another cheese moment

[the_siobhan]

You know, there are lots of things that people on my f-list enjoy that I just Do Not Get. Corsets. Disco. Children. Lost. The Cruxshadows. Dolls. (Seriously people, what is with the dolls?)

And I'm ok with that.

Harry Potter is one of those things. I tried to read one once, solely because everybody I know was going on about it and gave up a few chapters in. I mean, it was ok. It was a kid's book and a reasonably well-done kid's book, but I'm just not that much into the gentre. And I do get that some people really dig kid's books, I'm just not entirely sure why this particular kid's book appears to be so appealing to so many different people - even people who are not necessarily into kid's books the rest of the time.

But whatever. It's your thing, you dig it, you're having fun with it. More power to you. I admit that I am not all that interested in reading posts devoted to how one got/read book, what one thought before/after/while reading book and why said book is the best/worst/most mediocre book she ever wrote. But you know what? I'll live.

And what I am even MORE entirely disinterested in reading is other people on my f-list bitch about how everybody is posting about the book or making snotty complaints about how everybody is using new icons of characters from the movie of the book and otherwise whining that large numbers of people who are not themselves are having a big glowing group hug. Shut UP. We know you are too cool for school and that the pedestrian tastes of your friends are beneath you and that the OK Cupid Muppet test picked Oscar the Grouch as your archetype. We KNOW. We just don't care.

But what I really, really, really, really don't get with extra not-gettingness?

People who are not only posting spoilers to communities, but to the individual LJs of anybody who lists the Potter books as an interest. I mean, WTF? Is it even possible to be more small-minded and banal?



And yes I know there are more important and weighty matters out there for me to post about, but my brain is currently 70% snot and rising so this is what you get.

Comments

[geekers.livejournal.com]

*applauds and totally undersigns this rant... after striking out disco (disco can be okay sometimes :p)*

:D

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

People who like disco now aren't old enough to remember what it was like the first time 'round. (When you couldn't escape it.) :-p

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

Damn right, that's why it's still funny to us ;)

[inyou.livejournal.com]

I think that this is a good part of why there are "whipper-snappers" that like disco- they have mostly the songs which were able to stick around, and only a smaller fraction of the dregs that manages to stick around, so their view is slightly askew as far as what disco is...

Just like there is good rap, but it is over-loaded with the gangster-wannabes so much so that it is not so easy to see.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

I am, barely. And there is good disco. There just isn't in any of the shit they were playing on the radio, or selling on K-Tel records for years afterwards.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Dude! We saw a documentary on the guy who started K-Tel! It was actually really interesting, the guy went from selling salad shooters out of his garage to being head of hte most successful Canadian company in history and back again.

[geekers.livejournal.com]

Is it seriously an 'in' thing? ... or were you adding it to the list for humorous effect? Also, are leisure suits 'in' (yet)?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if it's "in" or not. I am in a very far off place from knowing what is and what is not "in".

I do know that a number of people on my f-list derive an unholy glee from it.

[eveofdstruction.livejournal.com]

I remember disco. It was cool because grownups danced to it! My brother and I wanted to be a disco dance team on Dance Fever. Thankfully we moved on to other ambitions.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I hear you! Thus my helpful post about the stamps having to have a huge disclaimer. I'll bet that those who are off LJ until the weekend will kick themselves if they find out all the stamps are gone after I gave them a heads-up today.

I don't get the dolls or the 80s cheese music and the OTT HP stuff, but then they probably think I'm crazy for my Tour obsession. *shrug*

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

*APPLAUSE*

Thank you :)

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Some people just live to be asshats. That doesn't mean you have to let 'em win. (The you, in this case, are the "anybody who lists the Potter books as an interest.")

[redcountess]

Well put - even though I'm someone who enjoys the books, but doesn't get the hysteria, I was thinking the "spoilers" post to loltheorists was incredibly mean spirited.

Don't ask me what it is with the dolls, I totally didn't get it until I held one of the darn things - I think there's crack in the resin ;)

[ladyclayton.livejournal.com]

Well said! I don't get all the Potter hype either...I read the first five books, with interest waning after the third, and after the fifth, I just couldn't be arsed to care. Formulaic and redundant and Dickensian in length, Potter doesn't do it for me. I didn't read the sixth book and don't plan to read the seventh (although I admit I'll probably go to a store and read the last chapter so I have a clue as to how the whole she-bang ends).

A Series of Unfortunate Events was wittier, funnier, mor twisted, and far better writ, IMO. You might like those, actually.

