Page 3 | Rereading Harry Potter as an adult and finding it difficult

Dasisr · 2023-08-06T09:41:57+00:00

Obsessed with Harry Potter as a teenager but finding it a difficult read as an adult. How badly he is treated by the Dursleys. How deprived of love he was and in later books how he was kept away from his friends/family. All the death of loved ones he had to witness. Honestly finding it tough to get through. AIBU or anyone else the same?

FrivolousTreeDuck · 06/08/2023 12:14

The ill-treated orphan who is talented/special in some way has been a trope in children's fiction since Victorian times.

Giggorata · 06/08/2023 12:14

Sundaefraise · 06/08/2023 11:46

I only read them as an adult and I definitely know what you mean. The films gloss over it, but basically he is an abused child whose life is defined by loss. It’s totally understandable that you might find it tough in parts.

i agree with this excellent summary and I wonder why some people are being rather lofty about the OP's empathy.
Surely some of the elements of fiction are to allow readers to step into another's shoes, to inhabit other worlds and settings, to be led on imaginative journeys and to be moved ?

ActDottie · 06/08/2023 12:17

It’s fiction…

Wheatear · 06/08/2023 12:19

MasterBeth · 06/08/2023 11:07

I struggled with reading it to the kids because it is so clumsily written.

I agree it’s a horror to read aloud, especially the later books which really need an edit. I’ve just started reading The Half-Blood Prince to DS at bedtime, and the opening chapter where Fudge and Scrimgeour meet the Muggle PM felt absolutely endless with all the backstory shoehorned in, until I started pruning as I read.

I am also allergic to reading scenes with extensive Hagrid direct speech, and ten to reduce it to ‘Hagrid quickly told Harry he was a wizard and would be attending the wizarding school Hogwarts.’

beetr00 · 06/08/2023 12:22

@cinnamonfrenchtoast

https://www.youtube.com/@TheJacksonField/videos 😀

Before you continue to YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@TheJacksonField/videos

Wheatear · 06/08/2023 12:22

TeenDivided · 06/08/2023 11:58

Isn't the point more that for the plot to work he has to be treated badly and this want to leave on his 17th birthday?

In the same way that Harry & Ron don't read 'Hogwarts, A history' so that Hermione can explain to them, and thus the reader, all the info they need to know.

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Exactly.

And of course, is also why the world building ate the plot and characterisation as the series continued because fans kept asking questions or pointing out errors JKR then tried to correct or explain in subsequent novels.

SloraceHughorn · 06/08/2023 12:22

TinyTeacher · 06/08/2023 11:48

Children's books are almost always upsetting to read as an adult.

At the beginning of most children's books (and even Disney films) you have to somehow get rid of the parents. Because a properly cared for child would just never get to have really exciting adventures like that! So they are often killed.

DD aged four has picked up on this.

She likes to dictate stories for us to write down and recently they've all started with the death of her parents, often in bizarre circumstances 😳

We have been reading quite a lot of Roald Dahl lately.

NoNoNoYoureWrong · 06/08/2023 12:23

wonderstuff · 06/08/2023 11:22

I loved The Casual Vacancy! I thought it nailed the teen characters.

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I think I’m still traumatised by the Casual Vacancy

CherryCokeFanatic · 06/08/2023 12:26

I think you need to toughen up a bit

cinnamonfrenchtoast · 06/08/2023 12:26

TeenDivided · 06/08/2023 11:58

Isn't the point more that for the plot to work he has to be treated badly and this want to leave on his 17th birthday?

In the same way that Harry & Ron don't read 'Hogwarts, A history' so that Hermione can explain to them, and thus the reader, all the info they need to know.

Show quote history

Yes - but my point was that him being a Horcrux is irrelevant to why the Dursleys treated him badly. They treated him badly because he was the child of magical parents and the Dursleys are terrified of magic. Petunia is probably also scared because magic took Lily away to a Hogwarts and (in her eyes) ultimately got her killed by Voldemort.

If Harry being a Horcrux was the reason the Dursleys treated him badly, why didn't that translate to Hogwarts and his friendships? The only time Ron and Hermione were shown to be impacted by a Horcrux was when they were wearing it and trying to destroy it.

LadyBird1973 · 06/08/2023 12:28

I really enjoyed Casual Vacancy. It was a hard read though.

cinnamonfrenchtoast · 06/08/2023 12:28

beetr00 · 06/08/2023 12:22

@cinnamonfrenchtoast

https://www.youtube.com/@TheJacksonField/videos 😀

That's the one

Weefreetiffany · 06/08/2023 12:29

Lol love how everyone is suddenly a literary critic with a phd in literary analysis and senior editorship as soon as it comes to criticising one of the most bought, borrowed and read series in the world. The lack of “quality” certainly hasn’t held it back, but by all means tell us all the problems you’ve spotted.

Just like the people who seem really proud of rolling their eyes at someone having an emotional response to a book they read as a kid while reading it with the life experience of an adult.

At times mumsnet really seems to bring out the emotionless sociopaths.

Highdaysandholidays1 · 06/08/2023 12:32

I would find reading any of the books difficult as they are not well-written.

I do like the world of HP in the films and we have been rewatching them- and there are lots of eyebrow-raising stuff that seems horrific if you step back, but take part of a magical world so we kind of accept them.

The worst for me is Dobby- Dobby is an indentured slave who abuses and harms themselves when they feel they have done something wrong- Dobby irons his hands at one point as he's done something he feels is terrible and holds the bandaged arms up to show HP. My teens eyes nearly popped out of their heads at this- we are now much more aware of self-harm and it seemed odd in a children's movie.

Other issues: lack of safeguarding at Hogwarts, we are told that evil is coming into the school and the adults can't do much about it, so gathering the children there makes them sitting ducks. The adults do this repeatedly in each film whilst looking vaguely concerned!

