oct 24
2007

Harry Potter Ignorance

Kottke and Buzzfeed and everyone else have been all over this gay Dumbledore thing, but I'm with Chuck on this one: ignorance may be death, but I don't care this time around.

15 comments

Pure Chuck: "I'm sure I could read the entire four-thousand-page plot summarized in four hundred words on Wikipedia, or I could simply walk into any high school and ask a few questions of the first kid I find who isn't smoking crystal meth."

posted by geoff at 9:05 AM on October 24, 2007

Finally! Other people who just don't care.

posted by Ang at 9:09 AM on October 24, 2007

Lots of people don't care about lots of stuff, especially when it comes to books.

posted by Kurtis at 9:10 AM on October 24, 2007

Yeah, but being a cultural person who ignores Harry Potter in this day and age is like disavowing the New Testament at bible camp. Seriously, I had no idea what the Dumbledore headline could possibly mean when I first saw it -- I was mentally guessing a new film movement out of the Brooklyn neighborhood DUMBO.

posted by Rex at 11:45 AM on October 24, 2007

Eh, you're not missing much. After a long period of 'this-is-stupid' resistance, I caved and read them. I enjoyed it and actually got really into them. But at the end of it, I wasn't changed or even enlightened. The only thing I 'learned' is that a story about three privileged white kids (with a gay headmaster who never comes out) going around saving those who are too weak and dumb to save themselves still counts as a narrative of 'tolerance'. Yuh-huh. Just like To Kill a Mockingbird, it's a story that comforts liberal humanists - and frustrates the rest of us.

posted by Nav at 12:58 PM on October 24, 2007

I think they're quite good. Probably not the best books ever, but I did enjoy the everybody-lets-stay-up-all-night-reading phenomenon and don't know there's been anything like it in my lifetime. I don't know if 'learned' anything or was even supposed to, but it was kinda fun while it lasted. That being said, they're obviously not for everyone, and I don't think anyone should feel left out of something grand and important if they prefer to read something, you know, for grown ups.

posted by Kurtis at 1:30 PM on October 24, 2007

I don't, for a minute, believe Klosterman's professed ignorance on the topic of Harry Potter.

posted by josh at 1:51 PM on October 24, 2007

It's absolutely true. And so is mine.

posted by Rex at 1:56 PM on October 24, 2007

I can take one guess who the female friend is that hasn't seen a single starwars movie. It's actually kinda funny with all the references I used to drop on her.

posted by taulpaul at 2:18 PM on October 24, 2007

i just don't see how it's all that interesting that a character who is barely in the books is gay. it's like finding out that cedric diggory is gay. now if it turned out harry was gay, then maybe, but dumbledore is mostly a character in the background, he comes in every so often, says something half comforting, and then goes away again. (though the last book did make him somewhat more interesting, at least it gave him a bit of depth.)
i like the hp books, but the best books hiding in the kids section have to be the dark materials (golden compass, etc.) books. read them before the movie comes out, because i am fearful that they made a mess of it. that polar bear in the trailer looks like the coca-cola bear.

posted by kitty holmes at 2:22 PM on October 24, 2007

This story could also explain the direct impact of WoW subscribers based on the timing of the LoTR movie releases. J.R.R. Tolkien did develop the basis of lore for pretty much 75% or more of all popular mmorpgs.

posted by taulpaul at 2:23 PM on October 24, 2007

i have a female friend who hasn't seen the star wars movies, too! she's the prime age to have seen them. (32) it's baffling to me, i mean she's kind of a nerd. i can't imagine not having seen them. what did she play as a kid? jem? care bears?

posted by kitty holmes at 2:30 PM on October 24, 2007

I think Pullman's books are the best fantasy series ever written for kids, myself. But of course, Knopf published only the finest literature for young people.

I've been trying to compose something in response on my books blog, and may yet do so, but I'm pissed that Rex has prompted a more prolonged and interesting discussion about a kids book than my kids books blog has done in 18 months, and all he did was say he never read it.

posted by Kurtis at 2:31 PM on October 24, 2007

this article made me think if I can try and NOT make at least five pop culture references every single day...

posted by marina at 2:55 PM on October 24, 2007

I find it difficult to just get through a single day without making five Simpsons references. Foruntately, I also find it unnecessary.

posted by Kurtis at 5:17 PM on October 24, 2007




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