Hello there, again, DLP.

Ok, before you start flaming me for the title, read what I have to write.

I have gotten a speech competition thingy for my school. Three to four minute speech and the usual crap that follows, and we have to choose a topic on a list.

One of the topic is, as you might have guessed, "Is Harry Potter overrated?"

I was thinking about doing that one, because the other ones are just boring.

The thing is, I think that the answer depends on a) how much you've liked the books and b) whether you're expressing a honest opinion or, as the saying goes, 'just going with the crowd'. (Is there such a saying?)

If you've got time, and I'm guessing you do, since you're reading this thing, then any suggestions, ideas, inspirations etc. etc. that you'd like to drop off are welcome. Or just opinions on the topic. Who knows, I might actually get first place this year. (I've got second place last year in which you had to pretend to be a famous person. I was JKR, if anyone was interested.)

Due on the 29th of May, so I've still got time. If this topic craps up, I might choose another one.

Looking forward to your replys,

Qwerty.

 

You already said it in a way, but judging a book to be "overrated" is highly subjective. The definition of "to overrate" is "to rate or appraise too highly; overestimate" (Dictionary.com); this automatically makes it a personal judgement. There are certain books that I think most people would agree to be overrated (i.e. Twilight), but you will still find people who believe them to be the best books ever (my sister for one). So it all comes down to whether you liked it or not, unless it falls into the category of "trashy romance novel" type books that people like to read even though they know that the books are crap; but I don't think Harry Potter can qualify for that.

If you're allowed to advocate a personal opinion, then you could use this topic, but I doubt that you could prove conclusively that Harry Potter is overrated.

My personal opinion: as a series, it is a bit overrated. A couple of the books are especially good - 1,3, and 4 come to mind - but the others are mediocre at best.

 

Hmmmm….I think there are all kinds of ways to answer that question, and it depends on what you think matters about literature. That makes it highly subjective, as coleam45 put it. Here are some ways of thinking about it though:

Is Harry Potter Overrated?

Yes
JKR is ultimately a mediocre writer who sucks at plotting (cf., Books 6 and 7).

She has an incredible imagination and was able to create a universe that inspired and pulled in many people, but she also didn’t bother to think through the logic of her universe, leaving us with gaping plot holes.

When you put Harry Potter up against the classics of fantasy literature (like Alice in Wonderland or LotR), it fails to compare in terms of complexity, logic, and style.

Oh, and the HP books feature Ron and Ginny Weasley as characters. Automatic point deduction.

No
The books are enormously popular, and have sold something like 400(?)million copies worldwide. They have been translated into virtually every language under the sun, and an enormous amount of fans continue to write and read HP fanfiction. Fanfiction.net alone has over 400k Harry Potter fics. HP can’t be overrated if so many people are still captivated by it.

My answer: it hardly matters anymore. Everybody knows the books have flaws, but the fact is that Harry Potter was the new Star Wars for a generation of kids. Try finding someone between the ages of 12 and 25 who hasn’t at least read one of the books. HP is a touchstone that everyone has an opinion on; love them or hate them, the books have left a bigger imprint on our cultural imagination than any other work of literature in recent years.

Good luck on your speech.

 

Time magazine did a spot last week (or two weeks ago) about Star Trek that YOU SHOULD READ. It talks about a show that was so so but became that money machine we all love.
Points to make. The harry potter books took up 3 or more of the NY Times best seller list so the made a children's book best seller list.
Did Harry Potter win any of the major Literary awards?
Have you looked a book award lists? The noble prize winners for the first half of the 20th century where are the now, Out of print...
Now winning a Newbury award, those books do much better on the Test of Time. One of the big things about the Harry Potter craze is that it busted a decline in childrens reading and adults reading to kids, buying kids books, it revitalized the children's section budget's in city librarys and school library, at a time when cable,internet, and nintendo where the big things.
You have five minutes, write a fifteen minute speech, edit like heck, practice three to five times and blow the doors open.

 

The angle I would take on this:

By the standards of academic literature, yes, Harry Potter is over rated. JKR isn't clever with words like Shakespeare, the themes of her writing are all fairly shallow and obvious (Pureblood = nazi, fairly in your face), many of the characters are undeveloped, the ending of the story is a deus ex machina.

However, I would then go on to say that the fact that HP isn't academic literature is its greatest strength. It was the fact that it's just a good story that made it so successful. It has no pretentiousness about it, it doesn't pretend to tell you how to live your life or convey deep meaning to you. It's just a good story.

And in that respect, no, it isn't over-rated. There mere idea of people proposing that it's over-rated is based on some idea of how literature has to be. An idea which is, in my opinion, false.

Let the people decide. And the people have spoken resoundingly, and have voted with their money.

 

I agree with Taure about the reason for the appeal of the books. The books are not a chore to read, and there's no reason to look for deep allegories in them. They are, above all else, charming; a fun place to visit.

That said, it's worth noting that academia has embraced Harry Potter as well. There are now Harry Potter courses at the college level, and several volumes of professional literary criticism have been published. Believe it or not, there are annual Harry Potter conferences where otherwise respectable college professors gather to read papers about Harry Potter. Just another thing that points to the lasting cultural relevance of the books.

 

I would say that the genious is in the idea, not the writing. In terms of worldwide popularity, it is a bit (bit?) overrated. Although I always thought that the whole reason people love this series isn't because of the actual literature, but because of the 'magical world' it portrays.

Seriously, you could do just about anything with JKR's material. Think about how many fanfictions there would be worldwide. Gosh, did I just answer your question while avoiding the question?

Liar. You are not sixteen.

Eh! Am I aceing this forum or what?

 

Not necessarily. Sometimes it's a better tactic to mention the opposing points but paint them in a bad light such that you can dismiss them easily without going in depth.

For example...

"Rowling is no Shakespeare, that much is certain. But was she ever meant to be Shakespeare? No. The kind of stories JKR writes are of an entirely different type to Shakespeare's, and I'm not just talking about genre."

 

Yes.
It's the most overrated thing since Final Fantasy VII.

IN BEFORE SHITSTORM

 

You think that will start a shitstorm? Inform them that Final Fantasy in general is utter garbage, especially as far as RPGs are concerned. It is the C student of RPGs.

 

So did I, actually. I'm just not deluding myself into thinking it's the greatest RPG (or the greatest RPG series) in existence.

 

Not a typo. I'm 15 years old. LOL.

Thanks, everyone, by the way, your tips are very useful. I've already written a draft and am hoping to correct some points using what I've gotten from this thread replies.

You guys rock, and keep them coming!

EDIT: Cheddar, I'm a girl.

 

...

Such a blatant trap.

 

Indeed, but it's ok because I have...




He protects me from traps.

 

Goddamn, Yu-Gi-Oh was awesome and I owned at it. Fucktons better than the Pokemon based card game - that shit was confusing and no one knew how to play.

/nerdgasm