By what mystical power have you been able to trick yourself into believing that you are above the rest of the Harry Potter lemmings? From my understanding of your posts, you have not only read the entire series, but you were able to post your final summation of the overall insipidness of said series on July 23. I can only believe, then, that you must have purchased, borrowed, stolen, or in some other way obtained a copy of the final book and read it within approximately 48 hours (give or take a few hours). I know devoted fans of Potter et al. who didn’t accomplish that feat.

So, please to explain how you justify labeling some Potter fans hype-driven lemmings while maintaining that you, who did exactly what many of said lemmings did, somehow remained untainted by the hype. To paraphrase Forrest Gump—and very appropriately it seems: Lemming is as lemming does. But I await your correction.

It was meant to be, as I felt your comments were remarkably bad extrapolations of what I said. Now I think we’re seeing more eye to eye. I hereby redefine my position: I think there are lots and lots of people out there who like Harry Potter because they bought into the hype, but I accept that there are people out there who would like the series regardless.

All better?

corned_beef said, “I apologize for calling you slobber.”

Accepted, and I will leave you on this note: I actually thought the third book in the series was really good. It avoided most of the cliques that quickly became staples of the series, and I thought it was clever that she was able to work a time-travel story into a market that is generally tired of them. I admit it, I cheered when Hermione punched Draco, and Lupin was probably my favorite character in the series. If the rest of the series had been as good as the third book, the series as a whole would have deserved every bit of hype and praise it got… but, we all know how I feel about that.

Take care HP fans.

I see. So if lots and lots of people like a film or book, said film or book must be a carefully crafted work of genius.

Wow. That’s a remarkably bad interpretation of what I said. How does “people actually like it” translate into “it must be a carefully crafted work of genius”?

We’re talking about two different things here. It’s one thing to say, “If you like Harry Potter, you must have bad taste (which really just means ‘taste that is different from mine’),” or “it must be because you haven’t read very many other books,” or “you just haven’t exposed to enough great literature.” That’s one thing.

It’s quite another thing to say, “If you like Harry Potter, it’s only because you’ve bought into the hype and you’re going with the crowd like a bunch of lemmings.” What, isn’t it possible that those people ACTUALLY like it, independently of the hype? With “you have bad taste” at least you’re allowing that the fans actually do like the thing, even if you think they’d like it less if they had more great works to compare it to. With the hype/lemmings philosophy, they don’t even REALLY like it. They’ve just convinced themselves they like it so they can be part of the crowd.

I don’t think anyone has a problem with you pointing out the flaws and banality of the Harry Potter series. They’ll disagree with you, sure, but that’s OK. It’s only when you imply that the reason people like it is that they’ve drunk the Kool-Aid and fallen victim to groupthink that they get indignant. People genuinely LIKE the series. If that makes them philistines who just don’t know any better, fine. But at least allow for the possibility that they DO actually like it on its own merits.

NOW will you please leave the thread and let us enjoy our beloved highly commercialized kiddie series?

I see. So if lots and lots of people like a film or book, said film or book must be a carefully crafted work of genius. Thank you, Eric, for clearing that up. Why did you make fun of all those Nickelback and Titanic fans again?

My attitude towards and treatment of Harry Potter fans hasn’t been any different then the treatment Eric has given other subjects. Pompous, snobby, arrogant? Um, might want to do a little perusing of the site you’re reading and some of the popular subjects Eric has made fun of. I’m certainly not as clever or witty as Eric, but if making fun of a popular phenomenon is automatically elitist and snobby, then yeah, I’m guilty as charged, and really don’t mind. Oh and corned_beef: if you had problems with elitists in college, it’s probably because it doesn’t take much to be more elitest than name-calling.

Finally, might I point out that the reason people like me say the things we say is, we really do feel that way about the Harry Potter series, and more importantly, you Harry Potter folks are just too easy. You have all these buttons that just scream “push me.” Point out the flaws and banality of your beloved highly commercialized kiddie series and you automatically get defensive and indigant and start hissing like wet kittens. You act like we’ve insulted your religion–only it’s not your religion, which makes your indignation even funnier! It’s just too good to pass up.

So please, keep the personal attacks and whining about how I somehow ruined the series for you coming. “No you fools… you’re only giving her what she wants!”

Sucker!

Eric crax me up. Damn it, we are such lemming IDIOTS!!!

You people who like Harry Potter, though: Quit fooling yourselves! Stupid lemmings….