Why is HP so famous? (1 Viewer)

[Grey Council]

Im extremely sorry, please do not get offended if you love the HP series. But im stumped as to why its so famous. I mean, yeah, its good. But its not GREAT. It doesnt approach the boundary of astonishingly, mind bogglingly stunning good book. Once again, this is not a personal attack on anyone, or an attack of Harry Potter. Im just curious, can someone please explain to me WHY harry potter is so damn famous? I personally think that the millions of dollars Hollywood has spent might have something to do with it.

I can clarify. If you have read the Wizard of Earthsea, you will know that it beats any of the Harry Potter books handsdown. For one, the magic 'system' is much better. I mean, Harry Potter has no real Magic system. You hafta learn spells that are derived from Latin. And big wizards cant do anything, can they? And there is like 4 curses that can kill. i mean, seriously, how hard can it be to kill someone with magic? guh, burn em, burst their head, conjure a dragon, chop their head with vines, strangle em, GOD! 4 spells? seriously, i dont understand why its so darn famous.

lol, please do not get worked up. If this offends, ignore this post.

 

[s2ophie]

well in my opinion Harry Potter is GREAT. that doesn't mean it is the best book I have ever read and I haven't read the other series you speak of but Harry Potter does have a lot going for it.

1. The books are enjoyable. As much as I enjoy reading more difficult and challenging stories, its great to be swept away in the story and it is a story that you don't have to overly exert yourself in understanding. It is a relaxing read

2. If you do take the time to read deeper in the book you can be rewarded. I think the concept of the serial appeals to so many people because they can anticipate what will happen in the future books through clues in the earlier books.

3. You cannot diminish what J.K Rowling has done for reading and the general population. Single handedly, she has turned a lot of kids towards reading. Again the simplicity but parallel brilliance of her books is that a 7 year old can enjoy them equally as much as a 88 year old.

4. I think you are wrong in saying that the Hollywood millions have contributed to the popularity of HP. BUT HP was HUGE even before WB bought the rights. I and many others i know (young and old) greatly anticipated the release of the first movie (only to be sadly disappointed.) Even so, the movies have most obvioulsy contributed to HP popularity but the series would have been popular even if the movies hadn't been made.

I could probably go on but I would be going in circles!

 

[Grey Council]

hehe, i fully understand everything you said.
I agree with your first point
I agree with your second point, but HP is not really that deep. I can name a dozen books off the top of my head that are much deeper.
I FULLY agree with your third point. absolutely agree, i am quite pleased with Rowling for doing that.
OO k, your fourth point i didnt know, but ok, its fair enough i guess.

The thing is, i still do not understand WHY it is so darn famous. lol. I mean, WHY is it that so many young people have started to read it? I guess its a valid point that people of all ages enjoy it, but i dont understand WHY people of all ages enjoy it. I know people who have never read a book in their life, but they read Harry Potter and think its simply superb. What they dont know is that there are heaps of other books that are a better read. But they dont try them. LOL, funny innit? Im going in circles. WHY IS HP SO FAMOUS? lol, im confused as hell. ah well, maybe its one of those mysteries of life.

 

[Butterfly_Wings]

I think they appeal to all ages cos they are fantasy, yet intelligently written...enough so that adults can enjoy them, and have a little trip down memory lane. While most childrens books sorta patronise their readers, so adults wouldn't want to read them. And as for kids-I guess they are just enjoyable and they like the characters...? Although I wonder how little kids can bring themselves to sit down and read such giant books! Even I get turned off by the size!
Why are they SO popular? I dunno...but I must say it is a refreshing change than most of the popular stuff these days.

 

[Grey Council]

But thats the thing! Most nearly everything you said, my friend, is TRUE. However, what im saying is there are books that are better written than Harry Potter, in a more intelligent manner, are simple, the world thats built is more complex yet paradoxically perhaps easier to understand than HP.

Take for example "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula Le Guin. I read it in year 6, so i s'pose its for a young audience. The way magic works in Earthsea is fascinating, mature yet easy to understand. IMHO, Rowling took several elements out of this series and put them into HP. For example, does a huge castle like compound thats a school seem familiar? And this school has heaps of different classes (subjects have same names, from memory), inside school everyone is safe (harry safe from Voldemort, same in A Wizard of Earthsea), the headmaster is an old, wise and VERY powerful wizard who takes a liking to the new student, etc. I mean, you can argue that heaps of books are like this, but you have to read it to see the similarities.

The difference? A Wizard of Earthsea is much more mature, more realistic (lol, its a fantasy world, but its easier to imagine, imho. HP's magic system has me pretty ticked off, makes no sense and so many young readers are getting used to it. :S ) and WAY better written.

