No.

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Yes.

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You obviously don't read enough Harry Potter and Teh Sparkly Hufflepuff...

 

Having seen the musical awesomeness of A Very Potter Musical, the word Quirrellmort means nothing more to me than Voldemort/Quirrell bromance set to a snappy soundtrack.

 

I really liked the update. The author has again changed a significant event from canon, and it kinda cheapens the thing, but I still enjoyed reading it. Excerpts from the AN follow.

This seems important: :

I still think what reads as just the author pontificating is exactly that, but I'll read that linked story just in case.

Review whoring from the AN:

The author feels unappreciated that the hints supposedly left throughout the fic are not picked upon by reviewers:

The author being funny:

 

God I hope that some ff.nazi admin "accidentally" deletes this story so that this LessWrong loses all his precious reviews. I mean he wants people to pour over his work carefully trying to find his "diligently embedded hints" and he actually states this? He also considers himself an equal to J.K. Rowling? Arrogance of this kind, I don't think I've ever seen it.

 

Having read the Dementor takedown, I can attest that it isn't any better than any of the others.

In fact, where all the others were simply bad, this one is kinda insulting (if you read the AN that goes along with it), because the author has the audacity to claim that, despite JKR being explicit in her explanation of what Dementors are, his version of Dementors (which is what the takedown is based on) is by far more legitimate. He doesn't really offer any proper reason for this other than his own ego ("I know JKR said Dementors represent depression and despair, but come on, they're so totally death, I can just tell, I mean just look at them, and I am so clever you must all agree with me").


Here it is:

1. It's never said they look like corpses. They're skeletal in some way, yes, but we're never given a proper description of what's under the cloak.

2. He's totally missed the whole thematic point JKR was trying to convey with Dementors, which were inspired by her deep depression after the death of her mother - that depression is seemingly unbeatable (i.e. unkillable) and will crop up everywhere (Dementors breed wherever there is depression), can be fended off by genuine happiness and friends (Patronus; Harry's Patronus is usually powered by a memory of friendship), but if it gets you in its grip, you will feel like you'll never be happy again (permanence of the kiss).

His "Ravenclaw riddle" should read more like this if he is describing Dementors properly: "What can be avoided but never eradicated, will multiply in its own company, and if it gets you in its grip will not let you go? Friendship and joy are anathema to it." The answer is not death.

3. Seriously? He thinks the opposite to happiness is death, not depression? And he thinks he's clever?

 

YO LESSWRONG!

I see that you are currently viewing this thread. C'mon tell us what you think!

 

If there's one thing I hate more than a crappy slash writer, it's a review whore.

 

The author is clever, I'll give him that. But I suspect he lacks the life experience to appreciate, truly, what soul-crushing depression is. (It is possible that he has some psychological predispositions making this difficult--his online persona does evince most of the symptoms for narscissistic personality disorder, e.g.)

Within the context of Yudkowski's Rationality fable, his interpretation of Dementors has validity and I'm willing to extend him this much artistic license for the sake of telling a story. In the space of the Harry Potter writ large, however, it doesn't.

And this, friends, is why you shouldn't read Author's Notes--doing so just makes you hate something that would otherwise be fine, had the author just kept his yapper closed.

Disclaimer: I'm a physicist, not a psychologist. I'm not qualified to offer a professional opinion on anyone's psychological disorders. What I stated above is merely an opinion based on patterns of behavior observed in the number of people I've known who were diagnosed with narscissistic personality disorder.

 

You blew it, now he's going to make sure to log out whenever he's viewing the thread.

 

Don't get why something this poor has garnered so much attention.

Boring, narcissistic writing with the literary flair of an eight year old and some of the worst attempts at humour I've read in a long time.

Things like this, as opposed to the awful slashy drivel is what makes me fucking rage about FFNet and on this occasion, DLP.

For shame.

 

I think the author's notes are more entertaining than the story.

 

I have enjoyed this so far.

There are masses of problems - far too many to name here - and it is massively, massively AU, to the point where a lot of the content is completely irrelevant to canon and relevant only to the fiction itself. Where some charactisation is excellent, be it original canon depictions or out of, other characters are very badly handled (an example of good would be Minerva or OoC!Suave!Quirrel, an example of bad would be Petunia or Hermione, by my opinion). I also read up to chapter 12-ish very conscious of the fact that I wasn't yet enjoying the story, and that I was doing what I've had to for various authors, from China Meiville to Tad Williams, in that I was gambling on its potential. This fiction also does not have a specifically focused plot - yet.

I think the gamble paid off, to some extent; there is also a lot of good about it. I think it's a workable idea, one of the better plots to derive from the 'alternative-raising' theme, even if the original character father is a pain in the arse. A few of the more humourous parts had me really laughing - but if it isn't your sort of humour you'll know from pretty early on. I'm enjoying the plot(s), some of the better written characters, some of the conversations (one of the better Harry & Dumbles arguments I've ever read) and, big plus, it took me more than one day to read it - I'm a wordcount whore, and usually won't start reading a WIP until it's 150k+. This has reached 280k in seven months.

