landing in the first place. Could have saved countless mugwumps from the Night King

They are children's books but still worth a read if you can get into that sort of thing

[fohat.digs]

I think that they were excellent. I read them to my kids for their bed time reading, it took over a year.

Why were they not able to correct Harry's vision with magic so that he didn't have to wear glasses any more?

[heedpantsnow]

The writing is not very great but it taps into a deep longing people have to find out that they are someone special

[tp4tissue]

The writing is not very great but it taps into a deep longing people have to find out that they are someone special

U mean like every animu? hahaha

[sncbraxsc2]

I think that they were excellent. I read them to my kids for their bed time reading, it took over a year.

Why were they not able to correct Harry's vision with magic so that he didn't have to wear glasses any more?

Aw such a good dad. I bet you eventually were getting excited for bed time:D Did you go a chapter at a time or something?

With respect to Harry's vision - There are a number of characters in the story that also wear glasses for impaired vision, one that has a hearing trumpet, some wizard diseases (lol) at St. Mungo's that can't be cured overnight with a potion or a spell. Fixing vision may be a modern medicine that they haven't perfected yet or requires some risk/complexity. Healing magic isn't very well defined in the series (like many things) but I guess we assume there are some things magic can't do.

[fohat.digs]

Did you go a chapter at a time or something?

Basically, yes. We spent a year going through the first 6 books, and, as it happened, our timing was immaculate. The last book was coming out 2-3 weeks later, so they had a brief period of eager anticipation, but it was not painfully extended.

After that, we did Lord of the Rings, and that took another year.

[sncbraxsc2]

Did you go a chapter at a time or something?

Basically, yes. We spent a year going through the first 6 books, and, as it happened, our timing was immaculate. The last book was coming out 2-3 weeks later, so they had a brief period of eager anticipation, but it was not painfully extended.

After that, we did Lord of the Rings, and that took another year.

I want to do that for my kids someday. Thats awesome.

When I was younger I loved the Hobbit but had trouble getting into The Fellowship of the Ring so its great you were there to help them with that. The language and background is quite a bit more complicated it reminded me of having to go through the lineage chapters of Genesis in Sunday school 

[fohat.digs]

The language and background is quite a bit more complicated

That's the whole thing. A 5-6-7-8-year old kid can often understand something perfectly well when it is read aloud to him, but his eyes would glaze over if he tried to read it himself. Also, being able to stop and ask questions ensures that nobody is left behind.

[fohat.digs]

Eventually, we ended with LeGuin's Earthsea cycle, and by that time they had pretty much grown out of the "bedtime reading" thing.

And, unfortunately, after being strong readers themselves for a few years, they got "smart phones" and stopped reading dead tree books altogether. Ultimately, that was the tragic heartbreaker for me, because my love of reading is one of the greatest joys of my life.

[sncbraxsc2]

I've never heard of that series until now, it sounds fantastic.

We do live with so many distractions these days. Like macro pictures of little plastic bits that fit on my switches. At least you had that tradition of reading with them that they will hopefully pass on to the next generation. That's an experience that, sadly, too many kids don't get to have! A nightly adventure/escape with Mom and/or Dad... Sad to think some parents can't be bothered to give the time/attention in such important areas.

Its been way too long since I've read a good book. The last few times I tried it seemed I would almost inevitably start to get sleepy. That's another thing I can never seem to catch up on 

Did you end up seeing all the HP and LOTR/Hobbit movies as well? Of course, they're never as good as the books..

[noisyturtle]

Just watch the movies and you'll be fine.

[tp4tissue]

Just watch the movies and you'll be fine.

There are many ways it could be faked..  The deliberation is over whether one SHOULD.

[noisyturtle]

Just watch the movies and you'll be fine.

There are many ways it could be faked..  The deliberation is over whether one SHOULD.

who cares? it's just a fandom. maybe don't hang out with the types of people who obsess over a fandom? idk 

there's this girl at work i cannot stand talking to because she makes every damn conversation about pokemon or dr. who, it's like she decided those are what's going to define her personality and it's really boring. there's a gay guy at work who kinda does the same exact thing and he's a total chore to talk to casually because of it.

[tp4tissue]

Just watch the movies and you'll be fine.

There are many ways it could be faked..  The deliberation is over whether one SHOULD.

who cares? it's just a fandom. maybe don't hang out with the types of people who obsess over a fandom? idk 

there's this girl at work i cannot stand talking to because she makes every damn conversation about pokemon or dr. who, it's like she decided those are what's going to define her personality and it's really boring. there's a gay guy at work who kinda does the same exact thing and he's a total chore to talk to casually because of it.

Dat's wifu material right there,  Ur too picky..  Would you rather haz someone who gives you orders to do the yardwork ?   cuz that's 90% of couples late game

[noisyturtle]

Just watch the movies and you'll be fine.

There are many ways it could be faked..  The deliberation is over whether one SHOULD.

who cares? it's just a fandom. maybe don't hang out with the types of people who obsess over a fandom? idk 

there's this girl at work i cannot stand talking to because she makes every damn conversation about pokemon or dr. who, it's like she decided those are what's going to define her personality and it's really boring. there's a gay guy at work who kinda does the same exact thing and he's a total chore to talk to casually because of it.

Dat's wifu material right there,  Ur too picky..  Would you rather haz someone who gives you orders to do the yardwork ?   cuz that's 90% of couples late game

nah, I'd rather have someone I could get baked with and go cynically tear the new star wars apart with

[Findecanor]

Once thing I love about the Harry Potter books/movies/universe is that it is so wonderfully cosily Victorian but safe. Going all-in at being stereotypical mythical Britain -- the kind of Britain that was, but never actually was.

I think that you can talk about Harry Potter, even proclaim yourself a Harry Potter fan and having only seen the movies. There are different levels of fandom. Just be up-front about it.
While there are small differences between the books and movies, the book author was involved in the movies and they are not separate canon in any way but supposed to be depictions of the same things.
If you want to keep up in a discussion about books, see the movies and then go a crash-course by checking out videos on Youtube about the differences between the books and movies.

[noisyturtle]

Or listen to the novels on audio book at 2 or 3x speed and read them all in a weekend.

[fohat.digs]

While there are small differences between the books and movies,

I would agree that by book-vs-film standards the films were remarkably faithful, but there is the inevitable dropping of characters, sub-plots, and details that really make a difference and flesh out the alternative universe. One of my favorite components was the way that the wizarding universe operated in a proto-steam-punk kind of copper-and-leather realm in contrast to the modern world that it co-habitated and intermingled with.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is the film "Arrival" that hardly even gave a nod to the extraordinary "Story of Your Life" (story and collection) by the wonderful writer Ted Chiang (who has never even published a full-length novel). During the first few minutes of the film I kept saying to my family "This is so much like a great story that I read a few years ago" until it became obvious that it really was the source of the plot, with hardly any advance credit or fanfare at all.