Anyone up for a round of Calvinball?
- Alan
Rowling has said she is also rather influenced by Wes Craven as well – Both are masters of their style, know how to create a universe well, lead people into the story and hold them there with an iron fist, and sold out the first time they ever picked up their tool of the trade.
Thanks.
If by “selling out” you mean creating something incredibly accessible and popular that millions of people all over the world enjoy, then I suppose Rowling has to put her hands up and plead guilty.
Clearly no punishment imaginable can be severe enough for a villain as heinous as she.
Yeah right, trying to cater to your crowd, that’s selling out all right. Sigh, some people are just full of shit sometimes.
— Alan
Rowling was influenced by Wes Craven? hey thats cool!
etc
Just finished the 4th book minutes ago, and agree with Loyd on all counts. And I’m not just saying that to kiss his butt cuz he rebuilt my PC for me.
I think she’s actually getting better with each book, with characters getting much more fleshed out and developing more complex relationships with each other. Another thing not mentioned often is that she is a very funny writer with a good ear and a bit of a bite to her–which is where I think some of the Roald Dahl comparisons come from. I have read a lot of my daughter’s books over the years, and these do stand out to me as NOT trying to talk down, or dumb things down, or be overly sweet or preachy.
And those who say they hate or don’t “get” Harry Potter but have only seen the movies–the movies don’t do the books justice. Yes, Alan Rickman is great (as always), and Kenneth Branagh was superb in movie 2, but I think in general the movies completely whiff on the tone–putting in the treacly stuff that Rowling really doesn’t do in the books.
My local Borders had a midnight opening for Harry Potter. I had preordered the book in early March, so I went down at 11:30 PM Friday night with my daughter to pick it up. There were over 600 people already in line when I got there, many of whom hadn’t preordered at all. I was number 618 (they handed out tickets). I would estimate that by 1 AM there were about 1,000 people there. They only had four registers open; it was a gong show. I asked if I could just come back to pick up my copy the next morning as I had preordered it, and I was told that there probably wouldn’t be any books left by then but that I could wait for the next order to come in the following Tuesday. That wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but why did I bother to preorder, anyway? I did wind up taking my daughter back home at about 1:30 AM, as they were only ringing up # 203 at that point.
This morning at 9 AM, where did I go? I took a shot in the dark and went to Waldenbooks at the local mall, which had opened at 7 AM, had no lines whatsoever, and had plenty of extra Harry Potter books. Crazy, huh? And both Waldenbooks and Borders are really the same company!
PS/ If you buy your child Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (Waldenbooks had them), be forewarned: They really do taste like what they say they are (vomit, spinach, black pepper, etc.).
We just got back from Cody’s Books in Berkeley, where they had opened at 8 a.m. to sell the book. (Added incentive for parents: free Peets coffee.) There was a steady stream of kids coming in to pick up preorders (like us) but no real scene whatsoever. They had plenty of copies for non-preorders as well. The most memorable visual was a guy, mid-30ish, sitting on the curb outside the store, reading the book very intently, out loud, to someone on a cell phone.
Gonna be a quiet day at the Green house now, as the kid is plopped on the couch, book in hand, with no intention of moving all day.
Yay!
Heh. I can just see you… “Let me try this vomit… Gah. Patewie!”
Holy fucking shit, the Tattered Cover was a madhouse, a madhouse! My son & I got there a little after 10 pm. The main floor was already packed - it wasn’t easy to find a place to stand without making a very close friend. They had put tape on the floor indicating lines for the books, cafe counter, and stuff, but there were too many people to see what was written on the tape or where each line lead.
We heard most of the kid stuff was downstairs (the only special stuff on the main floor was some wizard-y menu items at the cafe. It was so hot inside that it sounded great, but the line looked at least 30 minutes long). The stairway down was packed with people waiting to move going up and down. We made our way onto an overcrowded elevator after a 10 minute wait and managed to push out. The lower floor was possibly more crowded. They had activities to make a wand, toss a golden snitch through a hole, play Wizard’s Chess (all slots already booked through the last 12:40 slot), take a picture posed on a broom with a sky background. Everything had huge lines. It was also pretty cheesy, it reminded me of the little carnivals that kids would make themselves when I was in 3rd grade.
Had a fire marshal showed up and not been handsomely paid off, he would have had to have shut the place down. There’s no way those floors can legally host hundreds of people each. Seriously, I kept an eye on the fire exits the whole time. If someone had set off a smoke bomb, I think people would have died. As I said, it was uncomfortably hot almost everywhere because of the overcrowding. I was wearing shorts & a t-shirt, and it was probably 60 degrees outside. My son had a full length Quidditch cape and Gryffindor scarf with a t-shirt and long pants. He got many compliments on his costume while we were there, but I can’t imagine how he kept it on.
My wife & son had heard that the local grocery store was also going to be selling the book. As there was no chance we’d be getting a book before 1am (and 2am was entirely possible - it looked like there were only 4 registers here too), we decided to bail and head for the grocery. On the way is a big Barnes & Noble that we tried to scope out as we passed. It’s very far from the road, but its big parking lot was jam packed.
As we pulled up to the grocery store, it was clear that the only people there were employees and a handful of customers with the munchies. For a while, I was worried that they were not going to be selling books. I asked my son what they had seen that told them that, and he said they hadn’t seen anything. He’d heard from friends at school that this grocery store would be selling at midnight. So I find the one employee monitoring the 4 self-checkout lanes and he says yes, they will start selling at midnight, and he’s the one to bring them out.
