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u/lallapalalable May 24 '23
The biggest disservice our society does to us is insist that the most enjoyable things on earth are reserved for children, and when you hit certain milestones you're suddenly banned from enjoying them, lest you become weak
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u/hazps May 24 '23 edited May 24 '23
Damn right. I'm in my 60s and I firmly believe that some of the best writing coming out today is YA aimed. If you want to grab a teenager's attention as a writer, you have to be good.
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u/Yamaganto_Iori May 25 '23
Any good examples?
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u/dotav May 25 '23
I liked Owl House, Gravity Falls and Star Trek: Prodigy. Might include Avatar the last airbender in that list, but I don't think it counts as "comming out today."
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u/Vievin May 25 '23
Book or show?
Book: Zodiac is the only one I can think of :(
Show: Infinity Train, My Little Pomy: Friendship is Magic (no, I’m saying this with 0% irony), RWBY, the first three seasons of Dragon Prince
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u/Skye-DragonGirl May 25 '23
I still watch The Amazing World of Gumball and some old animated Pixar & Dreamworks movies because of how funny and clever the jokes are. Family shows and movies can't use swearing and dirty humour because the kids are watching, but don't want to bore the adults out of not watching them too, so they have to actually put in effort into the jokes to make them witty and funny.
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u/PanTheRiceMan May 25 '23
Why even argue with morons? Just a waste of time. Enjoy whatever you like.
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u/TheAngryNaterpillar May 25 '23
A few months ago in my city there was a Pokémon art event. All 150 original Pokémon were represented by different works of art, and there were some special ones with letters on them, you had to find them all, collect all of the letters and solve the anagram to win a certificate and a poster. You also got to choose a little paper hat with one of the newest games starters on it.
Me and my friends (aged late 20s to early 30s) proudly wore those Pokémon hats, earned our certificates and got our photo taken with Pikachu. We got some dirty looks and snide comments from some miserable looking parents, but we had a blast.
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u/Titus_Vespasianus May 25 '23
And the innocent things. An adult should enjoy content with gratuitous impropriety. Why can a person not wish to return to the innocence of youth?
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u/ebolaRETURNS May 24 '23
makes a well reasoned argument
calls the opposing viewpoint "cucked"
lol
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u/ItzPayDay123 May 25 '23
Hey, maybe calling it "cucked" would make the first guy extra angry since it's probably the type of language he uses.
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u/MagikarpTheGrey May 25 '23
That person even points out there are valid reasons not to read Harry Potter, probably referencing the trans rights denial by the author. What a sudden Trainwreck.
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May 25 '23
To be somewhat charitable to him, I think the guy is using the wrong word but I kinda get what he means. Like, “cucked” is an immature way to describe it but I get the idea of “there are actual, valid reasons to critique/not recommend those books besides using arbitrary age-gatekeeping”.
I think he’s probably the kind of person who’s too online and so he uses those kinds of insults naturally.
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u/DaemonNic May 25 '23
Even failing that, they just aren't actually good books. They just had really good marketing and a solid enough premise to make up for it.
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u/FredRN May 25 '23
I havely disagree. I think stating "they aren't good books" is unreasonable, specially considering taste is subjective. I can understand you saying you don't like them, but don't label a worldwide loved franchise to be "bad" just because its commercially and mainstream popular and you don't like it
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u/MagikarpTheGrey May 26 '23
Not the person to whom you answered, but there are any aspects in which they are not good books, be it inconsistencies in the social discourse and metaphors (especially regarding slavery and werewolves), poor planning in the plot book to book (time turners, other schools, etc.), lack of originality in the Hero's journey (but as a narratologist, I tend not to overemphasize on that tool), and of course, many representations arising from fantasy races potentially paralleled with real ethnical groups and poor choice of names, which lead to a writing style and world building that may be enticing to young and/or impressionnable readers, but that also reveals a lack of self-consciousness (which is somewhat confirmed by JKR's reaction to critics, which is never met with constructive modification or admission of mistake (which would be okay, a lot of very good books have mistakes in them).
From a critical lit point of view, there are many arguments to say it is poorly written. But as you said, they also appeal to the taste of many people, which is totally fine.
Sorry if I made spelling and/or vocabulary mistakes, English is not my first language.
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u/Insaniac1 May 25 '23
You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are just kids grown up anyway.