Hehe, that was a personal opinion comparison of two very similar books. I mean there are other books that I reckon are better written than HP, which arent anywhere NEAR as famous as HP, even though HP is a bit too big for a teenage novel. Im surprised that it doesnt daunt new readers. lol

once again, WHY is HP so ruddy famous? It is not THAT good, there are several series better in most nearly every way. hehe, again, no offense intended to anyone. Feel free to critique what i say/have said.

 

[Butterfly_Wings]

Originally posted by mweep
But thats the thing! Most nearly everything you said, my friend, is TRUE. However, what im saying is there are books that are better written than Harry Potter, in a more intelligent manner, are simple, the world thats built is more complex yet paradoxically perhaps easier to understand than HP.

Take for example "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula Le Guin. I read it in year 6, so i s'pose its for a young audience. The way magic works in Earthsea is fascinating, mature yet easy to understand. IMHO, Rowling took several elements out of this series and put them into HP. For example, does a huge castle like compound thats a school seem familiar? And this school has heaps of different classes (subjects have same names, from memory), inside school everyone is safe (harry safe from Voldemort, same in A Wizard of Earthsea), the headmaster is an old, wise and VERY powerful wizard who takes a liking to the new student, etc. I mean, you can argue that heaps of books are like this, but you have to read it to see the similarities.

The difference? A Wizard of Earthsea is much more mature, more realistic (lol, its a fantasy world, but its easier to imagine, imho. HP's magic system has me pretty ticked off, makes no sense and so many young readers are getting used to it. :S ) and WAY better written.

Hehe, that was a personal opinion comparison of two very similar books. I mean there are other books that I reckon are better written than HP, which arent anywhere NEAR as famous as HP, even though HP is a bit too big for a teenage novel. Im surprised that it doesnt daunt new readers. lol

once again, WHY is HP so ruddy famous? It is not THAT good, there are several series better in most nearly every way. hehe, again, no offense intended to anyone. Feel free to critique what i say/have said.

Well, I haven't read the other books in question, but there are several possibilities...maybe the characters in Harry Potter are more appealing? Maybe it is more fast paced? Maybe it just reads easier?
Or maybe...it's just good old fashioned luck and timing that Harry Potter took off.

 

[Grey Council]

Ehehe, i've half thought :

Or maybe...it's just good old fashioned luck and timing that Harry Potter took off.

and the other half that Hollywood had something to do with it. As the Hollywood theory has been negated by s2ophie.

heh, ah well. Its a decent enough series, I suppose.

 

[Newbie]

personally i think your comparison is a bit off
i hated earthsea, forced to read it for year 7 english
jed? ged? total shitfuck

harry potter is famous for its ability to pull kids away from video games and i saw that first hand when my brother chose the order of the pheonix over a visit to EB

 

[Grey Council]

lol, i s'pose thats your opinion. fair enough i s'pose. Its my taste thats wrong then. ah well.

 

[Newbie]

earthsea is supposedly one of the top fantasy books ever but yeah
being forced to read it at school kinda takes away the fun

 

[pigs_can_fly]

i thought it was pretty cool, actually read the whole series

ahhh, the days when i was a young, naive little boy

 

[~ForAGoodCause~]

hehe i havent read any harry potter books, and not planning to anytime soon,
I have read that earthsea book, ok maybe just half read bcos it was boring lol, but thats probably just bcos i dont like fantasy..

 

[Grey Council]

Let me tell you something. The author of "A Wizard of Earthsea" has won SO many best book of the year awards, its not funny. BUT, her style of writing seems to disagree with some people. However, if you stick to reading the book, you'll be rewarded.

Hrm, i think very young people wouldnt like it, cause of style. ah well, thats my opinion anyway.

Heheh, i own all the HP books, but not a single earthsea series.

 

[kokeshi]

Originally posted by mweep
Heheh, i own all the HP books, but not a single earthsea series.

I read 'A Wizard of Earthsea' in seventh grade and I didn't like it much. I don't know. I found it a little bland at the time and the fact that we had to do it for school didn't make it any easier.

Rowling borrowed lots of elements from other sources and fused them together.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/lrb/articles/0,6109,135352,00.html

I enjoy reading Harry Potter because it's engrossing, entertaining and not too 'heavy'. I agree it's not the best book ever written. As s2ophie has said, it doesn't require too much of an effort in order to understand the book. It's light and easy.

 

[Grey Council]

Hrm, Nice article. Its explained everything. Thanks Kokeshi, you posted an awesome response.

 

[Generator]

It's a childrens book that anyone can enjoy (which is sad when you consider how many other books exist for older readers). Maybe that has something to do with it?

I believe that she has nothing on Roald Dahl or Paul Jennings for that general age group, but that's just me.