HP's abuse by the Dursleys is also included, although JKR rights this wrong by having bad things happen to Dudley and his family.

It's all quite awful if you apply reality laws to it- but it's not reality, it's a fantasy magic world and good and evil have to be part of that (I could have done without the Dobby self-harm though).

Supernova23 · 06/08/2023 12:33

I'm more disturbed by adults that like Harry Potter.

Kabbalah · 06/08/2023 12:33

I read the first one over Christmas because there was so much hype about it at the time. It burnt well on the fire.

Weefreetiffany · 06/08/2023 12:34

cinnamonfrenchtoast · 06/08/2023 12:26

Yes - but my point was that him being a Horcrux is irrelevant to why the Dursleys treated him badly. They treated him badly because he was the child of magical parents and the Dursleys are terrified of magic. Petunia is probably also scared because magic took Lily away to a Hogwarts and (in her eyes) ultimately got her killed by Voldemort.

If Harry being a Horcrux was the reason the Dursleys treated him badly, why didn't that translate to Hogwarts and his friendships? The only time Ron and Hermione were shown to be impacted by a Horcrux was when they were wearing it and trying to destroy it.

Show quote history

When Harry spends a lot of time with Ron one on one, Ron becomes quite the little dickhead. The same happens to Hermione to a lesser degree. Likewise all the boys in the same dorm get moody, which we pass off as teenage angst, but if you reframe that they’re being affected by Harry the horcrux.

The Dursley’s started from a position of hating/envying Harry, his family and magic. Whereas his friends started from a place of like and awe. Which could explain why the Dursley’s were more negatively affected than his peers.

I realised this rereading the books as an adult.

Purplebunnie · 06/08/2023 12:35

OfficerChurlish · 06/08/2023 11:52

I never read Dudley as evil - he's a victim of his parents as much as Cinderella Harry is, just superficially treated "well" because he's theirs.

Neville is definitely portrayed as smart and competent, just lacking in self-confidence and "acceptable" (flashy Hermione-style) academic gloss. For instance, nobody would have survived the underwater scene in the Tri-Wizard Tournament without his botanical knowledge.

It is a suprisingly bleak story for the target age group, in terms of some of the details and ongoing periods of misery/little hope - but I think a large part of that is the way the series kind of "grows up" with the readers, progressing in complexity with each book. It wouldn't have been as effective or successful or realistic if it were happier. And there is a lot of happiness/relief for Harry throughout - he always has his unbreakable friendships, Sirius, Dumbledore, the Order, etc. And (spoiler alert) a happy ending - for those who like that sort of thing.

Going to be pernickety here but in the book Dobby gave Harry the Gillyweed not Neville

MarshaArt · 06/08/2023 12:37

Weefreetiffany · 06/08/2023 12:29

Lol love how everyone is suddenly a literary critic with a phd in literary analysis and senior editorship as soon as it comes to criticising one of the most bought, borrowed and read series in the world. The lack of “quality” certainly hasn’t held it back, but by all means tell us all the problems you’ve spotted.

Just like the people who seem really proud of rolling their eyes at someone having an emotional response to a book they read as a kid while reading it with the life experience of an adult.

At times mumsnet really seems to bring out the emotionless sociopaths.

This.

Kabbalah · 06/08/2023 12:38

Supernova23 · 06/08/2023 12:33

I'm more disturbed by adults that like Harry Potter.

Me too.

SeeHearMe · 06/08/2023 12:38

OfficerChurlish · 06/08/2023 11:52

I never read Dudley as evil - he's a victim of his parents as much as Cinderella Harry is, just superficially treated "well" because he's theirs.

Neville is definitely portrayed as smart and competent, just lacking in self-confidence and "acceptable" (flashy Hermione-style) academic gloss. For instance, nobody would have survived the underwater scene in the Tri-Wizard Tournament without his botanical knowledge.

It is a suprisingly bleak story for the target age group, in terms of some of the details and ongoing periods of misery/little hope - but I think a large part of that is the way the series kind of "grows up" with the readers, progressing in complexity with each book. It wouldn't have been as effective or successful or realistic if it were happier. And there is a lot of happiness/relief for Harry throughout - he always has his unbreakable friendships, Sirius, Dumbledore, the Order, etc. And (spoiler alert) a happy ending - for those who like that sort of thing.

It was Dobby who told Harry about the gillyweed not Neville. Neville gets credited for a lot of things in the films that Dobby does in the books. Very little about the house elves make it into the films. I don’t even think Winky appears in the films at all? In saying that the films omit loads about Neville eg his mum giving him an empty bubblegum wrapper every time he visits her.

MarshaArt · 06/08/2023 12:39

Kabbalah · 06/08/2023 12:33

I read the first one over Christmas because there was so much hype about it at the time. It burnt well on the fire.

Ok… have you burnt every book you’ve disliked?

Poivresel · 06/08/2023 12:40

My dd insisted I read Harry Potter and brought back the books from the school library.
I read the first 5 and honestly 15 years later could not tell you what any of the plots are.
They're a bit like fast food imo, easy to digest but don't really sustain you.
Tbf Jeffrey Archer novels are the same and Mills and Boon.
I admire JKR though, she seems like a good person.

MarshaArt · 06/08/2023 12:40

OP, could you put it in the fridge, like Joey in Friends? 😀

MrsRachelDanvers · 06/08/2023 12:41

When I was young, my home life wasn’t nice. I enjoyed reading novels where the protagonist had to overcome setbacks, adversity and cruelty. Like The Little Princess, Jane Eyre etc. I saw those characters as inspirational-that you could deal with challenges, not be overcome by them. That you could be unloved but still have character and intelligence. Those books got me through my childhood so I think YABU.