Fiction Books

868 readers

1 users here now

The discussion of fiction books! Please tag spoilers and follow instance rules.

To find more communities on this instance, go to: !411@literature.cafe

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

gabe@literature.cafe

What book that everyone seems to love do you dislike? (literature.cafe)

submitted 7 months ago by gabe@literature.cafe to c/fiction@literature.cafe

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] The1029@literature.cafe 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I've never really thought about it like that, but have to agree with you. Harry is completely devoid of character. As someone who fell in love with reading/fantasy as a result of these books, I loved the wizarding world. I didn't really have any care for Harry, or even much for the story that he's a part of - just the setting, and the other characters.

I wonder if Harry's transparency makes it easy for a young reader to project their own personality onto him, and kind of 'roleplay' their way through the series? I think the fact that the wizarding world is 'bolted onto' reality facilitates this - it feels almost tangible. May explain why nostalgia is so high among this particular group - it was an experience, not just a story.

Does this make Rowling a genius? Or do her books just benefit from the side-effect of her writing a bad MC?

[–] Wooster@startrek.website 1 points 6 months ago

I would argue that offering fans a template goes miles towards to how… sandboxy the series becomes. (For want of a better term)

For Harry Potter, it was the whole academic experience. How you got admitted, the personality tests; things that enable a safe starting point and allow the fans to go in their own direction.

With Kingdom Hearts back in the day, it was Organization OCs with powers and weapons that followed a template. Similar with Steven Universe and minerals and weapons.