Confessions of a non-fangirl
I've got to admit, mom is more excited about the latest HP movie than I am.
...this is not difficult, because I honestly started to lose a lot of interest in the HP series around Goblet of Fire.
I'm weird in what I read... I will read and reread and reread a lot of series that aren't all THAT much better than series that I find myself disdaining. It's a mood thing, and a tone-of-author thing... and there's a lot of little quibbles that I wind up having regularly. Sometimes I manage to suspend my disbelief and go along for a ride, other times I can't, and sometimes, even when I manage to get into a world setting, I wind up finding myself wanting to hit characters over the head because their logic/emotions doesn't match my logic/emotions.
Honestly, at this point, my only interest in any Harry Potter movie is to get a chance to see Alan Rickman and/or Jacob Isaacs. And since I can also just grab Dogma or Peter Pan off the DVD shelf here, no biggie on those accounts either.
Some of my issue with HP was that in later books, Rowling seemed to be allowed almost too much free reign. I found paragraphs and scenes that I felt could have used some editing/shortening. Things that to me felt superfluous to the story flow and engaging characters and happenings. I don't think she's a HORRIBLE writer, but she's not really a style of writer that I dig when she rambles on or does this or that turn. Some of her phrasing is awkward to me, and has been since book one, but by book three it seemed to be getting a little more out there.
I think the first book, I was really drawn to because it in some way reminded my of my old Roald Dahl books. But as she got more complex, some of that initial joy faded somewhat.
Some of my issue was that some of the plot points and devices were getting a bit old to me. I'm not going to say that the characters weren't maturing, or that they were ALWAYS repeating the exact same formulae, but... at times I started feeling like Inu Yasha had made me feel: YAY there was character developme- hey, wait, why are we back to square one for this particular behavioral pattern? I thought we were closer to a good wrap up....
Some of my issue was that the books did get darker and darker and zomg darker. I mean, I've read and enjoyed grim books, I've had characters I like be killed off, but around Order of the Phoenix I just... kinda burned out. It seemed like *over*kill-off to me. There was something about the very nature of how I enjoyed the early books that was worn down, and I found myself not really laughing at the bits left in to be laughed at, because I was still just kind of going "huh? what... the fuck..?" over the tragedies. When I read HBP and Dumbledore died, I actually found myself kind of numb, and not caring, because it'd been... well.. inevitable and telegraphed, and just... I didn't see a point to it that wasn't in some way, to me, cliche'd feeling.
The series just stopped working for me.
And I wouldn't really bring it up, because it's a personal opinion and whatnot, but I figure with a large number of people I know being excited, I should kind of give a general warning and my reasons behind it, as to why I'm not terribly receptive when THEY are excited, and why I'm not going to be a very good person to try conversing about Harry Potter things with. I haven't even reread the first couple of books in years, so am totally rusty about the bits I *did* like, and I barely remember two scenes at all from HBP, because I read through it the one time, handed it to mom, and wandered off to different things.
It'll just be a bit like when various of you talk about Star Trek, except whereas with Star Trek, all I can do is smile and nod through lack of exposure due to lack of interest from day one, I have to admit with HP I am a little more curmudgeonly because I *did* at one time consider myself at least a bit of a fan, and now am left feeling vaguely weird by it all.
...this is not difficult, because I honestly started to lose a lot of interest in the HP series around Goblet of Fire.
I'm weird in what I read... I will read and reread and reread a lot of series that aren't all THAT much better than series that I find myself disdaining. It's a mood thing, and a tone-of-author thing... and there's a lot of little quibbles that I wind up having regularly. Sometimes I manage to suspend my disbelief and go along for a ride, other times I can't, and sometimes, even when I manage to get into a world setting, I wind up finding myself wanting to hit characters over the head because their logic/emotions doesn't match my logic/emotions.
Honestly, at this point, my only interest in any Harry Potter movie is to get a chance to see Alan Rickman and/or Jacob Isaacs. And since I can also just grab Dogma or Peter Pan off the DVD shelf here, no biggie on those accounts either.
Some of my issue with HP was that in later books, Rowling seemed to be allowed almost too much free reign. I found paragraphs and scenes that I felt could have used some editing/shortening. Things that to me felt superfluous to the story flow and engaging characters and happenings. I don't think she's a HORRIBLE writer, but she's not really a style of writer that I dig when she rambles on or does this or that turn. Some of her phrasing is awkward to me, and has been since book one, but by book three it seemed to be getting a little more out there.
I think the first book, I was really drawn to because it in some way reminded my of my old Roald Dahl books. But as she got more complex, some of that initial joy faded somewhat.
Some of my issue was that some of the plot points and devices were getting a bit old to me. I'm not going to say that the characters weren't maturing, or that they were ALWAYS repeating the exact same formulae, but... at times I started feeling like Inu Yasha had made me feel: YAY there was character developme- hey, wait, why are we back to square one for this particular behavioral pattern? I thought we were closer to a good wrap up....
Some of my issue was that the books did get darker and darker and zomg darker. I mean, I've read and enjoyed grim books, I've had characters I like be killed off, but around Order of the Phoenix I just... kinda burned out. It seemed like *over*kill-off to me. There was something about the very nature of how I enjoyed the early books that was worn down, and I found myself not really laughing at the bits left in to be laughed at, because I was still just kind of going "huh? what... the fuck..?" over the tragedies. When I read HBP and Dumbledore died, I actually found myself kind of numb, and not caring, because it'd been... well.. inevitable and telegraphed, and just... I didn't see a point to it that wasn't in some way, to me, cliche'd feeling.
The series just stopped working for me.
And I wouldn't really bring it up, because it's a personal opinion and whatnot, but I figure with a large number of people I know being excited, I should kind of give a general warning and my reasons behind it, as to why I'm not terribly receptive when THEY are excited, and why I'm not going to be a very good person to try conversing about Harry Potter things with. I haven't even reread the first couple of books in years, so am totally rusty about the bits I *did* like, and I barely remember two scenes at all from HBP, because I read through it the one time, handed it to mom, and wandered off to different things.
It'll just be a bit like when various of you talk about Star Trek, except whereas with Star Trek, all I can do is smile and nod through lack of exposure due to lack of interest from day one, I have to admit with HP I am a little more curmudgeonly because I *did* at one time consider myself at least a bit of a fan, and now am left feeling vaguely weird by it all.