I remember disco.

Raises a glass and calls for a toast

[dali-muse.livejournal.com]

I will go now and blast some punk for your benefit, any requests?

Although John Lydon DID title a PIL song "Death Disco".

*ducks and runs*

For the record, never read the books, saw the first three movies, completely respect that people love the whole culture of Potter, but anyone posting spoilers is a pain in the ass. At least cut the damn post!

[death4breakfast.livejournal.com]

I read the first book after being told by the person urging me to read it that I shouldn't actually expect it to be the Second Coming or anything. I thought it was all right.

The second book was like the first but less original, while in the third I bogged down about half-way through and said, "Are these people always going to be this stupid an annoying?" and just couldn't bring myself to finish it.

So, I'm one of these people who really doesn't get the whole Potter thing either.

As for Disco, I'm old enough to remember when it was new...and totally sucked. I remember being dressed in both a burnt orange and a powder blue leisure suit as a kid. I also remember the evil that is bell bottoms and let me tell you that renaming them "flair pants" doesn't make them any less evil.

Over thirty years later, I'm willing to admit that there are in fact a few songs that are a bit catchy and enjoyable that came out of that genera...but the majority of it is still "Teh Suck". For those who didn't live through it, let me tell you, the 80's came as as a wonderful breath of fresh air, freeing us from polyester, butterfly collars bell bottoms and really annoying washed up Baby Boomers with gold chains going, "Hey Baby, what's your sign?"

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I get Lost, but not disco.
I loathed disco at the time, I did.
(I had no idea K-Tel was Canadian - didn't he lose it all after a record sorting machine proved to scratch records?)

I've read all the Potters up to the last one, and like others in this thread my interest started to wane by the middle of the series - and I only started reading them the day before I saw the Philosopher's Stone at the movies.

I have no idea what, specifically, inspired your post - but I will comment that icons do seem to seem to forget about spoilers.

And I agree, people posting spoilers at random is just mean - but then we do live in a mean world.

Oh, and dolls? I don't get. Blinkies? Don't get 'em either.

[disastrid.livejournal.com]

harry potter's great, i loved the books. however, getting all whiny and butthurt because some asshole thinks it's funny to spoil the ending? YOU'RE ON THE INTERNET. if you think you can avoid spoilers is anything hotly anticipated, you're dead wrong.

i don't get "lost" either. it makes me understand why elvis shot his television.

[spikella.livejournal.com]

AMEN!
i agree with every word

now... why the hell can't i find this cursed spoilers...

Amen squared...

[emzebel.livejournal.com]

spoil_me_hp has a full summary of the plot and links to page photos.

Obviously, don't tread unless you actually want spoilers.

I love the books (but I love children's fiction generally), but I don't understand the people freaking out about things and posting "OMG I'M NOT READING THE INTERNETS FOR A WEEK".

[montieth.livejournal.com]

I can say that I at least agree with you in part about the Potterheads. I myself haven't read it, but I have seen some descriptions on why it's good. In part it ties back into basic western (Anlgo Saxon values) of good and evil. Distilled down not unlike how it is in other books like C.S. Lewis's books, the Wind and the Willows, or even J.R.R. Tolkein's books. Ghost of a Flea discussed this a bit (http://www.ghostofaflea.com/archives/009490.html) a few days ago. Does that tie into your view properly? Shortly put, "Don't like it? Fine, don't read it. But stop bitching about it ok?"

_{[We'll just have to agree to disagree on the whole corset thing.]}

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

I was going to make a big ranty post about how I planned on filtering anybody who mentioned Harry Potter, mostly because I'm tired of hearing about him every-fucking-where.

But then I realized that I have more important things to worry about - like how PR ladies feel the need to call me on my cell phone with the tiny little minutes plan to tell me all kinds of crap about some event they want me to attend, only to have them then email me a press release with the exact same information.

On the grand scale of annoyance, PR ladies beat Harry Potter fans hands down.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

Hear hear! I don't require that all my friends like the same things I do, but I do require them to respect my tastes and preferences. In return, I try to be respectful of things that my friends like that I don't. It's called being a grown-up, ya know?

Deliberately pissing on someone's parade and ruining their fun is just mean, and people that do it were probably schoolyard bullies.

FTR, I don't get disco either. And I'm married to someone who loves it. ;)

[notmostppl.livejournal.com]

I tried to watch a Harry Potter movie on television once, thinking I might gain some insight into why it's so popular. I fell asleep (yes, me, the insomniac) after 20 minutes. I still don't get it and I'm totally okay with that -- more time for Battlestar Galactica!

