• Blakey [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    I keep seeing people talk about her “exceptional talent” (it’s a shame she sucks because she’s so talented!!!) and I’m just like… You have literally never read any other literature, have you? I get the appeal of HP and that you love it but the writing is, just, fine. At best, it’s… Fine. It’s written for kids and it reads that way. She composes competent prose and came up with a passably engaging but not particularly novel story. It’s more fun to read than say an article in an academic journal but most things are.

    I am once again begging liberals to read another book.

    • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      5 days ago

      Also it’s a series of novels that make no sense if you look hard at it (e.g. time turners) and condone slavery, fat-shame a child, have names for minorities that are Hitlerian in their level of racism, and on and on . . .

      • Blakey [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        5 days ago

        Oh, absolutely. I have a mile high stack of problems with the books but I think I only ever read the first one (I’m about 5 or 6 years too old for it) and I just saw someone talking about her “talent” recently

    • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      5 days ago

      That’s kind of the thing, though. It’s hard to thread the needle and produce something that’s just mediocre enough to have mass appeal while still not being completely terrible, and the people who do largely do it by accident because they’re fuzzy on what people actually find appealing about their work. A Wizard of Earthsea is a way better book than Harry Potter and it’s not like Ursula K. LeGuin didn’t earn respect and acclaim in her lifetime, but it didn’t lead to a generational media juggernaut because it’s not merchandisable. JKR is exceptionally unexceptional and that’s exactly why she spends her time having twitter fights instead of breeding dancing llamas or winning krav maga tournaments.

      • Blakey [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        5 days ago

        That’s an interesting point. I’ve recently been reading “the dispossessed” (nearly done!) and it’s a reminder that damn, le Guin really was a great writer.