What is it with this Harry Potter?

jurica · Post by **jurica** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 11:54 am

in front of Algoritam (most popular english book store in Croatia) kids (most of them can't even read english) waited hours and hours for the shop to open to purchase this new book.
is it commercials?
when did we become so sick?
kids don't want to read, but they MUST have a book if everybody talks about it!
this whole thing scares me. did media finaly grow so strong that we'll no longer doubt anything they sell us?

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 5:56 pm

jurica ~

You're seeing manifestations [of the reality] that the media is a highly-controlling entity. I agree.

~ Elizabeth

peter danielsen · Post by **peter danielsen** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 6:14 pm

Im all for the media. This cultural pessimism seems to assert that everything was better in the good old days. Off course thats nonsense. However some people tend to think that they are better persons than others and that they therefore can decide that what they do not like is of the evil. They want the high control which Lizzy claims the media has. Those types ran the show in the old communist countries. The leaders thought that they possesed the good, and therefore the ones who did not agree with them was evil, and should and would be put away and slaughtered. Long live the media, even if we dont like some of the outcome.

Peter

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 6:44 pm

Peter ~

I'm all for the "free press" ~ difficult as they may be to find ~ but what I'll refer to as the "corporate media," I'm not. Very narrow views are manipulated there in the programming to begin with, and then "Sorry for the interference ~ technical difficulties ~ we'll resume with you shortly" show up at the most amazing times. Just as someone is about to say something, that might be real information the controllers don't want the general population to have. Cutting to commercial is another technique utilized. I won't go on. I won't say it serves no functional or positive purpose, but I will certainly say it shapes, forms, transforms the viewers' thinking in a multitude of ways.

~ Lizzytysh

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 3:56 am

Look on the bright side, Jurika. Perhaps posessing the book will inspire them to learn sufficient English to read it

And if it is as good as the previous Harry Potter books, they will be well rewarded.

Partisan · Post by **Partisan** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 10:22 am

It is good that these books are encouraging kids to read, it would just be better if they were reading something good. JK Rowling is simply not a good author and has not had one original idea." Plagarise, plagarise, it's why the Good Lord made your eyes" to quote Tom Lehrer. Try "The Worst Witch" or anything by Terry Pratchett if you want quality. She is writing trite little books. All will come crashing down the moment she attempts something else. Deep down she knows it, you can see it in her eyes in interviews.

p.

tom.d.stiller · Post by **tom.d.stiller** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 10:52 am

Thank you partisan!

If I hadn't planned anyway to read the Harry Potter books, your post would have convinced me to do so...

A book you don't like can't be all bad...

Cheers
Tom

jurica · Post by **jurica** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 11:20 am

the fact is i never read any of potter books, and i'm not saying they are bad (how can i?). what scares me is that they waited for hours to purchase a book which they could have purchased two days later in a matter of minutes. the way i see it, it's not the novel that they are interested in, but simple ownership of the book.
a kid even called it the bible.

the fact is that communist countries controled media, and you could hardly know what's realy going on. there was no internet back then, and my uncle was captured and put to jail for reading a book in english which was forbidden.

but this book has nothing to do with freedom of speach. this book would probably be as popular in ex-yugoslavia as it is in croatia. just like american movies were. i think that what we have here is exact opposite of freedom of speach. i think we are given no choice but to like what we are told to like or we will not be cool, and we'll not be able to talk to other people, because we haven't read a book everybody else did.

witty_owl · Post by **witty_owl** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 2:17 pm

Yes Tom, that sounds like as good a reference as we are likely to get for little potter.
There is very little in any of the arts that is forthcoming that could be classified as creatively original. Most of it is all inventions on a theme.
As for the plagirism, most art is a response to other art. So What????
I have yet to see an original thought come from p.

Cheers, Witty Owl.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 2:26 pm

Exactly, jurica ~ that's what I took your posting to refer to and I agree. Hours for presumed "status," due to peer pressure to be cool. Very scarey in its way.

peter danielsen · Post by **peter danielsen** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 3:09 pm

Its like those of us who spend hours posting on a cyperspaceforum, to recieve the status that our enthralling rhetorical statements offer, just to be cool, very scary.

Peter

witty_owl · Post by **witty_owl** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 3:14 pm

Scary??? Isn't this a bit melodramatic Liz? Peer pressure has always been the same since---

. Are the days of Fonzie any different? Remember the hysteria with the Beatles? Woodstock? Michael Jackson? Star Wars? The media is a beat up yes but in the realm of entertainment, is it not just business as usual?

Cheers, Witty Owl.

George.Wright · Post by **George.Wright** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 3:26 pm

The public like a hype they must have, it's like the holy grail.
There is a certain amount of snobbery involved too.
As for P and his book critiques, i thought the book would have appealed to his mental age group.
Georges

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 5:34 pm

I figured someone [or several] would pick up on that, Witty Owl. Yes, a bit melodramatic. I was hoping that "in its way" would be the qualification that would put it in some kind of context. However, with the media hype/peer pressure being what it is, to "be an American," "be cool," "be the best and prove it," I've seen massive support of the war, etc. Peer pressure/media influence [you are the best ~ you are cooler than the rest ~ you are uncool if you resist or dare think for yourself on these matters] to its extreme brings Hitler to the fore.

This is not to say I equate this with Hitler ~ I'm speaking of the extremes when I say that. However, being unable to read the book you're standing in hours to buy is thinking on your own in these matters? This was the key element that brought the "scarey" impact of media/peer pressure to mind for me. If it's true, I think a case could be made that this is all about media influence.....followed up by peer pressure.

I also think this is a bit unlike all the Fonzie, "Beatles? Woodstock? Michael Jackson? Star Wars?" frenzies when you consider that this is a book they presumably[?] ~ if it's true ~ are unable to read. I'll go with the melodrama, yet beneath the peer pressure/media control phenomenon extremes lie other potentials. Of course, the books do play into the fantasies of childhood, so I don't question their wanting to read it [if they could]. However, bottom line is that I've always found it a bit odd that people feel compelled to stand in line for hours to see a film, buy a book, on its [their] first date of availability ~ unless it's to meet the stars or a book signing to meet the author and get an autographed copy.

~ Elizabeth

George Gordon · Post by **George Gordon** » Mon Jun 23, 2003 9:30 pm

I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the book store and thumbed through it. After all the commotion over J.K. Rowling I expected something terrific. I was disappointed. She has some talent but is not the genius she is reported to be.

tom.d.stiller -- please go out and buy this book immediately.

What is it with this Harry Potter?

What is it with this Harry Potter?

Media

Yeah