kiddie-book lovers btfo

Will Self is a nimble novelist

is he now

actually sweaty, the harry potter books were designed to mature with the reader's age. :) deathly hallows is lit fic

They'll just relate this somehow to something happening in Harry Potter and vindicate themselves further.

Im slytherin updoot if u snakey boy too

Harry Potter is shit compared to LOTR in terms of writing IMO.

calling lotr a children's book.

Please do sudoku immediately

i'll slytherin that bussy, lil boy

Hey c'mon man, Lord of the Rings is some good shit.

It’s ok I guess. Still mindless genre fiction

Oh don't be one of those pretentious slice-of-life fetishists. Art gatekeeping is the worst type of gatekeeping. Opinions on the quality of fiction is 90% subjective. It is completely possible to enjoy both The Return of the King and Pale Fire.

Sorry I don’t like stories about ridiculous shit dude, I’m not saying you shouldn’t enjoy it

How is this even gatekeeping enjoy your book. I just don’t see the big difference between it and Harry Potter, both of which I dislike. I guess in the same way that highly praised capeshit movie and critically acclaimed capeshit movie are both equally boring to me

Calling something "mindless" is an objective value judgement, not just an expression of your personal distaste. Use another word if you want to be understood.

LOTR is the genre, and I can’t stand Tolkien. All fantasy is pointing back to him, it’s why fantasy is trash.

Considering that one was written by an Oxford professor as a homage to epic sagas, and the other was written by some rando single mom on welfare...

One was racist and only included blacks as orcs and urak-hai and the other predicted the rise of Trump.

Implying LOTR is a children's book. Thats a paddlin'.

All of Tolkien's shit is overhyped claptrap for permavirgins. At least Harry Potter is fun to read

Smh "fun" is just a buzzword 😤

You don't have to like it, but you have to admit that the work of epic fantasy written by and Oxford Don is well fucking written.

Someone hasn't read The Silmarillion. If he was going for a The Holy Bible (with elves!) feel, then good job I guess.

Of course I've read the Silmarillion. And yes, he WAS going for a Holy Bible feel. That's kinda the point.

That's kinda the point.

-_-

Tolkien is the wen on the arse of fantasy literature. His oeuvre is massive and contagious—you can't ignore it, so don't even try. The best you can do is consciously try to lance the boil. And there's a lot to dislike—his cod-Wagnerian pomposity, his boys-own-adventure glorying in war, his small-minded and reactionary love for hierarchical status-quos, his belief in absolute morality that blurs moral and political complexity. Tolkien's clichés—elves 'n' dwarfs 'n' magic rings—have spread like viruses. He wrote that the function of fantasy was 'consolation', thereby making it an article of policy that a fantasy writer should mollycoddle the reader.

People copy famous book. Famous book bad.

No

Famous book mediocre. People badly copy mediocre book.

It's better than most fantasy, even its contemporaries.

No doubt, but that's the point of his diatribe. He's saying stop writing the same fucking thing over and over and over again.

???

What's confused you friend

lol /r/atethepasta

Shit

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/279616-when-people-dis-fantasy-mainstream-readers-and-sf-readers-alike-they-are

Lol who names their kid China.

OG weebs. I think they call them sinophiles or something stupid like that

Better than most fantasy is an incredibly low bar to set

you're just an idiot lul

Tolkien is the pimple on the ass of fantasy literature.

No, fantasy literature is the pimple on the ass of fantasy literature.

You're not wrong.

oeuvre

moron, only women have those are you saying tolkein was trans lol moron

Tolkien was a Nazi who wrote apolegitic works supporting white, christian power structures and the way they interacted with those deemed lacking. So basically, I'm not saying he was a tranny. The opposite actually.

lol, go crack open the hobbit and tell me that writing pages of "scenery description" is peak literature

Let me remind you that you are surrounded by crypto-weebs that believe endless 'worldbuilding' is a plus in fiction.

this is the dumbest comment i've ever heard on this site .... wow it's just terrible lol

it hurts because it's true, dood

owned epic style

crypto-weebs

They need to upgrade their ciphers.

Did I say cryptoweebs?

I didn't say the Hobbit. The Hobbit is something you could read in the 5th grade, like Harry Potter. LOTR is better literature than both of them. Richer vocabulary. It's like comparing Junior High to High School or College.

