Have there ever been any good criticisms of this series?

[RightersBlock]

Does anyone have a very good critical analysis of this series, like an article with merit discussing its faults, strengths and weaknesses? I can't find anything other than a bunch of people nitpicking.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

The Harry Potter stuff rather than anything else she wrote?

 

[Michael Colton]

How would you distinguish between "an article with merit discussing its faults, strengths and weaknesses" versus "nitpicking"?

 

[RightersBlock]

The Harry Potter stuff rather than anything else she wrote?

Yes, the Potter stuff, but only the book series, not the film series. Can't really find anything.

How would you distinguish between "an article with merit discussing its faults, strengths and weaknesses" versus "nitpicking"?

Nitpicking plot details like "magic time travel makes no sense" or "Hagrid should have been kicked off the grounds for having a dragons egg!" are things i'm less interested in. I want something that discusses if Voldemort was a good, well done villain but not with silly reasons like "he has no nose, therefore he is a bad villain" (which was something real that i actually read, lol) or discussing how Harry could be made a better protagonist. Somethingl ike that. Thats the best I can explain it right now.

 

[RightersBlock]

So this thread has made me realize that I have been using the wrong sort of language in my google search. Finally found some. Lets see if any are any good.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

This is how you might start ...
"harry potter" critique -film

https://www.google.ie/search?q="harry+potter"+critique+-film

 

[RightersBlock]

This is how you might start ...
"harry potter" critique -film

https://www.google.ie/search?q="harry potter" critique -film

Thanks

 

[Michael Colton]

Also, 'is Harry Potter just a rewrite of Star Wars' might get some interesting hits as well.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Also, 'is Harry Potter just a rewrite of Star Wars' might get some interesting hits as well.

After taking your suggestion, I found the first chapter of the Christian re-write of Harry Potter. I can't decide if it's a genuine 'fan' fiction project or the brilliant work of a troll. Either way there is a lot of work still to convert.

 

[Brian G Turner]

So this thread has made me realize that I have been using the wrong sort of language in my google search. Finally found some. Lets see if any are any good.

It would be interesting to see what you come up with. I know some writers like to refer to other project notes - ie, Indiana Jones - to get an idea of what the creators were specifically aiming for.

 

[RightersBlock]

Also, 'is Harry Potter just a rewrite of Star Wars' might get some interesting hits as well.

Yeah, i stumbled upon an article discussing that while ago by accident. Pretty interesting. But Star Wars is just a rewrite itself.

It would be interesting to see what you come up with. I know some writers like to refer to other project notes - ie, Indiana Jones - to get an idea of what the creators were specifically aiming for.

http://florida.theorangegrove.org/og/file/1c8115fc-50d1-7dd6-0a2a-6446e33c7437/1/destiny.pdf

 

[Compcat]

I'm curious if anyone's publicly accused her of ripping off Terry Pratchett. Hogwarts seems to parallel the Unseen University pretty closely, and if Equal Rites had a modern setting then it would pretty much be Harry Potter.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I don't think there any similarity other than "Magic". UU also is more like a University and Hogwarts more like a UK Boarding School. UU stories concentrate on the staff. Hogwarts is about the students. UU stories are not serious fantasy and no overarching plot. HP is one over arching plot and quite different themes.

It's more like British school stories + Jill Murphy's Worst Witch + her own "evil supremacist" plot, a touch of Enid Blyton.

It's not really a copy of anything though. Just some stereotypical elements of what I listed.

 

[Compcat]

Well, I have only read the first three Discworld novels so far, so maybe I don't have the best sense of things, but I was really thinking of Equal Rites specifically: Children who are born with magical abilities must leave ordinary society, for both the good of themselves and the non-magic population, to stay at a secretive school and learn the art of wizardry. I can't be the only one who thinks that sounds like Harry Potter. I'm not saying she did borrow the idea, or even necessarily read Pratchett, but I think at the very least it's a noteworthy similarity.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Children who are born with magical abilities must leave ordinary society, for both the good of themselves and the non-magic population, to stay at a secretive school and learn the art of wizardry.

That's a standard trope. Not specifically HP or UU/Discworld

I must have read dozens of books with that background.

