And more media consumed
Jan. 3rd, 2014 03:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethYesterday I watched the final Harry Potter film.
I stopped reading the books at some point, possibly Order of the Phoenix? I got angry with them because I decided the plot holes were too much and the characters were stupid and Harry was annoying. Or something.
Except I was also most very annoyed because some of my favourite authors had been getting a lot of accusations of being derivative, to use the politest phrasing; their accusers were frequently not polite. And this was stupid if anyone bothered to check the publication dates, or just knew how writing worked, because boarding school books are a genre and magic students are a genre and really Harry Potter is not especially new in its parts. Stories don't tend to have new parts, just new arrangements. So I got annoyed with Harry Potter, but it was really being annoyed with certain subsets of ignorant fan who wanted to prove theirs was best by shouting about how everything else was rubbish. Still, for a while I was kind of emphatic about my dislike.
I no longer hate Harry Potter.
So that's nice.
I'm glad other people like the stories, books and films. I still don't get it, but I'm glad other people are having fun with them.
I dislike the wizarding world quite a lot, because it makes magic something you're born with and then those that have the advantage keep it to themselves and use it to dominate others. Some progress is made in the books on the dominate others front, but there's still things they can do with magic that would be kind of handy to have available on the NHS instead of hidden away. And I know it's common to go with the born to power theme, but it props up old aristocratic and racist notions, so I dislike it quite intensely. Actually I have whole shelves full of that basic premise, I should go write a world where magic is more about studying and making alliances.
The films were very rich visually and I watched them without the same bumps of annoyance I remember I felt over books. Possibly whatever it was that annoyed me (which I don't recall) they just left it out. Or possibly my brain is different now.
I was still a bit annoyed though, because Harry and friends seem to think it's okay as long as its them. I mean, they have no respect for rules or the free will of others, but its okay because their cause is just. The other side think it's okay because they have the power to do it, might makes right. I'm unimpressed with either side and look forward to the muggle revolution. But sometimes it felt like the story was being all about that 'oh no, am I turning dark?' and then it kind of shrugged and kept going. Morally incoherent is the best I can figure.
The fantasy creature racism... it is wearying, and I'm sure bazillions of people have noticed.
The actual racism where people of colour are all background is ... what movies do, big sigh, moving on.
That last... film in two parts? Two films? Someone needed to point out to the director that 'darker' is about mood, tone, morals and consequences. Not actual lighting. With the TV on its usual settings I couldn't see much of anything, and with the settings tweaked everything went horribly blocky because my TV just doesn't have that much contrast to work with. Not an actually helpful storytelling choice, making it all look rubbish.
Also quite a lot of it was very boring.
The bit where Snape gets retconned, or reinterpreted, that was a bit odd to just drop in there. His objections to Dumbledore's behaviour seem very reasonable. It's proper creepy, setting a kid up to be killed. Harry going from thinking he's the big deal hero to knowing he's the sacrificial lamb is interesting though. Draco and his family seemed to be having an interesting story around the edges, the whole oops the dark lord is a bit too dark what the hell do we do now problem. I didn't like the bit where they sent all of Slytherin to the dungeons, I don't see how the whole of any group should be judged together or are likely to act together, there were Slytherin adults who were on different sides, it shouldn't be simples.
I think I felt by the end that killing Voldemort wasn't actually addressing the problem. Like, the wizard world has problems with cruelty, abuse of power, and racism, and there's this one dude who excels at all three and so has risen to the top, but that doesn't mean he alone is the problem. But put that alongside Draco and his family and it's sorting people out into redeemable and not, and then killing the not. Only then it skips 19 years and makes it seem like everything is just like it was when Harry was 11, which seems more like resetting the problem. I don't know.
These aren't big complains BTW, I'm just trying to figure out why I don't like what so many people like. The story did what it set out to do. Lots of swish special effects. Big grand heroics. Lots of dead people and lots of ghosts.
... why didn't he use that stone? He's spent much of the story wandering around bewailing his losses, he's sad everyones dead, and then there's a stone to bring them back. And he drops it. I guess he was having a moment where they were all cool with it so he's going to go off to die now, and then it's like a train station to somewhere even better than magic school, so that works out okay for him. Hmmm.
I like Neville. He was small and nobody paid much attention and then boom, heroics. Harry wasn't the one and only hero, lots of hero happened, like Hermione and Ron and everyone. Better. I like that.
There's quite a lot about the films to like. Adventure and excitement and all that. This time of watching I'm actually a bit :-( that I am not in fact excited. Oh well. Just not my fandom I guess.
Also yesterday I started reading the Best British Fantasy 2013. I really hope that's not actually the best, because if it is I'd have to be embarrassed for Britain. It seemed to veer between trying too hard and actually terrible. Also some of it is not in fact fantasy, which is pointed out in the introduction where the dude who collected the stories is saying how the borders between genres aren't all fixed and all. The one where aliens steal souls does I admit straddle usual genre lines, and leaves the cheap yet lingering creepy impression it was aiming for, but the one where someone's a prisoner on an alien planet is just science fiction, and not exactly impressive. Quite a lot of the stories suffer from the short story thing where they think they're a story but actually they're more of a setup. Or they think they've got a clever ending but no, that's just a middle with a full stop. Also some of them had a few genre twiddles in the background but mostly read like lit, like the teacher from the Short Story unit would have liked them; this is not a good thing. I got so bored half way through the book I went to sleep instead.
I do not seem to like things lately. Not many things, not much at all. Is a problem.
Blah.