His writing style is the exact same you fucking prole

It's actually completely different. One is written to be approachable for children.

His writing style is the exact same you fucking prole

His writing style is the exact same you fucking prole.

I suffered through the Hobbit as a kid and moved on to LOTR. Put that fucker down after he described a path in the woods for a page and a half.

Why couldn't everyone get love Gene Wolfe instead of all this other crap?

Literally who?

yes, that's what I said

It's not tho

It really is. He still over-does the scenery description and rambles.

?

Lotr is shit compared to forgottwn realms qriters like r a salvatore

Long live drizzzzzzzt

I totally agree. But JRRT did it first and defined everything that followed. There is a direct line from Tolkien to Gary Gygax leading to Salvatore. Drizzt is the best. I still have Queen of the Demonweb Pits module. Also Ed Greenwood (Elminster is now in the body of a Drow female in his latest book. Currently, I am waiting for Rothfuss to finish his trilogy.

I havent read fantasy since i was 20.

All i read now is history books and other interesting non fiction. Im peak mayo and u cant stop me boy

#MeToo

history books and other interesting non fiction

Fucking Elminster.

Literally. He does so much fucking that should be his name.

Harry Potter is shit, period.

Here's a copy of Harold Bloom's (who I worship) review:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB963270836801555352

Is he wrong?

That's a review of only the first book. Rowling improves significantly over the span of the series in p much all aspects.
And I still think the first one is a charming children's book despite its flaws.

Harry Potter is just an enjoyable kids series - it is entertainment, not art, and shouldn't be judged as such or elevated to such levels either.

Same goes for the about 50% of Marvel movies (the better ones).

When the ghost writers stepped in?

> unironically worshiping harold bloom

are you cosplaying as a 15 year old /lit/ poster?

What are Harold Bloom's faults, in your opinion?

He's for white people and he lacks brevity

He's an old, white boomer.

Nah, he’s way too old to be a boomer

I wish you didn't bring racism into this. What faults do you find in his actual work, I mean?

What racism? You can't be racist against wh*tes because they deserve every bit of it.

Harry Potter is just an enjoyable kids series - it is entertainment, not art, and shouldn't be judged as such or elevated to such levels either.

Same goes for the about 50% of Marvel movies (the better ones).

Shut your fucking mouth with your reasonable viewpoint.

But yes, pop culture entertainment doesn't need to be elevated to higher levels, they just need to be enjoyable for a bit.

This is the most annoying part of "nerd culture". I enjoy a lot of that shit (capeshit, pulpy sci fi, fantasy, anime) but internet nerds treat it like high art and serious fucking business. I'm fine with discussing it (to a point), but the layer of pretension just takes the fun out of it. Most of it is basically the equivalent of wallpaper (ideally pleasing, but not something you obsess over and try to analyse unless you're losing your mind).

There's lots of good drama in that goodreads link, lol

In what follows, I may at times indicate some of the inadequacies of "Harry Potter." But I will keep in mind that a host are reading it who simply will not read superior fare, such as Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" or the "Alice" books of Lewis Carroll. Is it better that they read Rowling than not read at all? Will they advance from Rowling to more difficult pleasures?

This is where he lost me. I'm just so tired of professional critics pushing boring dogshit like it's some work of misunderstood genius. "Difficult pleasures" is just a fancy way of saying "I would admit that this sucks if I weren't so fucking far up my own pretentious asshole."

Have you read the Wind in the Willows or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? They're both very good. I've really got no skin in the game; I'll stop reading three pages into a book if I'm bored; but they're both very good books.

What value?

Anyone who says gatekeeping is the biggest mayo hipster possible and should unironically die

Ye

That's because the whites made fences and gates an integral starting point into their culture.

Gatekeeping isn't even a bad thing, libruls are upset about it because it can hurt peoples fee fees

Without gatekeeping categorization would be impossible

its unfair to say a chef and a man taking a shit on a public barbecue in a park are different!

You have to go back...

