and as always, if people do enjoy the stories, get the books or movies second hand. don’t let her earn a cent from it
Comment on Anon has learned enough
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 2 days agoI always like to include the addendum that she’s also a bad writer. It’s great when people are excited to read, but success is not an indicator of quality.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
Ofiuco@piefed.ca 2 days ago
There's always the seven seas, it's always morally correct
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 days ago
She’s not a bad writer. She’s slightly above average.
Before she was outed, her pseudonym Robert Galbraith had sold 8500 English language copies across all formats (hardback, eBook, library and audiobook) and received two offers from television production companies.
For a “first time” author those are reasonable numbers.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 day ago
She’s a terrible writer. She has no original or clever ideas, her imagery is boring and vague, and her characters are one dimensional at most. The Robert Galbraith book that I read was really bad, too, and the television offer came after she revealed that it was hers. Fucking Cormoran Strike? What the fuck kind of hacky bullshit name is that? She’s a dipshit, which is nothing compared to the fact that she’s a hateful bigot.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’ve not read any Robert Galbraith books. I was just giving an objective measurement.
People also say Dan Brown is a bad writer and he sells millions of books
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Statistically, the most popular restaurant in America is Wendy’s (excluding dessert and donut shops). Wendy’s is pretty good for fast food, but it’s objectively not high quality food. That’s not to say people shouldn’t enjoy it, but if you’re learning to be a chef, you’re probably not aspiring to mass produce baconators.
I’ve read two Dan Brown books (Angels and Demons and DaVinci Code). I’ve read 8 Rowling books.
My criticism of Dan Brown would be that he wrote one book and then wrote it again. It’s not great literature, but it’s easy to read and doesn’t strain the mind with complexity. I understand that he’s written four more novels, but I haven’t read them. I have heard people say that it’s the same formula, and if you enjoy it, there’s no judgement here. Reading should be fun and exactly as challenging as you want it to be.
Dan Brown also made absurd amounts of money. Do you know what he thinks about trans rights? No, you don’t, because he doesn’t use his position of relative privilege to be a shitbag to minorities. Maybe he’s a bigot, but I wouldn’t assume that of anyone without evidence. Dan Brown created a series of popular books and then fucked off to cheat on his wife. That’s all we know about him.
Rowling, by contrast, is a garbage human being. She’s actively awful, and goes out of her way to stir shit up and make life miserable for people she doesn’t know and will never meet. She is a bigot, and isn’t shy about spreading hateful propaganda or punching down. Being a bad writer is the very least of her flaws, but it is among her flaws. When people compare her to other artists who have created masterpieces but had “problematic” personal lives, the comparison is distorted by both the lack of quality to her art and the magnitude of her shittiness as a human.
ksigley@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“Harry Potter isn’t as good as you thought when you read it in grade school. Hottest take”
Hbomberguy
JandroDelSol@lemmy.world 2 days ago
eh, they’re not great, but not the worst thing ever. ive seen worse debut novels (id argue that the divergent series is worse, though i enjoy it far too much lmao). the series is definitely ruined because of rowling’s awfulness.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I never read Divergent, but I’m sure there are worse books. And I enjoy plenty of books that aren’t well written. I enjoyed reading the Harry Potter series, the same way I enjoy a fast food burger and milkshake. It always bugged me that everyone kept praising Rowling for what an amazing writer she was, but I never cared to criticize her because kids were reading and she seemed to be a genuinely decent person.
Now we know she’s a hateful bigot, and her shitty writing is providing the funding for her to attempt to oppress people and generally be horrible. So no reason to keep pretending she’s not a hack writer.
rmuk@feddit.uk 2 days ago
I tried reading them as a kid and thought they were shit then. I realise now the biggest problems I had with it were the total absence of brick jokes (or whatever the literary equivalent is), the utter refusal to engage in foreshadowing, and the lack of character development.
Flocklesscrow@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Then he banged his best friend’s sister.
burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Which is honestly pretty standard for the real world. Limited social circles and hot times blended well for millennia, why not continue the tradition at this point if both parties are willing? That’s probably the most accurate character portrayal rowling ever made.
Scubus@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 2 days ago
My general complaint is that there really isn’t any nuance to any of the characters in the books. If you’re thinking of complexity, you’re probably thinking about the performances created by various excellent actors in the movies.
Also, none of the twists are executed well, as they are either deus ex rectum or they are telegraphed to the point where you don’t even realize they were supposed to be twists.
There’s no internal consistency within or between books. Macguffins come and go to serve the story, and every story is just repackaged public domain mythology.
Actually, the fan theory that all of it is the delusion of a mistreated orphan boy does tie several things together. The entire arc reads like the fantasies of a sad, lonely kid playing with a stick in his room by himself.
Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
I count the lack of brick jokes and foreshadowing as a plus in any book. Also, it is a series of young adult books, you can’t read too much into it. Rowling may be a shit person, but the books are the books.