I stopped reading the books at some point, possibly Order of the Phoenix? I got angry with them because I decided the plot holes were too much and the characters were stupid and Harry was annoying. Or something.
Except I was also most very annoyed because some of my favourite authors had been getting a lot of accusations of being derivative, to use the politest phrasing; their accusers were frequently not polite. And this was stupid if anyone bothered to check the publication dates, or just knew how writing worked, because boarding school books are a genre and magic students are a genre and really Harry Potter is not especially new in its parts. Stories don't tend to have new parts, just new arrangements. So I got annoyed with Harry Potter, but it was really being annoyed with certain subsets of ignorant fan who wanted to prove theirs was best by shouting about how everything else was rubbish. Still, for a while I was kind of emphatic about my dislike.
I no longer hate Harry Potter.
So that's nice.
I'm glad other people like the stories, books and films. I still don't get it, but I'm glad other people are having fun with them.
I dislike the wizarding world quite a lot, because it makes magic something you're born with and then those that have the advantage keep it to themselves and use it to dominate others. Some progress is made in the books on the dominate others front, but there's still things they can do with magic that would be kind of handy to have available on the NHS instead of hidden away. And I know it's common to go with the born to power theme, but it props up old aristocratic and racist notions, so I dislike it quite intensely. Actually I have whole shelves full of that basic premise, I should go write a world where magic is more about studying and making alliances.
The films were very rich visually and I watched them without the same bumps of annoyance I remember I felt over books. Possibly whatever it was that annoyed me (which I don't recall) they just left it out. Or possibly my brain is different now.
I was still a bit annoyed though, because Harry and friends seem to think it's okay as long as its them. I mean, they have no respect for rules or the free will of others, but its okay because their cause is just. The other side think it's okay because they have the power to do it, might makes right. I'm unimpressed with either side and look forward to the muggle revolution. But sometimes it felt like the story was being all about that 'oh no, am I turning dark?' and then it kind of shrugged and kept going. Morally incoherent is the best I can figure.
The fantasy creature racism... it is wearying, and I'm sure bazillions of people have noticed.
The actual racism where people of colour are all background is ... what movies do, big sigh, moving on.
That last... film in two parts? Two films? Someone needed to point out to the director that 'darker' is about mood, tone, morals and consequences. Not actual lighting. With the TV on its usual settings I couldn't see much of anything, and with the settings tweaked everything went horribly blocky because my TV just doesn't have that much contrast to work with. Not an actually helpful storytelling choice, making it all look rubbish.
Also quite a lot of it was very boring.
The bit where Snape gets retconned, or reinterpreted, that was a bit odd to just drop in there. His objections to Dumbledore's behaviour seem very reasonable. It's proper creepy, setting a kid up to be killed. Harry going from thinking he's the big deal hero to knowing he's the sacrificial lamb is interesting though. Draco and his family seemed to be having an interesting story around the edges, the whole oops the dark lord is a bit too dark what the hell do we do now problem. I didn't like the bit where they sent all of Slytherin to the dungeons, I don't see how the whole of any group should be judged together or are likely to act together, there were Slytherin adults who were on different sides, it shouldn't be simples.
I think I felt by the end that killing Voldemort wasn't actually addressing the problem. Like, the wizard world has problems with cruelty, abuse of power, and racism, and there's this one dude who excels at all three and so has risen to the top, but that doesn't mean he alone is the problem. But put that alongside Draco and his family and it's sorting people out into redeemable and not, and then killing the not. Only then it skips 19 years and makes it seem like everything is just like it was when Harry was 11, which seems more like resetting the problem. I don't know.
These aren't big complains BTW, I'm just trying to figure out why I don't like what so many people like. The story did what it set out to do. Lots of swish special effects. Big grand heroics. Lots of dead people and lots of ghosts.
... why didn't he use that stone? He's spent much of the story wandering around bewailing his losses, he's sad everyones dead, and then there's a stone to bring them back. And he drops it. I guess he was having a moment where they were all cool with it so he's going to go off to die now, and then it's like a train station to somewhere even better than magic school, so that works out okay for him. Hmmm.
I like Neville. He was small and nobody paid much attention and then boom, heroics. Harry wasn't the one and only hero, lots of hero happened, like Hermione and Ron and everyone. Better. I like that.
There's quite a lot about the films to like. Adventure and excitement and all that. This time of watching I'm actually a bit :-( that I am not in fact excited. Oh well. Just not my fandom I guess.
Also yesterday I started reading the Best British Fantasy 2013. I really hope that's not actually the best, because if it is I'd have to be embarrassed for Britain. It seemed to veer between trying too hard and actually terrible. Also some of it is not in fact fantasy, which is pointed out in the introduction where the dude who collected the stories is saying how the borders between genres aren't all fixed and all. The one where aliens steal souls does I admit straddle usual genre lines, and leaves the cheap yet lingering creepy impression it was aiming for, but the one where someone's a prisoner on an alien planet is just science fiction, and not exactly impressive. Quite a lot of the stories suffer from the short story thing where they think they're a story but actually they're more of a setup. Or they think they've got a clever ending but no, that's just a middle with a full stop. Also some of them had a few genre twiddles in the background but mostly read like lit, like the teacher from the Short Story unit would have liked them; this is not a good thing. I got so bored half way through the book I went to sleep instead.
I do not seem to like things lately. Not many things, not much at all. Is a problem.
Blah.
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 04:18 am (UTC)And what I recall from the book, he figured out he had the stone the whole time inside the snitch about five minutes before he heads off to die. I read the whole thing in one day, a couple years ago.