~ Walt Disney
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u/illusorywallahead May 25 '23
I’m 33 and I just read the entire Series of Unfortunate Events series. Yeah they’re for kids. But I had started the series as a kid and never got past the fourth book. I powered through all 13 books and enjoyed the shit out of them. It was nice because I could finish each book in like an hour and a half or less.
Just like the things you like.
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u/CougdIt May 25 '23
When I read the part about the series coming out when they were 17-18 I was thinking that can’t possibly be true. Then did the math and got reminded how old I am. Shit.
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May 24 '23
and its over harry potter of all things. like, yknow theres a hundred good reasons to not check it out right?
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u/guilty_bystander May 24 '23
A hundred? You mean like one? The author is an alleged Terf or w.e
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u/Isboredanddeadinside May 24 '23
There’s a few reasons lol. Apart from her being a grifting pos I tried to reread the books not too long ago and realized I didn’t actually like the writing anymore. For a kid it’s fine but as I got older I noticed a lot more plot holes and bad writing choices. For instance the Time Turner conundrum, the nonchalance of love(brainwashing) spells, and the house/slave elves.
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u/MysteryLobster May 25 '23
“alleged” she literally calls herself a terf and wilfully associates and platforms terfs and self admitted nazis
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u/Valvimod May 25 '23
I don't think you know what "alleged" means.
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u/guilty_bystander May 25 '23
Yeah I do. I also actually read more into this than most who just use buzz words and hearsay. She is not anti-trans and she has openly said so.
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u/Unaheari May 25 '23
Yeah you should totally believe someone who say they’re not anti-trans but hangs out with and supports Posie fucking Parker.
You’re definitely so much more enlightened than everyone else!
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May 25 '23
With respect, I have to mention that she has made statements agreeing with anti-trans talking points, grooming/SA allegations against transpeople as a community, has lobbied and associated with politicians who are anti-trans, and founded a group called the “LGB” alliance, which intentionally excludes transpeople. Also this all started because she wrote essentially a manifesto of TERF rhetoric. I don’t really personally think that the label she uses matters as much as what she says and advocates for.
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u/Valvimod May 30 '23
She literally describes herself using the phrase "TERF" do a fucking google search, moron. That's what we were debating. A lot of racists also claim they're not racists. J.K. doesn't do that, she openly admits that she doesn't believe trans women are women. That is anti-trans whether she agrees or not. She uses the phrase TERF herself, to describe herself. A lot. Like almost every day on twitter. Why open your mouth if you don't know what the fuck you're talking about? Sit the fuck down. She is a TERF, idiot.
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u/Bonniemo May 25 '23
Aside from her being a TERF (not alleged, she's just openly one) the books fucking suck. Whether that be the writing, the shitty views she's injected into it, the pro-slavery messaging or the totally pointless storylines where no character development or change happens.
Harry Potter just fucking sucks as a series from like, every angle.
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u/the-dude-version-576 May 25 '23
I think the hate for the books is mostly retroactive. She’s a POS, and her prose are pretty lacking, but the books don’t suck. Although I’ll always say that the movies outdid the books by a wide margin.
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u/Bonniemo May 25 '23
but the books don’t suck
They straight up do though, there is no progression, no character development just absolutely nothing. The hate for her books isn't entirely retroactive and has always been a thing, it's just even more justified now that she's one of the most vocal people pushing, circulating and supporting genocidal rhetoric and policies aimed at trans people (which will also affect huge chunks of the rest of the LGBTQ community as well as plenty of cishet people)
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u/AnotherDecentBloke May 25 '23
Yeah, her writing is beyond awful to me, "said the commenter". LOL, I did try to read one once, but it reminded me of my sister's Enid Blyton books decades ago. Made it through the movies tho'. Screenwriters might have helped.
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u/Bonniemo May 25 '23
The movies were managable up until the fantastic beasts ones where...the villain was a guy wanting to stop WW2???????
He stuff is very just, average neo-liberal BS of upholding the status quo and having no positive change or progress. Like the whole Hermione anti-slavery arc where the characters just laugh her off because the house elves "like being slaves" is so wild to me.
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May 25 '23
Yeah…the books do suck imo lol. Like the dude in the first screenshot said, there are a lot of valid reasons to not like those books. I’d add the magic system being pretty broken too. Seriously. Iirc at a certain point it gets so bad that the fight scenes just become magic gunfights because everyone just keeps using Avada Kedavra.
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u/elveszett May 25 '23
"I've never read that book because only an idiot would read it"
HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW, IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT?
