Blind Not Dumb (Posts about art)

Why Many Hard Core Science Fiction / Fantasy Fans Hate Harry Potter

cpatti — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:53:00 GMT

So, I finally did it. After a nearly non stop marathon reading of the last three books in the series (I wanted to read all the books before I saw the movies, and I'm very glad I did this. As always, the books have way more depth.), I've come to the following conclusions...

Many hard core science fiction and fantasy fans dislike the series, quite simply, because it's not written for us.

I happen to quite like the series, but in order to enjoy it as I have I found it necessary to keep my fanboy hat firmly in its place the entire time.

I could poke a thousand holes in the series, but what it all comes down to is this - it's a totally whimsical universe, devoid of the kind of carefully construed logical frameworks that hard core fantasy and scifi fans clamor for.

Let's take a look at magic just as a for instance. In the Potter-verse, spells are formulaic incantations that produce ambiguous results. Compare and contrast this with something like Jim Butcher's Dresden files, where things like the laws of physics come heavily into play.

In the end, the Harry Potter series isn't primarily about magic, although wizards and witches fill the pages of the book, it's about good (Harry) in the never ending struggle against evil, and the terrible price that those who stand up against evil must pay.

In my humble opinion though, it's a heck of a ride. Very entertaining from start to finish, and in the end analysis couldn't all of us do with a bit of an escape into whimsy once in a while anyway?

While at first blush the series appears to be young adult reading, good only for kids too young to be exposed to the evils of the world, and the first books are indeed very light hearted and very much fairy tale like in nature, but as the series progresses it becomes much, MUCH darker. Evil and its outcome is depicted in much sharper contrast, and death looms around every corner.

I would encourage any hard core fantasy fan who read the first book, said "meh" and walked away to give it another try. Look at it from a different perspective, and just try to enjoy the story for what it is. In the end I predict you will not be disappointed.

Dear Amazon and Penguin - Why Can't You Kids Play Nice?

cpatti — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:01:00 GMT

I received a piece of E-mail from Amazon a few days back apologizing about the fact that my pre-order of the latest Jim Butcher Dresden Files novel had been canceled, offering me a really cheap price on the print edition.

A couple of days and a great deal of "WTF?" later (That's What The French, this being a family friendly blog and all :) I trotted on over to Jim's website and found an explanation.

Essentially, Amazon and Penguin are bickering over the sale price of the book.

I would *happily* pay full hard cover list for the Kindle edition of the newest Dresden novel. Jim Butcher is my favorite urban fantasy author, and when these books come out I get them the very first *instant* I can and then become some sort of literary crack fiend, obsessively trying to find excuses to crawl off into a corner and page flip.

So I guess I'll run down to Porter Square Books and buy the dead tree edition, but this is what I bought my Kindle for!

On the up side, I've been feeling guilty about not supporting my local independent book seller of late, I guess this is an opportunity to put my money where my mouth is and pony up!

This just makes me laugh, and yet it's a damn fine idea.

cpatti — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:27:00 GMT

Using hip hop as a teaching tool for English.

Go take a look at Flocabulary

The piece that actually left me chuckling on this snowy wet morning was this. A Hip hopped up Cliffs Notes version of Romeo and Juliet.

I love the idea - speaking to kids using a medium they're comfortable with. In no way do I think this should replace a full and careful reading with explanations by the teacher, but for some children there's a lot of ground to cover before they're able or ready to be successful in such an endeavor.

Kudos to The Mighty Red Pen for coming up with this. For those who don't read it, I highly recommend it. It's funny and educational - it doesn't get much better than that!