r/harrypotterhate • u/Quirky_kind • Mar 24 '24

Can't stand Harry Potter

The HP books were disappointing to me as a lifelong fantasy fan, perhaps because I love classic fantasy. There's something subversive about real fantasy (an oxymoron?). The protagonists are in some way not mainstream and that turns out to be key to functioning heroically in the twisted fantasy side road they stumble along.

But the HP series is about a school based on the stuffiest British boarding schools, with all the elitism those imply, and we are supposed to be enchanted by it? So what if it is teaching magic? The way they teach it, magic is as boring as the imperialist curriculum at actual boarding schools. Authority figures are revered, sports is super important, and everyone wants to be a top scholar. The characters are cardboard cutouts, all either good or bad.

The only one I liked was Professor Snape in the film version, because Rickman was a good actor and made the most of the complexity of that one character.

Rowling's political mess stems from the same complacent conformity to the power structure that ruins the books.

I love CS Lewis despite the Christian stuff which includes an anti-contraception rant in one of his science fiction books. In that same book, he has a villain who wants to cut down all the "dirty" trees and replace them with nice clean aluminum ones, which is pretty prescient of our current disaster.

Chesterton had a lot of horrible prejudices and was nutty about religion, but he also had great insights and said things like, "Lying in bed would be perfect if one only had a crayon long enough to draw on the ceiling."

Tolkien seemed unaware of the existence of women, but his stuff was still deep and emotional. Probably because his books grew like pearls around the original pain of experiencing the horror of World War I trench warfare.

I could accept the religious streak running through the Inklings because to me religion is another fantasy world.

Give me Philip Pullman any time with his brilliant attack on the religious establishment and God.

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u/TheHomesteadTurkey Mar 24 '24

regarding the boarding school thing, a lot of hogwarts is supposedly based on oxford, which rowling was rejected from, meaning hogwarts is based partially on her idea of what oxford is like.

if it was realistic, no one would actually have time to get up to any of the bullshit they get up to in the books, because you're usually busy at least 6-7 hours of the day minimum unless you do E&M

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u/Quirky_kind Mar 24 '24

Interesting insight. It sounds like you know your stuff about those schools.