AMANTE: More like Hogwash
I hate "Harry Potter."
I’ve never read the books, certainly never seen the movies and I have zero intention of doing so. The concept does nothing for me. Magic, wizards and the like — it’s boring and I just don’t like it.
My hatred isn’t Potter-specific; I eschew and loathe the "Twilight" and "Lord of the Rings" books and movies as well.
I’ve never been a fantasy genre fan. The “Narnia” books were boring, Greek mythology was wasted on me and I was never amused by any fairy tale.
When everyone was going nuts for the "Potter" books, I was instead reading modern novels and political biographies or immersed in whatever was assigned for my English class, ever the teacher’s pet.
My best friends in high school were "Potter" fans. I was supportive when Dumbledore died — the only "Potter" plot point I know of — all the while thinking, “Who cares? Why is that name so stupid?”
It made everyone far too emotional over wizardry. I don’t care about the magic, destiny or any of that crap.
And don’t even get me started on all of the branding. They squeezed this eighth movie out of this series for no good reason at all, except to make an easy $500 million domestically from the poor people who are willing to wait in line starting at 6 a.m. the month before tickets go on sale. In costume.
When one of the books was released, I attended a party hosted by a bookstore in an effort to support old friends and exhaust my morbid curiosity.
Everyone was dressed up and looked like cattle, waiting to be herded to the feed. The sheer commercialization of it all was offensive; strictly business.
Also, the books make otherwise rational people insane.
Do you remember when they were being banned for no reason other than that they had magic in them? Ridiculous.
People on both sides of the issue became so emotional about an average-at-best series. I’m not a fan of censorship in any way, but the fact that the fans fighting the censorship got so heated is just more evidence of the evils of sci-fi and fantasy books.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic "Potter" got books into kids hands. And I’m sure many of them are now avid readers, which is nothing short of spectacular. But it's McLiterature, it's pedestrian and read so frequently only because it’s socially required.
How many fans think critically or objectively about those books, holding discussions about their merits and flaws? I sincerely doubt very many, because most of the fans are so rabid and clouded when it comes to "Harry Potter."
Literature is meant to be critiqued and discussed, not just freely distributed without question. Popularity doesn’t equal quality, and that’s a major misunderstanding about these books and certainly one of my primary problems with the series.
Oh, yeah. I hate "American Idol" too. For mostly the same reasons.