I had taken a few pictures at the Tattered Cover, including one of the Mass of Humanity, so I took a bunch of contrasting pictures here - the completely empty aisles, the small Harry Potter display with no one else in sight. We meandered around for a half hour picking up snacks for the expected late night, and literally just one minute before midnight, a small group of about 5 people collected at the HP display. Not only did we get & pay for the book by 12:01, but it was discounted 40% (to $18).
When we got home, my son (who had read about 8 pages on the way home) was very excited and my wife and younger son were still up. He started reading again at about 1 and fell asleep with his head literally in the book on page 50. This morning he’s watching freaking Yu-Gi-Oh cartoons instead of reading the book! I am surprised.
[size=2]Edited stupid smiley conversion of “8)”[/size]
Thank you Amazon! Book showed up on our doorstep this morning. No fanfare. Now I just have to wait for my wife to finish reading it.
Ahem! She dared me, do you understand? I was dared to do it!
Even my daughter spit that one out in a hurry.
[size=2]Actually, the spinach one wasn’t half bad. Um, especially when eaten with the pepper one.[/size]
Yet damn if they don’t draw you in somehow.
I realize it’s too late for those of you with pre-orders and kids, but my wife and I picked up our copy at Sam’s Club today for $15. They had a couple of pallets of books right at the entrance, but they were thinning out fast. One guy got on his cell phone and called home, then bought three copies for his kids so there wouldn’t be any fighting. If you want to save around 50% off of the cover price (and you already have the $35 Sam’s Club membership) you can probably get it there.
Heh—my kid and I made this morning’s SF Chronicle over yesterday’s Pottermania. The kid (the redhead) gets a photo, as does that guy I mentioned earlier reading the book over his cell phone. Extra added bonus: free plug for some dumb gaming magazine!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/22/BA127503.DTL
I was just reading the paper and thought…hmm, wonder if that’s the cell-phone guy Jeff Green mentioned. And it was! Cool.
Finished OOTP, and enjoyed it immensely. Harry’s much more realistic with his teen angst. The “someone dies” didn’t bother me at all (even though I knew in advance) – never really liked that person anyway.
Stayed up way too late reading last night & also finished the book. I’d been worried that Rowling would be guilty of having the market cornered & write too much that would need to be heavily edited (Laurell K Hamilton is really guilty of this - latest book should have started on page 200…) but it was on a par with Bk 4 in terms of flow of story…
I absolutely adore anything that gets kids reading - and a friend of ours who doesn’t read got into the books and has read them all now.
My problem with the movies is that I can’t read the books without picturing some of the actors now :(
I also love Pratchett, but really couldn’t see the comparison - and humor is so much more subjective… I think Potter appeals to almost everyone, but for Pratchett you’ve got to have a broader historical/intellectual/cultural background. Wyrd Sisters isn’t as funny if you don’t know Macbeth, for instance. And if my husband wasn’t a Blues Brother’s fan, I don’t know that I’d have enjoyed Soul Music as much as I did.
And wouldn’t it be great if kids reading Harry Potter then went back for more books and found Pratchett?
Except they won’t.
Harry Potter has made kids want only one thing: Harry Potter. Harry Potter is basically Star Wars for those too unhip and uncool to like Star Wars, and that takes a lot of work. When I see all the parents line up and wait for Harry Potter, one thing comes to mind: These guys missed the pop-culture gravy train.
I’m sorry, but Rowling is only writing the exact same stuff over and over again. Regardless of whether I like the books or not, she is is a hack. She cannot, and will not, experiment or be different in one book. Each book features the exact same linear storyline, with the exact same characters, with the exact same boring sense of humor. How many times has Voldemort died and come back (or some variation thereof)? Please, Rowling is just trying to pass off vomit as beef stew – she couldn’t write a decent novel if she tried.
Like it for all I care. Just admit that the woman is a hack and I’ll be happy. Unlike the Good Mr. Rucker ™, I’m not trying to convince you to have an opinion on the book itself, I’m trying to convince you to have an opinion on the woman herself. And that opinion is that she doesn’t deserve to sit in the pile of shit that comes out the ass of Stephen King on a yearly basis. He’s infinitely more entertaining, fun, insert adjective here, than Rowling will ever be. And I fucking loathe Stephen fucking King.
Edit: Oh, and do you know why the movies follow the book scene for scene? BECAUSE KIDS WOULD BE UP IN FUCKING ARMS SCREAMING IF THEY CHANGED ON FUCKING THING, BECAUSE KIDS ARE KIDS. Jesus Christ, they’re not trying to be faithful, they’re trying to buttfuck an asshole made of gold and stripmine it for all they’re worth.
Don’t mince words, Met_K, tell us what you really think!
Oh, and do you know why the movies follow the book scene for scene? BECAUSE KIDS WOULD BE UP IN FUCKING ARMS SCREAMING IF THEY CHANGED ON FUCKING THING, BECAUSE KIDS ARE KIDS. Jesus Christ, they’re not trying to be faithful, they’re trying to buttfuck an asshole made of gold and stripmine it for all they’re worth.
Actually, you know why the movies are so faithful to the books? They have to be. You see, she’s not done writing them and for those who have read the books, you’d know that she’s woven a lot of stuff into the earlier ones that don’t really become important until the later ones. Scabbers comes to mind. If the film makers leave something out or alter the characters too much or omit one they think might not be important, it’ll bite them in the ass down the road. They’ll be forced to play catch-up and each subsequent movie will fall further and further away from the source materiel.
It sound to me like you just don’t want anyone to get any kind of enjoyment out of the books. And that’s just sad.