Kioshk, it seems to be that you forget that books like Huckleberry Finn were very popular in their time and weren't lauded by critics as great books. What is popular is what survives. A lot of great stuff survives besides not being popular in their time (Kafka comes to mind), but a lot of popular stuff survives too. You give Huckelbery Finnthe a lot of credit because it is labeled a Classic. But it sounds to me like you would be a hater of the book if you lived in those times. Harry Potter is a series that changed the landscape of books. More authors are able to publish because of Harry Potter.
I don't think you should constrain yourself to thinking good books are books in a certain genre. There's gold in every genre.

In other words, debating Harry Potter is as serious a debate as debating many other topics.

I personally think the books are great. I loved reading each one and some of the movies are good (the last one was great).

Is there some sort of law that says once you are over 17 you can only read 'real books'? What is a real book? James Patterson? Fyodor Dostoyevsky?

Harry Potter is literature. It's not invalid just because it falls outside of your preferences. Maybe you should take the time to experience something before condemning it.

I don't particularly like the HP books or movies, but I certainly don't begrudge anyone who does. They seem decently written and well made films. It's just not my cup of teas.

But don't get me started on the Twilight series of swill. THAT'S a phenomenon that deserves your ire.

The Harry Potter books are well told tales. People of all ages like a good story, get over it.

Pixar animated films also have wide appeal. Certainly children are the intended audience, but since they are done with such quality people of all ages enjoy them.

There are many, mamy very serious problems about the way people choose to live their life in this day and age. Why on earth would you even spend 30 seconds on this particular issue? I can't imagine why you care.

At risk of drawing the Lounge's collective ire, I somewhat understand what Kioshk is saying.

I'm happy people read, and you can read anything you want, and I think reading is inherently good and so on and so on and so on. But I also find it a bit creepy when adults get too into what is generally considered children's lit.

I'm sure you have your reasons, and they're all good, and I don't really care what you read and I'm happy that you do read, and maybe the books are really very good and will one day be remembered as great literature, and even if they're not they don't have to be to be enjoyable, and so on. All that's true.

I still find it a bit weird, at least on the mass scale that the HP series and movies seem to bring out.

I once knew an adult woman, 40+, who every year went to Disneyland for her birthday and who loved all things Disney. Is it any business of mine? No. But I still thought she was a freak.

If you are an adult that dresses up to stand in line for the books/movies, there is something wrong with you. The simple act of enjoying and discussing something that has become a huge pop culture staple is not 'creepy'.

I suppose it's better than them obsessing over childish politics.

You don't care for Huck Finn? Hemingway among others called it the greatest American novel. It was certainly morally audacious for its time and setting.

Lol at you I guess is the only thing to say.

I'm one of those people "going at each other" about the movie in OOT (you're wrong about that too, the thread has been completely civil). We were discussing a movie we'd recently seen and how well (or poorly) the actors that performed in it were. Isn't this a discussion forum? Isn't that the whole purpose of discussion forums? To discuss things?

The fact that you are passing judgment on the series without having read it makes you look pretty silly.

The fact that you called it "evil" that adults read and enjoy a series aimed at younger children is perhaps the stupidest thing I've ever read on 2p2 (and there's A LOT of competition in that regard.)

Standing on their own, can books, 5, 6 and 7 even be considered children's books? They're all pretty bleak and full of death and destruction.

+1

I think anyone that writes, makes movies or teaches, for children is a pedophile, and everyone that enjoys this stuff has a pack of diapers and a tutu in theis closet for horny days.

i liked the books and enjoy the movies...while i was in college my dream job was doing fx for a harry potter movie...thats not gonna happen, but some friends of mine from school did...

That is a pretty messed up children's book, imo.

Just because something's aimed at children or young adults doesn't mean adults can't enjoy it. Are you telling me I can't watch Batman: the Animated Series, or play Pokemon anymore? GTFO.

Landonfan,

I think a good way to look at this is yes:

If a few people play pokemon cards when they're 35, that's ok. When A LOT of people are playing pokemon cards at the age of 35... That raises an eye-brow. Do you see the difference?

Nobody is saying you can't enjoy Harry Potter. Or Pokemon, or Transformers... He's simply saying when the majority of the people are satisfied with toys made for 12 year olds - it might say something about the people...

That's all.

You can do whatever you want. Are you telling him he cant think its sad? GTFO. FWIW I dont think its sad but none of these "I can do whatever I want!" responses are really relevant to this thread. I highly doubt that OP was thinking of sponsoring a House Resolution to ban adults from Harry Potter.

You can suck your thumb and **** yourself if you want, but some might think you are a bit childish.

Or what about watching Pink Panther on Cartoon Network? I don't think Pixar is specifically aimed toward children. Just because it is animated doesn't mean it's for children. Look at Anime, Cool World, Persepolis, just to name a few.

What are you talking about?

What? That they like to have fun?

OP is looking down his nose at what he presumes is the ignorance of millions of people who watch/read Harry Potter, I don't think this can be construed as any sort of valued commentary. In a way, OP is essentially the preacher at the local church who proscribes his congregation from reading these novels because they promote witchcraft. His reasoning is different, but the rhetoric is the same. For ****'s sake, he called them evil in his OP (while making a completely off-base generalization about why people in fact read Harry Potter). I seriously can not think of a thread in recent memory that has aggravated me as much as this one does, and it's not because I'm a Harry Potter fan.

So he can think it's sad but I can't think he's dumb for thinking it's sad?

Now you are catching on. But then again, he isnt the one expressing indignation that someone is judging him.

OP successfully trolled all of you.

I don't think I was trolled. I don't get angered by people that say "this is great, any you are a dummyhead if you don't agree with me". I got over that pretty early in life. People do it all the time though with wine, and cars you get lots of vitriol over. People have told me that if this wine rating is not met they just will not drink it. For a while lots of people wanted an SUV, now people think you are a jerk if you have one in a lot of places. The same level thinking has been applied to literature for a very long time. Aristotle iirc even bawled like a heifer calf about the advent of books being the downfall of education because people would not use the dialectic method anymore.

The Harry Potter novels have a little more under the surface that it might appear at first blush, not that it should matter. I like them. Even if there was not more there, you don't have to eat clean all the time to be healthy anyway, and this kind of thing can be part of a balanced reading diet so to speak.

Anybody can read or lament that other people read whatever they want in most places nowadays, that is a very good thing. Further we can lament the castigating of the ones lamenting the reading of what they consider sub-standard fare. Of course there can be more that feel sorry for those, and on and on.

OP makes an ignorant OP. Bunch of people tell him he's ignorant.

Yeah, great trolling there.