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

With you all the way on this. My theory, for what it's worth, is that the Potter-spoiling trolls are responding to the vehemence (verging on mania) which the "don't-spoil-my-Potter" crowd exudes. Not that that makes it okay, but it makes it easier to comprehend.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

Not that that makes it okay, but it makes it easier to comprehend.

No, not really.

[nemesis-to-go.livejournal.com]

There was a review of the new Harry Potter film in (I think) The Guardian the other week which made the same pertinent point that I think someone made above: in the world of Harry Potter, nothing ever really changes.

The characters don't grow or develop. The magical mayhem, although suitably dramatic, never really seems to alter anything. Harry and his chums seem to go round and round in the same circles, fighting variations of the same battles with the bad guys. And Ron is still goofy, Hermionie is still The Sensible One, and Harry is still the curiously colourless, characterless peg upon which it all hangs. There's no sense that the overarching story is moving towards a climax, no sense of any drive to a conclusion. The entire saga basically comes down to a series of endlessly recycled goodies-versus-baddies set-piece scenes.

But hey, it's got magic wands and stuff, and it all looks kinda spooky and cool. So that's all right, then.

One Harry Potter-related thing that genuinely made my jaw drop with incomprehension was this special offer (http://community.livejournal.com/uk_goth_music/698000.html) for denizens of a London goth club. I mean, what? Why?

I don't get it, myself. But then, I'm often at a loss to know what's supposed to be so good about much of our flimsy modern culture. I guess I just wan't made for these times.

(Mind you, I have to admit that 'Yes Sir, I Can Boogie' by Baccarat is one of my all-time favourite songs, so what do I know?)

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

in the world of Harry Potter, nothing ever really changes.

That may be due to the fact that it's a kid's book. Look at some other well-known kid's books, such as the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys series. Or the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton. They were all very formulaic, but even so, they weren't badly written. As a kid, I loved them and devoured as many of them as I could. Why? There was something comforting about the sameness of the books. I felt I could count on them. I freely admit that I love the Harry Potter books because they're exactly the kind of book I would have loved as a child, and as an adult, I sometimes want to return to that childhood feeling of comfort and familiarity.

Are the Potter books great literature? No, but neither were the Blyton books or Nancy Drew mysteries I loved. Are they reasonably well-written, clever and entertaining? Definitely.

[nemesis-to-go.livejournal.com]

I think the main difference between Harry Potter and other heroes of children's fiction is this: by and large, the characters in most kids' books never get any older. Enid Blyton's Famous Five are exactly the same age in the first books (written in the 1940s) as in the last (written in the 1960s). You have to suspend your disbelief pretty high to accept this: the Famous Five had about 20 years' worth of school holidays. However, having accepted the premise, the stories work.

Harry and his chums, however, do get older. That's one of the main foundations of the stories: year by year, they move up the school. So why don't the characters mature and develop?

Interestingly enough, Enid Blyton - not the most sophisticated writer by any means - could do character development when it suited her. In her school stories (yes, I read them!) the characters grow older and move up the school, book by book, just like Harry Potter. But, unlike Harry Potter, they do get more mature as the stories go on.

In The Naughtiest Girl In The School series, the books depict the development of the eponymous heroine from 'orrible brat to responsible head girl, with occasional relapses into naughtiness, and subsequent soul-searching, along the way. Pretty good stuff for books aimed at the 12-year-old bracket, I reckon.

It seems almost surreal to hold up Enid Blyton as the epitome of sophisticated character development - in other ways, her books are ruthlessly simplistic. But she could 'grow' her characters in a way that JK Rowling, apparently, can't.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I actually find them hopelessly turgid. But I feel the same way about Anne Rice and Poppy Brite, and lots of people in my social circle are crazy about them, too.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

Turgid? Honestly, I just don't see it. I usually associate turgid, purple prose with *really* badly-written romance novels. Danielle Steele anyone?

Anne Rice is beyond turgid - she's a caricature of herself. I think she had one good book in her, and she's been rewriting that one book ever since.

Poppy Z. Brite's earlier stuff is pretty overblown, but oh how I love it. She is actually a very good writer, so even her overblown prose flows well.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Danielle Steele anyone?

Do you mind? I'm trying hard to keep down my lunch, and that's not helping.