 

[Grey Council]

hehe, true true. heehee, its a good book that people enjoy. Most of the people who read for the first time didnt know that fiction could be that good, so they assume that its just Harry Potter that is awesome, the rest of the books are as boring as the books they do at school. heehe, i reckon thats true, from what i've seen from friends anyway.

BTW, has anyone here read "the silver dagger"? i think thats what it was, I did it for school in year 6. Awesome book.

 

[PaleReflection]

I, myself, am an avid fan of Harry Potter so my opinion is somewhat biased!
However, I was reading a book today before I had to take it back to the library; it concentrated on the Harry Potter series and why it is so successful.
I didn't get to read much because I only had about half an hour, but from what I read it explained that the series' success is due to many things, one being the fact that Rowling paces it out in just the right way to build up anticipation, but not too quickly; another being small and, upon the first time reading, seemingly insignificant details you come across, become important later on which encourages re-reading. It gave the example of in the first chapter of Philosopher's Stone when Hagrid mentions that 'young Sirius Black' lent him the motorcycle; although we take no notice of this name the first time, book three revolves mainly aroun him.

In my opinion however, the popularity is due to the things mentioned above aswell as many more. The characters are extremely likeable, and it just seems that Rowling's style of writing is enjoyable to read. Readers are drawn into the books' magical world, and although I have not read the other book you mentioned, I just enjoy coming back to Hogwarts each year as much as Harry does.
I agree with your point about how there are many other books out there which are just as, if not more, enjoyable.
However, I disagree when you say its success is due largely due to Hollywood marketing. s2ophie is right, Harry Potter had a HUGE following, long, long before rights were bought for the movies to be made which, in my opinion, were a huge let-down.
There are other books which may be as good as Harry, but none seem to have the magic of Harry's series, which is why I think it has been so successful.

 

[Grey Council]

fair enough.

However, Marion Zimmer Bradley, when giving tips on writing a story said this (more or less):
Amateur stories fail because the main character(s) is/are not likable enough.

So the continually repeated point that Harry Potter's characters are really likeable is not really a valid one: EVERY book which has been semi-successful has had likable characters.

About pacing, I dont really have any quotes on this, but good books are paced well.

And the minor details which lead to much more, there are quite a few authors which do this. In fact, one author in particular comes to my mind: Janny Wurts. Janny Wurts includes SO many small bits here and there, its amazing. The reason? So that you can reread her books many many times. And everytime you reread a book, its a whole new experience, cause you notice something which links with something that'll happen later on that you hadnt noticed before. hehe, hope that makes sense. I s'pose many authors do that, so Rowling isnt really unique in this aspect.

I've come to the following conclusion:
I have read so many books that, when I read Harry Potter, it didnt really stand out. Its just me, not anyone else. heheh, ah well. I mean, i enjoyed reading the books, heck I OWN the series. But then, I should say that my sister owns the series, cause I've bought a very few amount of books.

But an interesting and well thought out response, Pale. I enjoyed reading it.

 

[bubz :D]

i absolutely adore harry potter, so yeah i agree with PaleReflection, i guess i'm biased lol. pretty much everything's already been said LOL but i'll just say what i want to say.

i myself was extremely skeptical about the books. my sister [six years younger than me] raved on and on about them, and she was reading the fourth book, and harrassing me to do the same. i was like, "yeah yeah whatever, they're just kids books".

she dragged me along to see the movie with her. i thought i was pretty good, so i finally decided to pick up book1 and see what all the fuss was about. and then i was hooked.

to be honest, i really can't explain why i love the books. but i can tell you that anyone can love them. five year olds, fifteen year olds, fifty year olds. JKR puts in little things that young kids may not fully understand, but adults can laugh knowingly. you can see how much effort JKR put into the books when you find out the little things - like how she researched names for some of the characters. for example, dumbledore means "bumblebee" in old english, and JKR said that she imagines dumbledore to hum to himself a lot. and argus was a creature in greek mythology with 100 eyes [argus filch is the creepy, watchful caretaker of hogwarts]. the magical world JKR has created... i can't explain it, it's just amazing. the way she can put humour, tragedy, teenage angst into the series, as well as a well thought-out plot throughout all the books [after readng them countless times, you notice things XD].... you get lost inside the places she talks about, the things harry etc go through, and it just seems so REAL.

i've never read any series that's made me laugh, cry, get so frustrated that i yell abuse at my computer, and use my imagination so much. oh, and even though i saw the movie first, it DEFINITELY wasn't as good as the book and yeah, the films & merchandise etc have helped, but the books were already extremely famous before the movies came out

[ok, my english skills have COMPLETELY deteriorated since october 22nd]

<3