#584

I refuse to lick the backside of Rupert Grint.

12 Likes
#585

Or the front - spunk as Grint (or something, I dunno).

1 Like
#586

Blimey. Now one of the nice bars round my way is having a Harry Potter quiz night. In German.

#587

thread has been leading to this, let’s face it:

#588

this is good stuff to teach kids of course, we said as much upthread, but the hillary/harry potter combo is part of an overall “thing”

#589

I sometimes think there’s a weird mileage in the whole ‘read another book’ thing being just a bit ‘off’. I mean the obsession of Harry Potter fans is just like my generation’s Star Wars obsession and so forth. You look at something like Spaced and it perfectly encapsulates how much of my early 20s were spent making pop culture references to current affairs with my friends. But it was all very male dominated and FILMS.

While I do find references to dementors/horcruxes/whatever in political discourse a bit :grimacing::grimacing::grimacing: I’m also an old guy and it’s not my big nerdout, eh?

So to return to my opening point, I firstly note a lot more women are into HP than ever seemed to be into SW stuff back in the day. It feels like the patronising attacks here are different to ones I would endure as a sci-fi nerd back in the day, they feel more aggressive, more dismissive in nature. And then the whole read another book. You know in the past it was fear kids didn’t read enough now we’re having a go at people reading and enjoying a book and, regardless of quality, definitely a book of a MUCH higher standard than popular guff like Dan Brown or Lisa Jewel or Frederick Forsyth (yes I have read a number of books by all these authors as well as Harry Potter and they are all significantly worse writers than Rowling). Feels a bit of an easy snark, I guess.

(But still, not gonna stop me :grimacing: at the afore mentioned types of Tweets.)

8 Likes
#590

well i mean apparently harry potter helps kids be more empathetic and open minded, so i guess when you see adults using HP references in the Discourse you can say that person will at least be fairly tolerant and thoughtful. yet the books are written by someone who is clearly not those things (let’s be fair and say “
anymore”).

so ya i agree that being dismissive of the people who read the books instead of just making fun of the books is bad. and sometimes making fun of the books can be hurtful for people who found solace in them during difficult times. like any good political nerd should know that to reach someone and persuade them over you need to couch your narrative and argument in terms the person you’re trying to reach can relate to. so what i’m saying is you better be taking notes on the goblet of fire in addition to the shock doctrine from now on, pals.

2 Likes
#591

Yeah that whole progressives who don’t progress thing. I mean Rowling strikes me as tolerant and thoughtful for 1985 when she was 20 and she just hasn’t moved on enough. That said, I don’t recall her being TERF-y at all. I mean she’s bad but of people who view themselves as very progressive but aren’t I feel like she’s above a bunch of others. :grimacing:

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#592

People were and are way too obsessed with Star Wars though, and should definitely watch another film (no, not Marvel)

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#593

Maybe.

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#594

I think that the ‘read another book’ thing comes from having Harry Potter as your only point of reference, which is different from, say people quoting pop-culture from a range of sources for the purposes of humour.

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#595

Which is a huge assumption (only point of reference, I mean), born of dismissal first.

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#596

Yeah, the assumption that anyone who is big into HP is not also reading ‘proper’ books is some real slytherin logic.

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#597

I don’t think anyone has said that.

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#598

Maybe they’ve read other books and just don’t like them as much

#599

There was quite a fine joke in that reply tbf

1 Like
#600

“Following the backlash on Twitter, Rebecca Salt, who represents Rowling, said, “I’m afraid JK Rowling had a clumsy and middle-aged moment,” adding that this is " not the first time she has favorited by holding her phone incorrectly.”"

Holding. Her. Phone. Incorrectly.

Also, the “middle-aged moment” thing can gtfo.

1 Like
#601

Typical HuggleFlan.

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#602

Fucking hell

#603

She can’t be a terf, Voldermort was trans.

1 Like