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Am I the only one who liked Harry Potter and the cursed child? + general thoughts abo

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by Canterpiece, Nov 14, 2016.

  1. Canterpiece

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    Sometimes I wonder this. I read a copy a while ago of the book, and admittedly... I liked it. The reviews I’ve come across have been pretty negative so far, and I can understand why, but eh…I don’t think it’s as bad as some people make it out to be.
    Fantasy, Albus and some thoughts.

    I’ve read all seven books and seen the films, although I didn’t really have much of a choice (my sister is a massive Harry Potter nerd and she pretty much forced me to read the books back to back). Now, I have mixed feelings towards the books, and at the time I wasn’t fully invested in the stories. I saw it as somewhat of a chore, don’t get me wrong there were elements of the story I enjoyed but since it was kind of forced on me and hyped up, well it kind of ruined the experience, you know?

    Sometimes I’d drift off and start wondering about unrelated things, like what it’d be like if I was on an alien planet and I was stuck in a zoo made up of captured humans and how I would escape (and if I could escape such a situation). Yeah, I think about weird things.

    For me, the fantasy elements were the most enjoyable. I liked this idea of Hogwarts houses, mythical creatures roaming around, staircases moving, and patronusus…that kind of thing. But I was never that invested in the main story, more so the world it was set in. I think if I’d been a Hogwarts student, I would’ve spent all my time researching deeply into hippogriffs, looking into transfiguration spells and trying to figure out how magic works.

    I watched a review recently that explained the possible reason that the play/book was so ill-received from fans. The reason he gave was that the cursed child gave the series quite a dramatic shift in genre. I liked the description of the seven books he gave “a mystery series disguised as a fantasy”, and when you think about it- a sense of mystery is a major part of the series. He also went into detail about how JK Rowling’s writings tend to be more dialogue based and focus more on building up bonds between characters, rather than action.

    Whereas “The cursed child” had different writers and focused more on action based sequences, and the humour and dialogue is less subtle and certainly has a different tone than the other books. In theory, I should hate it. But I don’t. I think a key difference for me was the characters, is it bad I kind of relate to Albus?

    A common complaint I keep hearing is that he was written too angsty, but despite all that, there were certainly scenes in the story that were a bit too close for comfort for me. A scene in particular stands out, which was the one where Albus and Harry were arguing, and Harry blurts something among the lines of “I don’t want to be responsible for your own unhappiness anymore!” to Albus.

    That scene hit me like a ton of bricks. It just seemed to echo some of the conversations I’ve had in the past with my own family, where I’ve been accused of being unhappy just for the sake of acting out and causing trouble, when actually I was just going through something what felt difficult at the time but I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it, nor was I sure how to.

    I guess I can be somewhat angsty at the best of times, but I am a teenager after all. I know what it’s like to not meet other’s expectations, be somewhat of a loner and hate school so much I’d dream about truanting. For me, Albus’ experiences remind me of how I felt about secondary school and how much I loathed it.

    I never really felt that connection to Harry. Scorpius reminded me of the more positive side of myself, one I don’t show that often if I’m honest. It’s impossible to hate Scorpius really, he’s just a lovable character that’s seen the worst and tries to take the best out of it.

    Scorpius:

    What I liked about Scorpius is that he never denies the horror of his situation, and I remember talking about how certain branches of optimism are rather pessimistic when you stop and consider it in my “Why are we seemingly addicted to sadness?” thread.

    I talked about how certain people will tell others to “not think about life too much and just enjoy it” and how the implications of that are actually quite negative. It implies that life is a negative thing, something to be ignored and not thought about too much otherwise it will get you down. I’m not a fan of this view, and I think life can be enjoyable even when you think about it in detail.
    I think there are times when we should relax, but I don’t think it’s a topic that should be avoided entirely.

    That’s why I enjoyed Scorpius’ optimism, he didn’t shy away from what he’s been through and what he’d seen, he embraced it. He accepted that it happened, and has clearly thought about it but he doesn’t let it consume him either. He gathers meaning from it and strength to move on. In a character, to me that is admirable. He doesn’t just try and block it from his mind and don a “just don’t think about it” perspective, but instead allows himself time to think over it and process things before moving on, becoming a more rounded individual in the process.
    Talk genre to me….
    Now let’s talk about genres. Recently, I’ve been thinking about what I do, and do not enjoy in a story. Often enjoyment of a story is subjective and depends on the reader. I’ve come to the realisation that I tend to prefer more visual, action based stories than ones more solely based on dialogue.

    I think this is part of the reason that I enjoyed following the plot of UBOS more than the Harry Potter series. For those of you that don’t know UBOS was a TV show, that often received criticism for being too similar to Harry Potter. In some regards, the plot is close to the Harry Potter series in that they both centre around a young boy wizard with two close friends taking on a wizarding school, however the UBOS series was more based on adventure and action, and each episode usually included at least one magic duel with the evil wizard.