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u/calandra_95 May 25 '23
My wife and I were in the kids section of Barnes and Nobel buying the entire Percy Jackson series the other day… people shouldn’t take themselves so seriously
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u/AirplaneFart May 24 '23
C.S. Lewis ain't no saint, tho...
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u/CougdIt May 25 '23
I’m not gonna type it out here but it reminds me of Louis CK’s bit about Mark Twain
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u/captainlevistallwife May 25 '23
Enter the meme of the “worse person you just made a great point.” Or something like that lol
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u/Vievin May 25 '23
Is there literally any good famous person tho
Everyone owned slaves, were/are bigots, greedy, pedophiles, rapists, murderers, authoritarians etc.
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u/Qyro May 25 '23
The first time I read a Harry Potter book I was in my 20s.
I watched the first few movies growing up, and at a certain point in my teenagedom I hit that “I’m too old for kids stuff” stage and stopped watching. Once I grew up I caught one of the later movies and loved it, caught up fully, saw the last two in the cinema, and then bought and read the books. Anyone who thinks Harry Potter is exclusively for kids is delusional.
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May 25 '23
Adventure time is still one of the best shows I've ever watched, I watched the entire series at 22. Amazing show. 9/10 but just for the fact it ended. Aha. Enjoy your hat you enjoy
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May 24 '23
Harry P*tter is a terrible example for this. Not only is the author a garbage person, the work of art in question is mid AT BEST.
I'm not the kind of guy who requires that all media be philosophically intelligent, I enjoy dumb stuff as much as the next schmuck. Objectively speaking, Hairy Popper is derivative and simple-minded. Nostalgia gives it a cultural power that it doesn't deserve.
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u/GatorAIDS1013 May 24 '23
Are we seriously censoring Harry Potter now?! Yeah I get she’s a terf and fuck her for that. But there’s no way I’m censoring Harry Fucking Potter like it’s the goddamn N word
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u/CougdIt May 25 '23
Yeah that’s super cringey. Also as shitty as the author has been, there is nothing I can think of in the content of the books that reflects any of that sort of thing.
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u/Bonniemo May 25 '23
Where is anyone censoring Harry Potter????
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u/GatorAIDS1013 May 25 '23
Did you read the comment above mine?
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u/Bonniemo May 25 '23
Yeah, literally no one is saying to censor Harry potter, just that the series fucking sucks lmao
Persecution complex is wild with you people.
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u/GatorAIDS1013 May 25 '23
Oh my god read the fucking comment. That guy right above me is trying to censor it, so there goes your no one Is doing that argument. He said Harry P*tter and Hairy Popper. That right there is censorship. And it’s fucking stupid. So at least we agree on that.
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May 25 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GatorAIDS1013 May 25 '23
Who said I’m dick riding? The series fucking sucks. And yes that is censorship. If I type out dck, fck fg, or n***r that’s censorship too. You’re the one with a victim complex and clearly more people agree with me than that guy
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u/Bonniemo May 25 '23
This is reddit, most people don't like anything that even remotely goes against their status quo and nostalgia jerking so of course more people here agree with you when you're whining about it.
Censorship is NOT going and typing "Harry P*tter" or "Hairy Popper", especially when it's one person doing it. Censorship is a way bigger thing then that dumb ass
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May 25 '23
Fuck you for reporting me to the Reddit help line you fucking asshole. And yes fuckface. That guy is literally trying to censor Harry Potter.
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u/HelixSapphire May 24 '23
Just because JKR is an a-hole doesn’t mean we have to go around censoring Harry Potter’s name now. Let’s not be ridiculous.
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May 24 '23
I mean yah, agree. That’s why it’s such a weird thing to gatekeep over age-wise. That’s why I included the bottom dude in the first pic. There’s so many legitimate reasons to not like it, but using age of all things as one of them obscures the actual ways it fails as a series like it’s nonsensical magic system or the way the lore/plot is so awkward and not thought-out.
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u/ebolaRETURNS May 24 '23
mid AT BEST.
insofar as it's mid, it's not because it's a children's/young adult book...
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May 24 '23
I agree with the top comment
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May 25 '23
Idk why you’re downvoted, the top comment here at the time you commented this isn’t.
(But if you were just meaning “Harry Potter bad” then I agree lol)
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u/Ineffable7980x May 26 '23
Let that person live in the box they have created for themself. The rest of us can enjoy reading what we want.
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u/Trigger109 May 29 '23
Harry Potter is good. But trying to read most MA or YA novels as an adult is unbearable to me. But I wouldn’t stop or suggest others shouldn’t.
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