Personally I'm looking forward to the Poltergeist book and Hogwarts guide. I feel like I started missing out when I quit Pottermore, the snippets were interesting but a bit of a chore to read wordbuilding pieces, though I can understand a bit of the skepticism over the new books.
What I enjoyed as a kid discovering Harry Potter was awesome but I'm hoping and looking forward to these new books not being worldbuilding novel/snippets (like pottermore) like the article suggested. I want to see a short story that has all new material that'll hook me in and unveil stuff that makes you rethink the original story

Harry Potter stared in horror at Hermione Granger, Director of the The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She looked at him sadly and sternly said, "Harry I'm sorry to have to do this, but I can't let you go free and be a hypocrite about my new Freedom of Beings Act."
"I don't understand Hermione, how can you count DEMENTORS as beings?!" He nearly shouted.
"Harry, everytime you used a patronus you were practically crucio-ing those enslaved, sentinet beings. " Sh-

Wait, where am I going with this?!? That's not exactly what I'm saying I want to see but I'm pointing out that dementors origins have been mentioned a lot in fanfiction and hearing one of these new books are gonna shone new light on Azkaban is interesting. I don't know where she's going with it but anything on the mysterious wizard prison seems like it'll be fascinating. On the other hand if one of these new books are as insipid as I'm hearing Cursed Child is I might dig out my Sorcerer's Stone book read it and be disapointed as my fond childhood memories of the book are dashed by my older perspective. I can see the other side and how J.K shouldn't be trashed by everyone just for giving us more like a lot of fans DO want.

Maybe I'll feel cheated for reading 2 boring books and 3 really bad movies or I'll feel happy that I took a chance to dive back into the Harry Potter canon world, have no regrets and enjoy it all. Either way, like I said I'm looking forward to how it turns out and I'm happy that Rowling's giving us more.

 

If you don't get why we are irritated that Rowling is writing new stuff about her old characters, personally for me, it's because what she did in The Cursed Child is straight up character slaughter. Unlike fanfiction, whatever she writes automatically enters my mind as canon, whether I like it or not, ruining the fictional world I used to love.

Also, she has obviously lost her fertile imagination, because every explanation or backstory we get is either terrible, or less imaginative than your average fanfiction. She can give us capturing mysteries, but she doesn't actually have satisfying answers to those mysteries. So I'm not holding any hopes for the backstory on Azkaban, and I bet that the backstory on Slughorn and Riddle will just be another cliche "Slughorn is a pedophile" bit.

You might not agree, but it's our right to be irritated.

 

I didn't say it wasn't, just that I disagreed on the automatic bias to her new stories just based on the play versus the 7 canon books. After all didn't she co-write Cursed Child?
Can you really say she's lost her imagination if she's been continuing Harry Potter all along, giving us snippets on pottermore and expanding on her world every once in a while by giving us tidbits that change our perspective.

I'm just saying keep an open mind.

 

Okay, what are you smoking? Seriously what the fuck are you smoking? Character slaughter? What? If you're of the opinion that anything she writes must be canon (I'm not, I consider the seven books to be canon and that's it.) then fine, but the words Alternate Universe exists for a reason. If you don't like the way she wrote someone, write him/her differently. Rowling is a writer, and she has ownership over an entire universe that has captivatrd millions. She probably loves exploring her world almost as much as, if not more than, everyone here. If she wants to share her stories with the world, that's her choice. It's YOUR choice if you want to read it or not. Personally I'm not touching Cursed Child or this new stuff but that's me. If you're gonna read her stories don't bitch later that it's character slaughter. She writes the way she envisioned the HP world to be. You can write your own version.

To everyone who keeps complaining about these stories and accusing JKR of avarice...

She's got more than enough money to last her a lifetime and her kids could probably live comfortably for a long time with their inheritance. Shes writing to write because writers love writing.

 

Holy shit, do you know what an "opinion" is? are you really trying to change how I feel about this?

As I said, I don't choose whether to take her work as canon or not. The books were a huge obsession of mine during childhood and that world was always very real for me. I accept whatever she writes as direct reports from that world - again, not as a choice, but automatically. I can't just "write it differently", because it wouldn't be canon for me, wouldn't be as real. There's no point to write my own version of it just like there's no point to write my own version of World War II. And if you haven't read CS, please don't tell me that it isn't character slaughter. Or world slaughter.

