Conversation

QC (in Berlin 7/29-???)
@QiaochuYuan
what is there to admire or emulate here? i’ve never heard a single person say out loud that they want to be like harry potter. there’s nothing to be like. harry wins because he’s Special, not because of any exceptional qualities he’s managed to cultivate
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@maybegray
I kinda felt like that was the point Harry’s notoriety is a result of some cosmic fluke, he’s not thoroughly effortlessly exceptional, he’s not obv Good, he doesn’t do much alone & imo the big theme is watching kids grow into the complexity of the adult world & become part of it
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@maybegray
it’s not super special and it looms in psyches largely bc it doesn’t have some big new bold spiritual/moral message (easily digested by basically everyone) but I’ve never understood what the point of all the critiques were - isn’t it a little cynical?
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@maybegray
in general, my experience of Harry Potter as a child definitely wasn’t hollow or meaningless (I was hype af) & if I’m gonna look back with adult eyes at that I would rather look for why it resonated w baby Maybe like that rather than looking for why it shouldn’t have resonated
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@maybegray
that doesn’t mean no critique of Harry Potter has ever seemed fair or worthwhile to me- I see HPMOR as a critique of Harry Potter that takes care to keep the baby and improve the bath water and I friggin loved that shit. That’s the fuckn stuff.
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@maybegray
but the genre as you called it seems to for the most part do very little w their HP critiques- afaict they’re directed at HP fans or at JK Rowling and I can’t relate to that really; there is nothing important to learn wrt how much $ JKR deserves or how inferior some fandoms are
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@maybegray
and in the case of this thread I don’t know I haven’t had coffee yet so I don’t know if this is too blunt I’m sorry but the thread just felt soo interesting and then once it was about HP wasn’t good enough I felt this transition into basicness and I was like nooooo QC go back!!!!
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@maybegray
like “why don’t spiritual leaders engage seriously with media directed at youth” is suuuuuuch a fascinating question that brings up so much for me “why isn’t HP very good?” has been done to death for no good reason and it seems to derail your original thought imho
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@maybegray
I might be being too hard on you. You do make a clear link b/w your train of thought & the idea that HP takes up cultural space but it’s been ~15 y since JKR finished the series, to tell her to shit or get off the pot when she’s been off the pot since 2007 seems to miss something
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@maybegray
ok that’s all I have /end rant, thank you - I know you know you’re the only person on this app I feel close enough to that I feel comfortable challenging your ideas so thank you and ilysm 🤍
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