    It was less to do with mystery, and focused more on the insanity that a fantasy world brings which inevitably lead to some quite humorous moments.

    I think the series worked because of the main character Vern, who would probably fit into the “flat Earth atheist” trope.

    Flat-Earth Atheist - TV Tropes

    This is where most of the humour came from, a fish out of water story if you will. Don’t get me wrong, UBOS had a fair share of faults (particularly when it came to logic and sometimes continuity, along with some contrived plot points) but for me the humour and overall zaniness of the show made up for it. The show was unapologetic about the bizarre world it was based in, and somehow the other characters’ actions and how they all acted like it was normal (because it was normal to them) and how they acted like Vern was the weird one grabbed my interest.

    I liked how there were more magic duels and that there was more focus on fantasy creatures, and Vern’s struggle to adjust to the magic world. Whereas in Harry Potter it never really touched upon what is was like in terms of terms of technology (if I remember correctly, technology didn’t work with Hogwarts very well, and in general technology and magic just didn’t mix. In UBOS the magic world just wasn’t bothered about normal people technology, except Vern which isolates him even more).

    My own writings…

    Personally, I quite like reading plays. When I write stories, I tend to imagine myself in the situation and I like to have an image in my mind of what is happening as I write. My stories tend to be quite sensual, often to a fault as one of the major criticisms I receive from others is that I didn’t say where my scene was set at, but I do go into immense detail on what the background is like to the character (how loud it is, the smells, sights, etc.) but my characters can be somewhat prone to tunnel vision, so it can be hard to communicate where the story is set when the character is more concerned with someone’s baby who just won’t shut up. I have this problem even when I write in third person.

    What do you think? Do you think the cursed child was poorly written? Where could it improve? Let me know your thoughts, and if you’ve managed to read all this- I’m impressed. I know I want on a lot and this was certainly a long post.

    ---------- Post added 14th Nov 2016 at 10:15 PM ----------

    The title was meant to say "+ general thoughts about genres" by the way.

    Also, here's a link to the thread I mentioned: http://emptyclosets.com/forum/chit-chat/219739-why-we-seemingly-addicted-sadness.html

    I can't seem to find the review I watched, but if I come across it again I'll add a link here. :slight_smile:
     
  2. perpetuality

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    Re: Am I the only one who liked Harry Potter and the cursed child? + general thoughts

    I think that because it seems to be totally different from the books that came before it, people dislike it. It would be a good book standing alone, but it doesn't quite measure up to the high standards of the harry potter books.
     
  3. zeroth

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    Re: Am I the only one who liked Harry Potter and the cursed child? + general thoughts

    I didn't even know gay-baiting was a thing until I read Cursed Child. All throughout there's a heavy gay subtext (or not so sub) until the end when it's Hey, we like girls!

    Cop. Out.

    The conflicts between... everyone? never seemed real or defined, it seemed like conflict just for conflict's sake. Well, maybe not between Draco and Scorpius, but Scorpius was more a defined character than Albus.

    The script as published is, I think, a rehearsal script, so I'm guessing the refined finished play text will come along later. I hope it's much better, otherwise this has a Star Wars Ep 1-3 like stink all over it.
     
  4. Asking

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    Re: Am I the only one who liked Harry Potter and the cursed child? + general thoughts

    Yes.
     
  5. Opheliac

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    Re: Am I the only one who liked Harry Potter and the cursed child? + general thoughts

    I just thought it was a VERY weak story. I'm sure it's wonderful on stage (plenty of plays have weak stories but move forward on their interpretation/cast/production values) but I can't possibly understand how it was approved to be canon.

    JK Rowling herself had written a little thing on Pottermore about how she went into the subject of time travel too lightly, and didn't consider the consequences it would have had on the series as a whole, so she made conscious attempts to write time turners out of the series in the later books. This little piece was written years ago and frankly, the fact that she would go back on the perfectly logical reasoning she displayed there is very suspect.

    Also Voldemort having a daughter is just WTF.

    EDIT: found it.

    "I went far too light-heartedly into the subject of time travel in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. While I do not regret it (Prisoner of Azkaban is one of my favourite books in the series), it opened up a vast number of problems for me, because after all, if wizards could go back and undo problems, where were my future plots?

    I solved the problem to my own satisfaction in stages. Firstly, I had Dumbledore and Hermione emphasise how dangerous it would be to be seen in the past, to remind the reader that there might be unforeseen and dangerous consequences as well as solutions in time travel. Secondly, I had Hermione give back the only Time-Turner ever to enter Hogwarts. Thirdly, I smashed all remaining Time-Turners during the battle in the Department of Mysteries, removing the possibility of reliving even short periods in the future.

    This is just one example of the ways in which, when writing fantasy novels, one must be careful what one invents. For every benefit, there is usually a drawback."

    https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/time-turner
     
    #5 Opheliac, Nov 21, 2016
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2016