OscarGuy wrote:Sorry, MW, there has never been a giant snake in harry potter except the one in the zoo. It was a basilisk harry fought in Chamber of Secrets.
Gee, aren't we picky? :O
Anyway, I knew it was called a basilisk, but I always assumed that a baslisk was a type of snake, like a python or a cobra.
Boy, do I feel stupid now. :laugh:
"Young men make wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution." -- Alec Guinness (Lawrence of Arabia)
I can honestly say that differentiating between a basilisk and a giant snake is nothing something I'm well-prepared to do in my day-to-day routine. All I know is that they both interrupted a perfectly good nap.
If I started a "Yay for 'Braveheart'!" thread, I'd have the good graces not to get up in people's faces about why they felt the need to jump in and present negative and legitimate opinions. This is a discussion board for God's sake, and while I understand the love people have for these books, I will never understand it and I'm already anticipating a sweaty, nerdy summer ahead of me with people reading it on the "L" up and down. Are we not supposed to be petty and opinionated on this board?
"Harry Potter" books have been obnoxiously diefied and I feel like being a little curmogeony.
flipp525 wrote:I'm just questioning the spirit behind going into a thread where people are obviously passionate and excited about something and basically s hitting all over that excitement. It just seems kind of curmudegeonly.
Guilty your honor. I admit at times to being as big a curmudgeon as Lord Voldemort
Akash wrote:Flipp, I'm sorry if it annoys you but honestly, people go into threads to talk about things they don't like all the time on this board. What kind of place would this be if we only had to agree? I don't fault you for liking something commercial or populist either, if you're getting something out of this franchise then good for you and you should be free to say that. We're not and it's okay for us to say so as well.
I'm not trying to regulate what you can and can't post in a thread, Akash. Really, I guess, I'm just questioning the spirit behind going into a thread where people are obviously passionate and excited about something and basically s hitting all over that excitement. It just seems kind of curmudegeonly. It's all good, though. You're entitled to your own opinion.
Edited By flipp525 on 1172169430
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
Sabin wrote:I was done in '05, but I somehow got bamboozled into seeing 'Goblet of Fire', where I fell asleep and promptly woke up to the sight of Harry Potter fighting a giant snake, which is funny because I fell asleep in 'Chamber of Secrets' and I woke up to, like, THE SAME ####ING SIGHT! Check please.
But... umm... Harry doesn't fight a giant snake in Goblet of Fire. In fact, the ONLY movie in which he fights a giant snake is Chamber of Secrets. He fights a dragon, mer-people, a bewitched Viktor Krum, and Lord Voldemort. But he doesn't fight a giant snake.
"Young men make wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution." -- Alec Guinness (Lawrence of Arabia)
Sabin- you pretty much voiced everything I think and feel about Harry Potter the book and Harry Potter the series. You go boy!
Flipp, I'm sorry if it annoys you but honestly, people go into threads to talk about things they don't like all the time on this board. What kind of place would this be if we only had to agree? I don't fault you for liking something commercial or populist either, if you're getting something out of this franchise then good for you and you should be free to say that. We're not and it's okay for us to say so as well.
My own original post here was clearly only half-serious and I qualified it later with my individual experience over the summer dealing with people who berate non-Potter fans with how "fabulous" this franchise is and how we're crazy not to think so and how (and this is where I DO draw the line), it's not enough to just say they enjoy something middlebrow, but some of them insist on calling it Literature with a capital "L." If you think we're bad here in this thread, think about what we go through during the summers of Harry Potter! :p
Franz, are you serious? I've only read half of "Chamber of Secrets" before putting it down. There's nothing artistic about it! It's blind commercialism. Read some Roald Dahl. Hell, read a Spider-Man comic. 'The Departed' is pulp material with outstanding aesthetic intricacies. Unless the books are doing something interesting with the character that isn't making it to the screen, the 'Harry Potter' franchise is faceless and anonymous.
I feel no qualms about seeing a much-anticipated blockbuster at midnight. I nerd out like the rest of them. My problem is the soulessness of this über-franchise. For the life of me, I don't understand what you people get from this character. The world of 'Harry Potter' appears entrancing enough on the surface but they do nothing with it.
Again, I only read half of "Chamber of Secrets" before putting down. I've been told the other books are better, but unless they're doing something more and interesting with Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermoine than I'm seeing on-screen, nothing doing. I've never heard anything about the character Harry Potter that makes him halfway intriguing. There's a pretty standard sense of ill-fated destiny that's taken almost a decade to play out (yawn), and what else? He's a good friend? He'll always do what's right? Wake me up when he goes Anakin on everybody, taking them out left and right, and judging from the four movies I've seen, it'll be done in an innocuous Lucas-lite fashion like in 'Revenge of the Sith'.
The first two movies move like death on the screen. 'Prisoner of Azkaban' is a beautiful piece of pop art, a "Harry Potter" Harry Potter movie, the only problem with it being that it's a goddamn Harry Potter movie. I'm done with this bullshit series. As far as I'm concerned, it's the most obnoxiously caucasian piece of non-entertainment I've come across. Cuaron's film aside, the high point of a Harry Potter movie is the music ushering in the film and then "faithfulness" to Rowlings' indigestable prose sends the film tit over ass. #### it. I'm done. I was done in '05, but I somehow got bamboozled into seeing 'Goblet of Fire', where I fell asleep and promptly woke up to the sight of Harry Potter fighting a giant snake, which is funny because I fell asleep in 'Chamber of Secrets' and I woke up to, like, THE SAME ####ING SIGHT! Check please.
Franz Ferdinand wrote:You people just don't know the simple pleasures that picking up a new book at midnight in costume affords. Cynicism and the media sure have taken the fun out of life!
Picking up a quintessentially consumerist item while wearing uniforms sounds like a byproduct of media saturation to me.
Glad to see my point wasn't missed!
But seriously, would you guys like us Potter fans slaying you for lining up to watch the new movie by an auteur you enjoy, regardless of their artistic merit? What makes a Potter book less viable a piece of artistic expression than, say, the Departed?
Franz Ferdinand wrote:You people just don't know the simple pleasures that picking up a new book at midnight in costume affords. Cynicism and the media sure have taken the fun out of life!
I totally agree, Franz. I don't give a flying f uck how "consumerist" and populist my love of the Harry Potter series is. It makes me feel like a kid again to dive into another one of those big, fat books and the price tag on that feeling is pretty high. With this being the last installment, you better believe I’ll be first in line right alongside ya (maybe not in costume, but there just the same!).
Eric wrote:Picking up a quintessentially consumerist item while wearing uniforms sounds like a byproduct of media saturation to me.
You Muggle!
Honestly, though, why do you Potter naysayers even come to this thread if it's just to drop "I'm so much better than you because I don't subscribe to this Harry Potter crap" type posts? Just let us have our fun. I mean, Jesus...
Edited By flipp525 on 1172095973
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
Franz Ferdinand wrote:You people just don't know the simple pleasures that picking up a new book at midnight in costume affords. Cynicism and the media sure have taken the fun out of life!
Picking up a quintessentially consumerist item while wearing uniforms sounds like a byproduct of media saturation to me.
You people just don't know the simple pleasures that picking up a new book at midnight in costume affords. Cynicism and the media sure have taken the fun out of life!