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

out

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

OUT

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

I was called a gatekeeper brcause i did the whole bit of instead of forcing more females into stem, let them choose organically

Ie: we need more women in texh! But replace tech with plumbing or other trades and u get nasty comments

Lol, it would be interesting to see what would happen if someone started a campaign to get more women into garbage collection.

you can literally comment "r/gatekeeping" in any thread and get upvoted for it by reddit brainlets. they love that shit

That's not real gatekeeping

i am old so i remember when you used to be able to call people "posers" because they were fucking posing instead of actually doing. good times. i had a feeling the posers would inevitably take over and here we are.

It is the gamers fault

I blame MDE

Gatekeeping isnt even a bad thing. If you don’t watch hockey or barley are interested in it are you really a fan? If you say love anime but only watch dragon ball z are u really an anime fan. Like it makes sense to say these thpe of people aren’t fans

Gatekeeping is fine if someone is bullshiting that they actual know or care about something they clearly don't, it's bad when you don't let someone enjoy a night doing something they don't dedicate 70% of the freetime to because they don't meet your standard.

Your post/comment has been removed because it did not contain an emoji! 😱 😭 😩

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

/r/gatekeeping, much?

Nobody tell them about Hadold Bloom, they might have an aneurysm aneu

hahahahahaha nigga how the fuck is Harry Potter real hahahaha nigga just read a book for adults like nigga go to the library hahaha

Spitting on the Harry Potter series in /r/books is like . . . some Charlie Hebdo shit is probably going to happen to you next.

Stretched his legs

Harry Potter is shit but Will Self is a one-man justification for mayocide and I’d rather see him be exterminated, tbh

Jesus Christ why can’t these people read another book

why can’t these people read another book

TBF, they have also read Ender's Game or Slaughterhouse Five and will tell you about it constantly.

Replace Ender's Game with 1984 or Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and your comment is golden. I honestly dont see Ender's Game jerked that much

They might have toned it down more recently, but it was easily the most-jerked title back 4-5 years ago. (See also House of Leaves). I think the movie coming out and bombing might have tarnished its geek cred.

Replace Ender's Game with 1984 or Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

OMG...I was one of these people when I was young. Thank God I grew out of that.

Ender's Game is wish-fulfillment trash, but 1984 and Hitchhiker's Guide are good adolescent books. The problem is when people never mature beyond them.

Its the hardy boys with magic powers, not Shakespeare.

/r/gatekeeping

how else are stupid people going to make political analogies

You have to go back...

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

God the mods are fucking based.

out

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

OUT

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

You mean aussies?

depends if theyre from melbourne and/or go to anti trump protests

You have to go back...

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

out

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

OUT

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

I think if you report AutoModerator, you can get one of the mods banned for inbox spam. :angel:

Melbourne's not so bad, Frunzewick ruins an otherwise great city.

Also Darebin.

All these retards defending reading YA fiction as an adult probably have Serious Opinions on Star Wars and capeshit

You nailed it.

To be fair, Will Self's whole schtick is being a cunt.

It got children to read so I guess it has it's value.

This but unironically. I started out with Harry Potter as a kid and it basically started my love of reading.

Reading per se is not more valuable than watching TV or playing videogames if one never moves on from YA fiction, like 90% of these people.

Lol no

That’s because r/books only reads HP and nothing else

Literally defending a children's book series...

I think the correct term is man-children, kid-ult sounds iffy.

Why didn't the "wizards" just cast themselves out of the dullest franchise in the history of book franchises? Seriously each tome following the boy wizard and his pals from Hogwarts Academy as they fight assorted villains has been indistinguishable from the others. Aside from the gloomy pacing, the series’ only consistency has been its lack of excitement and ineffective use of imagery, all to make magic unmagical, to make action seem inert.

The Harry Potter series might be anti-Christian (or not), but it’s certainly the anti-James Bond series in its refusal of wonder, beauty and excitement. No one wants to face that fact. Now, thankfully, they no longer have to.

As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs."

I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.

it's too bad book themed pasta is so niche

But Harry Potter is the basis for the literary and political tastes of the woke!

Woke AF.

Harry Potter is a children's book, yet it seems like it is the only book anyone on the left ever read. If I have to hear about fucking muggles in relation to current affairs one more fucking time...

Someone do John Greene next.

Ya novels are guilty pleasures, they should make you feel guilty if you like them. not like tee hee, I'm so random, guilty, like I secretly jack off to gender bender hentai guilty.