I also am a fan - sometimes - of HP/HG pairing stories. I know that is a red flag on DLP, but if it's written well, it can be more interesting and feasible than any other. This is not a good H/Hr story - or rather, it isn't actually a H/Hr story at all. There are one or two moments, but the author, to his credit, is aware that his subjects are eleven, and that what you're like at eleven and what you're like at twelve or older is massively different. He is aware of how bizarre and stupid a child, no matter how much they're right from their perspective, looks in that scenario.

Yes, the author is very narcissistic and at times, in A/Ns or in lengthy fic passages, very droll. Some of the more intricate five/six-level-deep plots are all but impenetrable. But 'narcissistic, droll and impenetrable' could also describe the Silmarilllion, which is excellent.

On the author, though: I consider it very bad form to criticise the author of the original fiction you're writing fanfiction about while your fanfic is a work in progress and you're writing those criticisms within the A/Ns and in the updated-by-chapter story synopses (though I'm aware a lot of people do critique canon during their stories). But the author is also a scientist, so a) he has to criticise everything and b) his work has the trademark flaws, just as fiction by journalists or television personalities have trademark flaws, pursuant to those professions.

With this under consideration, I do like the story itself a lot - whilst somewhat flawed in execution I've yet to read a fanfic that isn't, and the author has done that which is done successfully very rarely, in taking the bare bones of the HP canon, stripping all of the pieces he doesn't like, replacing them with original creations and building from there. Which is what I think fanfiction is all about. It can't be measured by feasibility, but rather should be measured by creativity. It's the same reason I like Miranda Flairgold's work - rebuilding from the ground up and maintaining a relatively decent narrative, with a few strong characters to centralise it and a relatively distant goal to keep it progressing, you end up with a story that is teetering on epic scale. This story is still, even after a quarter of a million words, relatively young.

Yes, there are better stories and better authors. But I find myself looking forward to seeing where it goes next.

3.5/5

G.L.

 

I think you're reading this because you (a) "get" the humor, and (b) like to read long, rambling fics about anything - as long as it is wordy. Neither of which merit even a 2/5.

This shit is unacceptable, and to still rate it relatively high on te slim chance that something actually happens to really drive the plot (LOL) forward shits on the whole purpose behind the rating system.

 

a) Yes, I get the humour.

b) No, not 'long rambling fics about anything' necessarily, but I like a good mass of story to get into. There are plenty of very wordy stories that aren't to my taste. This particular one is.

Saying a seven month old story that doesn't appear to be approaching conclusion is relatively young is unacceptable? The entire review was unacceptable? The story was unaceptable? What 'shit', exactly, was unacceptable, and why?

On a 'slim chance' that something moves the plot forwards... Perhaps you misunderstood. I thought I'd clearly said;

Which was one of the listed reasons for the 'relatively high' rating. What I was attempting to express was that I don't think the author, despite my general enjoyment of the story so far, has yet explored the deepest parts of his own plots and subplots, and that I'm eagerly anticipating further developments and resolutions. As in: I'm looking forward to the ending. Perhaps I should have made that clearer, though it was a side-note more than anything else - I did not rate 3.5 because I have the magical gift of foresight and predict more good things to come.

I think, after 47 chapters and a review of my honest opinion on the story (read: my opinion) the last thing I've done is shat 'on the whole purpose behind the rating system'. If anything, I thought that was the point behind the rating system - to give a piece of work a rating depending on your opinion and appreciation of said piece of work. I was not rating for what is to come. I was rating for what is there already. If you disagree with me about my opinion, fine - tastes differ. And what. If you disagree with me about whether the rating system is for everyone to use to agree with one another as opposed to giving objective ratings, you're insane.

 

Really? You really want to compare this PoS to the Silmarilllion? Mind=blown.

 

@Grinning Lizard: It's not just a seven-month old story - it's a seven-month old story with a quarter of a million words and nearly 50 chapters. There is no end in sight, just subplot after subplot after subplot, all pointed towards teaching rationality as opposed to telling a story.

You, personally, are not the unacceptable shit - because you aren't the only one approving of these shitty stories. It's the act of rating ridiculous stories, to the point that they stand alongside quality fics, that's unacceptable. All of the reasons you gave for liking this story describe a guilty pleasure - which almost never deserve anything more than a 2. The collective "you" who give this story any sort of high rating, much less attention, is as enembee said: a shameful reflection on DLP.

I myself will probably leave a "review" about some obviously poor story that says " :awesome/5" or something dumb, but when it comes to actually rating it, I either put a 2, a 1, or (most often) don't rate at all.

And no, I don't think you have the magical gift of forsight, but given how you've been shown (and seem to understand) how the bad in this fic outweighs the good, yet still feel justified in rating it a 3.5*, I can only assume that you see something coming down the pipe that most of us don't.

And what the rest of us see, is absolutely nothing.



*Compare Methods of Rationality to everything else in the library that merits a 3.5 based on the reviews of other, more respected members than you and I, and tell me how this possibly compares - aside from minimal spelling errors.

 

I personally don't feel guilty enjoying this story - but nor do I think it should be in the DLP library.

It's an enjoyable timewaster - but it's nothing more than that.