Earthsea (Ged /Sparrowhawk at Roke) has it. Terry Pratchett's Discworld and Rowling's Harry Potter is nothing like Earthsea trilogy (other books added later).

Jill Murphy's Worst Witch series.

There are plenty others, some of which I haven't read. Even X-Men Comics. (It's really magic)

Also some Anne McCaffery books, though more commonly Music Talent in the Pern Books (Harper's Hall).

The idea is even in most Ballet books (substitute Ballet for Magic).

If you have people with unusual talents or different they get sent to special schools. Even in the real world!

In the former Soviet Union similar schools were introduced; these sometimes are known as Internat-schools (Russian: Школа-интернат) (from Latin: internus). They varied in their organization. Some schools were a type of specialized school with a specific focus in a particular field or fields such as mathematics, physics, language, science, sports, etc. Other schools were associated with orphanages after which all children enrolled in Internat-school automatically. Also, separate boarding schools were established for children with special needs (schools for blind, for deaf and other). General schools offered "extended stay" programs (Russian: Группа продленного дня) featuring cheap meals for children and preventing them from coming home too early before parents were back from work (education in the Soviet Union was free).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internat

 

[Compcat]

Alright, yeah, that's a good point.

 

[Michael Colton]

The idea is even in most Ballet books (substitute Ballet for Magic).

There are ballet books? Interesting.

And I have never heard Potter compared to Pratchett, though I hear the criticism that she essentially just rewrote Star Wars in a different setting quite often. I wouldn't know because I have not read any of the Potter books or seen the films, but it always pops into my head because of how often I hear people mention it.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I'm curious if anyone's publicly accused her of ripping off Terry Pratchett. Hogwarts seems to parallel the Unseen University pretty closely, and if Equal Rites had a modern setting then it would pretty much be Harry Potter.

When I went through my Pratchett phase in the 80s (I think I got through the first 15) I thought he was very good at 'ripping off' most of the fantasy genre - including specifics relating to particular books.

However he did it in a good way, through humour and adding so much more besides

 

[Ray McCarthy]

though I hear the criticism that she essentially just rewrote Star Wars in a different setting quite often

That's nonsense though.
I've read all the HP books and seen all the films. No comparison really.
Dune and Star Wars are closer (and not really the same, though you COULD argue that the first SW film copied Dune book a little)

I thought he was very good at 'ripping off' most of the fantasy genre

The first two especially. He does a good take off of the Dragon Riders of Pern. In the later books it's more distinctively his only world. The early books give a Mediaeval 14th C & 15th C impression, but later it seem a much more 18th C and 19th C style of world.

There are ballet books?

Very famous.
Noel Streatfeild Ballet Shoes (there are a bunch of famous "Shoe" books)
Lorna Hill "Sadler's Wells" series (she has other series). I have 1 to 11, but missing 5
Jean Estoril "Drina" Series (I'm missing the last two, 10th & 11th). Also the "Ballet Family" books.
Susan Hampshire Lucy Jane at the Ballet
I read them all and loads of English Boarding school stories (Angela Brazil, P.G. Wodehouse, Elinor Brent-dyer, Evelyn Sharp, L.T. Meade, Charlotte Bronte (Professor and Villette), Enid Blyton, Anne Digby, Antonia Forest and a bunch of others 19thC and early 20thC)
I read Tom Brown's Schooldays and Jane Eyre years ago.
(Have a look on Gutenberg, though no Enid Blyton, Anne Digby, Antonia Forest, or Chalet School (Elinor Brent-dyer), Lorna Hill, Noel Streatfeild, Jean Estoril I think)

Yes I know I'm 45 to 50 years too old for most of those books. But I suspect I enjoy them now better than as a kid (I only had read a couple of the Enid Blyton "Mallory Towers" then, and only last year discovered she was simply copying a formula started in 19th C. Though the earliest related books in the Genre are late 18th C!)

Very important research for my Special College. The students HAVE to go. No exit till Journeyman. Not even weekends. My SF stories in fact only have "Magic" so as to justify the existence of the Special College. Also why the Earth Woman leaves with the Aliens.

 

[Michael Colton]

I was not aware that there was a ballet fiction tradition, I shall have to check it out sometime. I rather enjoy ballet.