THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Mandark on December 03, 2007, 02:36:09 AM
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Read it this weekend. Approximate conversation on returning it to its owner:
Me: Well, it could have lost 250 pages in the middle, where they're in the woods.
Book Owner: Yeah.
Me: And the characters really grated on me. At least she kind of acknowledged that, when Dumbledore tells Harry he's one of the most selfish people he's ever met.
BO: Actually, the line was "most selfless"
Me: What!?
BO: Yeah, I double-checked it when I read it.
Me: Bollocks.
FIN
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But Daniel Radcliffe is so hot.
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yeah, it was pretty wretched.
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Never read any. A friend dragged me to the latest film and it was the longest, most boring piece of shit I've ever fallen asleep watching.
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Amazing book. Made me laugh, made me cry, and most important of all satisfied me as a fan of the series.
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Things Rowling is apparently bad at:
World building.
Creating likable characters.
Constructing mysteries that don't use Agatha Christie-style explanations as a crutch.
Pacing.
Constructing mysteries that don't hinge on Agatha Christie-style withholding of evidence from the reader.
Anything besides adolescent wish-fulfillment.
Need new light reading. I got a couple of used Dresden Files paperbacks, and I couldn't finish the second one. And I once read a dozen Spencer books over a week, so I have a high tolerance for mass-produced detective stuff. Jim Butcher writes like an award-winning fanfic author.
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I think maybe you're a little harsh on Rowling, but she is pretty awful at creating likable characters. You hit the nail on the head - overgrown man children like Phoenix Dark get so caught up in the adolescent wish fulfillment aspect of this series that they overlook the fact that the titular character is a pompous jackass.
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i'm gonna re-read stephen r donaldson's "mordant's need" pair of fantasy novels here. i just read through gene wolfe's new sun quadrology and still have a hankerin' for highbrow fantasy, if there is such a thing.
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I had to do an essay on the "gay dumbledore gimmick" fiasco (my teacher knows that it's rowling being an idiot) and I got to do the whole essay on how the gay community would be pissed off on it (that was bs as far as I know) but I had to watch some of the most unbearable youtube videos of fans jerking off on rowling and 19 year old man-baby's whimpering at every word in this dumbfuck children's book. here's one of the good videos:
[youtube=425,350]K5tH41XhgZc[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5tH41XhgZc
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Harry started off as sort of a blank, and Rowling built up sympathy for him by making his childhood so miserable. Which would be a cheap trick, but it's a kid's book so no problems.
But as the books go on and he gets older and he meets allies and gets fans and wins stuff, etc, he doesn't develop into a character in his own right. And he no longer has the helplessness of his earlier situation to justify his continued whinging.
Back in my day, I had Lloyd Alexander for my coming-of-age stories. The Black Cauldron and Westmark books actually had their main characters get their act together.
I'm gonna read some old spy books.
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Need new light reading. I got a couple of used Dresden Files paperbacks, and I couldn't finish the second one. And I once read a dozen Spencer books over a week, so I have a high tolerance for mass-produced detective stuff. Jim Butcher writes like an award-winning fanfic author.
Do you like Lawrence Block? He's a good mystery writer, I recommend you check out his stuff.