I agree re: Anne Rice and PZB.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

Do you mind? I'm trying hard to keep down my lunch, and that's not helping.

Do I definitely shouldn't mention Judith Krantz then? ;P

you forgot

[inyou.livejournal.com]

The Babysitter's Club and The Boxcar Children

....

[death4breakfast.livejournal.com]

The lack of character growth is what got me. I got to the middle of the third book and Hagrid had done something totally clueless and stupid, and Harry and his pals were once again going to have to figure out a way to bail him out, and I just went, "Is he *always* going to be this stupid? Is he ever going to start thinking? Is anyone going to get fed up with him not thinking, or *do* something?"

It was already feeling like something of a trial to keep reading at that point, and so I put it down, and tried to pick it up a few more times over the next few weeks and months...and then just sort of stopped trying to pick it up.

I don't deny anyone their right to totally love the books and all that, but I personally just didn't care for it. I am sort of curious as to why my reactions differ so greatly from those of a lot of people who's other tastes are very similar to mine though. It might be interesting to discuss with someone who wouldn't take my lack of liking for it as an attack.

[lucybond.livejournal.com]

I quite like Harry Potter, although, in one sense, I'll be also quite glad when it's all over.

Why? The asshats. People who want to spoil the end of something for others, ANYTHING that they are excitedly looking forward to, are worse than the people who keep sending me spam pretending to be from IKEA, offering me discounts, or telling me a family-member has sent me an e-card.

I wouldn't care if it was spoilering The Office (which I hate) or the next Boris Akunin novel (which I love) but it's just mean-spirited & low.

Harry Potter books... well, they get more complex, they go in for cliff-hangers, they're a fun, throw-away read. I enjoy them much in the same way I like to watch the odd comedy anime series: it's a fun waste of time. The movies: about the same. I'm not about to join a community, or write fan-fic about them, although I did help my husband sort out the costume he is having to wear for work as a bookseller at the launch party tonight. If I'd still been working there, I'm sure i would have got into the spirit of the thing & enjoyed myself with the kiddies. Ho hum.

The dolls... well, there's a BIG & dreadfully friendly & supportive online community associated with them, they're collectable, customisable, & fun to photograph in silly stories for your doll-liking chums. The stuff for them is hard to find, or you need to make it yourself, so there's a bargain-hunting element in the hobby, too.

So, basically, lots of community-stuff involving swapping, chat & entertaining each-other, which makes the whole habit very self-perpetuating.

I'm surprised myself. I've always been an un-girly girl who hated dolls with a passion until I came across the resin variety. Now I have nine. As redcountess says, it must be crack.

[dj-doc.livejournal.com]

Dolls, well I like the New York Dolls, does that count?

"I admit that I am not all that interested in reading posts devoted to how one got/read book, what one thought before/after/while reading book and why said book is the best/worst/most mediocre book she ever wrote."

Hmmm would take longer to write stuff like that then to read a new book so no fear no posts of that sort are likely to come from my side.

Hell that was a long "Me too" comment

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I am right beside you on the New York variety. :-)

[dj-doc.livejournal.com]

Disco, well once a year it is funny when I spin it *eg*

Harry Potter I don't hate as much as I hate Dan Brown.

Dan Brown

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Now that's something I can work up a righteous hate-on for!

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Just a belated a-fucking-men!

People who only get pleasure out of raining on other people's parades would really be best taking themselves out of the gene pool. Immediately and permanently.

As for Potter, I read the first two books and can't really be bothered with the rest (though they might be suitable for long flights), but I do enjoy the films, mostly because they look pretty.

Yeah, I can be really shallow.

I didn't expect to get Lost, but rented the DVDs recently and got completely hooked.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can be really shallow.

Ain't nothing wrong with that. I have my highbrow pleasures and my not-so-highbrow pleasures and then there are my downright lowbrow pleasures. They all coexist quite peacefully.

I didn't expect to get Lost, but rented the DVDs recently and got completely hooked

Some friends recently turned me onto Carnivale. Very weird show that is . Very Twin Peaks-ish.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I'm almost finished watching Carnivale - three episodes left! I absolutely love it. It's a testament to how broke I am that I didn't go out and buy all the DVDs after getting the first few disks through our rental company.

[dali-muse.livejournal.com]

Which is why Carnivale had the cult following that it did, most of the shows fans were former Twin Peaks fans from the 90's. With Carnivale, HBO pulled the plug on them without warning, so the series doesn't "end", if that makes sense.