Lex
Administrator
EDIT: JK Rowling is transphobic. This thread is many years old and the opinions expressed herein were expressed prior to the author letting her ass hang out.
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Why hello.
I'm re-reading the series and I thought it would be fun to get some perspectives on the books from you guys, since Pottermania occurred long before my time here on TLS.
I did a search but all other HP discussion threads are either closed due to length or too specific ("JK Rowling writes new shit, JK Rowling farts" etc.) so here's a new one that will probably die immediately but I'm hoping to generate some discussion.
I've been a fan from the very beginning - books over movies naturally, but I was a big enough fan of the novels when I was 11 that my parents managed to score tickets to the worldwide premier of Philosopher's Stone in Edinburgh where I met J.K. Rowling and Christopher Columbus as well as saw the trio, all of them came in to the movie theatre to introduce the first film to the audience and I had my copy of Philosopher's Stone signed.
I followed quite a lot of HP fandom online pre-TLS and spent time listening to Mugglenet's and The Leaky Cauldron's podcasts - I also spent time on Leaky's forums reading theories. Sadly these forums are gone, and I honestly thought they'd outlive a lot of other old boards because the member base was so damn huge (I'm sure it was called the Leaky Lounge).
Anyway I was obsessed. I'd live on these sites between books formulating theories with others and coming up with my own. I remember realising while reading book 6 that
to see this posted on mugglenet and they had a vote and only 20% of people believed it was possible and something like 20,000 people voted XD. I think JK did a really good job of keeping her mouth shut in interviews but giving subtle hints about where to find clues, and it made re-reading the books really fun for tiny bits of dialogue (usually from Dumbledore) that became ridiculously important in the last two books.
I find it hard to pick a favourite from the books - Order of the Phoenix, Azkaban and Deathly Hallows are definitely up there. Goblet of Fire to me really feels like an awkward middle-child (which is appropriate given its place in the series) but I still prefer that to both Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. I should probably just say I prefer 3, 5, 6 and 7 to the rest but I do enjoy reading them all.
I'm not too keen on the movies. The first two were pretty much bang on and so were the Deathly Hallows adaptations, but the rest suffered from some weirdness that I couldn't manage to ignore. The main problem for me was Dumbledore. Richard Harris was absolute perfection and he sadly died before Azkaban was filmed then Michael Gambon popped up and destroyed the character. He improved in later movies sure but he did things in Azkaban and Goblet of Fire that were so completely off the mark for Dumbledore's character that I found it completely ruined my enjoyment of the movies. Even in the films that I thought were well done there were things I didn't like, such as in Philosopher's Stone "watch out for the stairs, they like to change". Um no they fucking don't, that's not a line in the first book and there's absolutely no need for it to be in this movie. NEEDLESS ADDITIONS.
Anyway I'd like to discuss the series, currently reading Goblet of Fire again (they're just about to pop back to Hogwarts) - favourite moments, favourite book, favourite movie or whatever, the choice is up to you guys and I hope you'll keep the thread going for a bit XD.
I leave you all with this, which is awesome:
--------------
Why hello.
I'm re-reading the series and I thought it would be fun to get some perspectives on the books from you guys, since Pottermania occurred long before my time here on TLS.
I did a search but all other HP discussion threads are either closed due to length or too specific ("JK Rowling writes new shit, JK Rowling farts" etc.) so here's a new one that will probably die immediately but I'm hoping to generate some discussion.
I've been a fan from the very beginning - books over movies naturally, but I was a big enough fan of the novels when I was 11 that my parents managed to score tickets to the worldwide premier of Philosopher's Stone in Edinburgh where I met J.K. Rowling and Christopher Columbus as well as saw the trio, all of them came in to the movie theatre to introduce the first film to the audience and I had my copy of Philosopher's Stone signed.
I followed quite a lot of HP fandom online pre-TLS and spent time listening to Mugglenet's and The Leaky Cauldron's podcasts - I also spent time on Leaky's forums reading theories. Sadly these forums are gone, and I honestly thought they'd outlive a lot of other old boards because the member base was so damn huge (I'm sure it was called the Leaky Lounge).
Anyway I was obsessed. I'd live on these sites between books formulating theories with others and coming up with my own. I remember realising while reading book 6 that
Harry was a Horcrux
I find it hard to pick a favourite from the books - Order of the Phoenix, Azkaban and Deathly Hallows are definitely up there. Goblet of Fire to me really feels like an awkward middle-child (which is appropriate given its place in the series) but I still prefer that to both Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. I should probably just say I prefer 3, 5, 6 and 7 to the rest but I do enjoy reading them all.
I'm not too keen on the movies. The first two were pretty much bang on and so were the Deathly Hallows adaptations, but the rest suffered from some weirdness that I couldn't manage to ignore. The main problem for me was Dumbledore. Richard Harris was absolute perfection and he sadly died before Azkaban was filmed then Michael Gambon popped up and destroyed the character. He improved in later movies sure but he did things in Azkaban and Goblet of Fire that were so completely off the mark for Dumbledore's character that I found it completely ruined my enjoyment of the movies. Even in the films that I thought were well done there were things I didn't like, such as in Philosopher's Stone "watch out for the stairs, they like to change". Um no they fucking don't, that's not a line in the first book and there's absolutely no need for it to be in this movie. NEEDLESS ADDITIONS.
Anyway I'd like to discuss the series, currently reading Goblet of Fire again (they're just about to pop back to Hogwarts) - favourite moments, favourite book, favourite movie or whatever, the choice is up to you guys and I hope you'll keep the thread going for a bit XD.
I leave you all with this, which is awesome:
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