Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
All right. I’ve had it. I can’t read this drivel. I quit. I went an entire year finishing every book I started. I read Ulysses, I finished The Brothers Karamazov in five days, I laughed out loud while finishing up The Odyssey, but I cannot subject myself any longer to the fifth Harry Potter book. Ugh. It’s just such drivel. These are not mythical or magical books at all! They are just school stories and damned petty ones at that. The magic in them isn’t magical, it is mere technology disguised as magic. Manufactured flying brooms? With features that sound like they belong in a car commercial? Dull. Bureaucracy? Seriously? A “Ministry of Magic” with memos and sleazy office politics? It just shows how few kids actually have any taste. I can’t believe these made so much money. For a more complete damning of them read Harold Bloom.
I own The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Order of The Phoenix in hardcover. These books are in great-even gift-shape, perfect really, with nicely Brodarted dustjackets, so if you want them, let me know. If more than one of you wants them I’ll invent some kind of literary duel.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Make sure you take the Brodarted dustjackets off before you give them away.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
…
Huh.
I didn’t realize it was possible not to like Harry Potter!
January 6th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Great article by Bloom!
January 6th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Yes, great article. I confess to enjoying anything that bashes Potter books.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Oooh!!! I want, I want! (I know, I sound like a two-year old).
I already own Order of the Phoenix, so you can give it to someone else, or I will give it to my little brothers. They will like it.
Whee! How exciting!
January 6th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
@Jessica…I know, I know, but I’m special…
@Megan They’re yours. Come and get ‘em. Oh, and the two-year-old sound is more like “uhh uhh” with lots of pointing.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Hmmm, ok I can’t tell for sure so I’m going to ask. I sense a certain derision in your tone toward readers who may have actually enjoyed reading this series. And there seems to be a theme in your project that if you don’t care for what you read, it must not be worth reading. Does your judgement extend to the person who dares to not only read but enjoy those books? I can’t help but get my hackles up a bit because you have gleefully bashed over the last year quite a bit of what I enjoy reading.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:49 am
If you want to discuss the merits of the series, I would be happy to do so.
I do freely judge people’s literary taste on this blog. I also freely judge people’s literary taste in real life. However, someone’s literary taste is not the whole story. I have high literary standards but I have trouble with things like selfishness, fashion sense and punctuation. I know very nice people that I have a lot of respect for, who’s literary taste I look down on (Hi Pam!).
If you care to have my respect for your literary taste then we can talk about what my standards are and whether or not they’re valid. If, on the other hand, you’re content with who and where you are in the book world, there is nothing further to discuss.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Oh, and I did want to add that I try not to condemn books just because “I don’t like them” but examine why I don’t like them and see if that shows a defect in my understanding and taste or if it points to a problem with the book.
Also, any reading is better than no reading.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
“I do freely judge people’s literary taste on this blog. I also freely judge people’s literary taste in real life.”
I judge people by the books they have on their shelves.
January 7th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Good to know whose looking down on me I suppose.
January 7th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Hmmm,
So do you think all standards should go out the window?
January 8th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Considering this is a personal blog, sharing someone’s personal opinion and literary reviews, I would assume that you are free to hold the literature you read up to any standard you like…..
I have no opinion on the Potter books because I haven’t read them- I happen to know that I wouldn’t be able to help but compare the content to that of say, Tolkein or Lewis…. therefore I haven’t even tried….
January 15th, 2009 at 1:58 am
I havn’t read them either or seen the films, as a Christian I’d rather not. Why should I read books about witch craft (good or badly written) just bcz I’m told they’re popular?