Yes, it's my choice to read it. I CHOSE to read it because otherwise I wouldn't know if I like it or not. That's the catch. And yes, it's her choice to write shitty stories. Just like it's my choice to be salty about it. I've explained to you why we are irritated about it, just accept it instead of telling us not to be irritated, because that's not going to happen.

 

Why's it gotta be a binary decision? Put JK up on the pedestal for creating HP or shit on her for stupid stuff? I still appreciate what JK has done and it doesn't prevent me from saying that CC sucks harder than a hull breach in a vacuum. Yeah, it's her right to expand the universe and it's ours to judge it. Argue for your viewpoint, but undeserved ad hominem detracts from your argument.

 

To be fair, when we do it, if we write something stupid, or asinine, or that creates a plothole in the preexisting work that you could drop the Burj Khalifa into, it can be handily and summarily ignored.

When she does it, and writes something stupid, or asinine, or world-breaking, it's Canon - and smug idiots will delight in pointing that fact out to you.
Repeatedly.



Addendum 1: The world is full of idiots waiting for their chance to be smug.

Exhibit A: Cursed Child... and many points of the Ilvermorny backstory.

 

I actually really liked the Ilvermony backstory what points are you talking about?
Genuinely curious cause I liked how it was a little different from the Pottermore stuff and kinda outlined a plot for like a short story and the dream of going to Hogwarts excused the copying of houses and all.
Also really liked Pukwudgie if that's what its called I liked how William lived a long time and hey come on people they're not a BLATANT copy of goblins, bodyguards vs bankers

 

Please correct me if I am wrong but I don't think Rowling was the only one who wrote the cursed child.

I can see why this world building would appeal to some and I can also see why others would want something different to a pottermore style book. I don't mind which one either way.

I will wait for when they are released and read the reviews to get a general feel of the books before I purchase them. I must agree though that I have less faith in these books than I would've had if the cursed child had not been written like a terrible piece of fanfiction. Maybe because Rowling will have written these on her own they will be better?

 

The biggest worry here for me is quality wise. I'm fairly open minded and happy that she will be releasing more content, but her recent additions to the HP universe has been less than stellar, so I am slightly skeptical about what it will be.

However, I see no real reason to get upset over this so far, so I guess we will see.

 

If you think "what the fuck are you smoking?" or "Don't bitch later..." is an ad hominem then I recommend you review what ad hominem actually means. I'm not attacking his character personally. What the fuck are you smoking is my way of expressing my disbelief at his opinion ( in other words, expressing my opinion which is the opposite of his hence said disbelief). I don't actually know or care if he's smoking anything.

And while it is your right to judge her writing, it is not your right to attack her character either. Now I'm not talking about you specifically, Scott, since I'm fairly sure you didn't say anything on the subject matter, but the whole "Rowling can't let HP go because of money" is kinda attacking her character no?

Atram Noctem Even if it might not come off that way in my last post, I can respect that you thought the new book and other Pottermore stuff to be trash. I was only arguing your character slaughter point, since character slaughter implies that the characters were "supposed" to be written a certain way but then weren't. However, since JKR owns the characters, she can write them however she wants and thats the way that they're "supposed" to be written because she was the creator in the first place.

Call it trash if you like, by all means be salty about it, I won't argue either way since I haven't read any of it, but character slaughter is not what happened.

Edit (cuz I forgot Scott asked a question): It's not a binary decision at all. Read it if you want, hate if you wish, trash it if you must. I just disagree with character slaughter and world slaughter, since they are inherently not something the creator of the series can do. Hell JKR could accuse DLP of "character slaughter" by making Harry a dark powerful independent hero and have more of a valid point than we do.

 

That explains so much.


Edit: er . . . the :fire smilie at the end of this post took on a very different connotation due to context.

 

According to pottermore the three new books appear to be available to read. Has any one read them yet? Are they just the writing from the old pottermore site that Rowling released? Or are they in fact brand new short stories?

 

I am personally indifferent to any sort of hype or hate. Sure, I look forward to it, but just because how spiritually invested I am in Harry Potter.

I'll devour anything she puts out, or that is remotely related to Harry Potter and canon.