While I do think other fandoms have their complainers, I agree that nothing can quite match Harry Potter. It all comes down to the richness and the vibrancy of the world and the characters that JKR created.
Unlike for example LotR, the HP world is enough like ours that we can imagine ourselves being in it, and the school and the Houses and the sorting all seem to inspire people even more to emotionally identify with her universe. And then the characters are so varied and memorable, and some people pick just one or two that really resonates for them and get emotionally wrapped up in them. And you end up with people not just liking the books, but very personally emotionally involved in some individual character or relationship.
When you think about it, isn't it amazing that Snapefen and Harmonians and Loonies and so on are even inspired by the same books? The things about Snape that one person becomes attached to are so far apart from the Harmonian view of Hermione, say, that it's almost unrecognizable that people are talking about the same series.
And at the end of the day, people realize that the fragments of the books they have latched onto emotionally are not the same things that are important to the author. She doesn't value what they value and so she isn't likely to respect what their wishes would be. So they know that anything further she produces is unlikely to bring them any pleasure. And so they complain.
So that's my thesis: people get mad at JKR not because she's a lousy writer, but because she's a good writer. She was good enough to suck them in and make them care about a character even though they probably don't like her, her personality or worldview or final storyline. And she sucked some people in with Snape and others with Remus and others with Hermione and others with Luna and others with Draco. When you think about it, it's pretty amazing.
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While I do think other fandoms have their complainers, I agree that nothing can quite match Harry Potter. It all comes down to the richness and the vibrancy of the world and the characters that JKR created.
Unlike for example LotR, the HP world is enough like ours that we can imagine ourselves being in it, and the school and the Houses and the sorting all seem to inspire people even more to emotionally identify with her universe. And then the characters are so varied and memorable, and some people pick just one or two that really resonates for them and get emotionally wrapped up in them. And you end up with people not just liking the books, but very personally emotionally involved in some individual character or relationship.
When you think about it, isn't it amazing that Snapefen and Harmonians and Loonies and so on are even inspired by the same books? The things about Snape that one person becomes attached to are so far apart from the Harmonian view of Hermione, say, that it's almost unrecognizable that people are talking about the same series.
And at the end of the day, people realize that the fragments of the books they have latched onto emotionally are not the same things that are important to the author. She doesn't value what they value and so she isn't likely to respect what their wishes would be. So they know that anything further she produces is unlikely to bring them any pleasure. And so they complain.
So that's my thesis: people get mad at JKR not because she's a lousy writer, but because she's a good writer. She was good enough to suck them in and make them care about a character even though they probably don't like her, her personality or worldview or final storyline. And she sucked some people in with Snape and others with Remus and others with Hermione and others with Luna and others with Draco. When you think about it, it's pretty amazing.