Rereading Harry Potter as an adult and finding it difficult

[Dasisr]

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?

Oh absolutely, Neville is a true hero. Don't forget, he could easily have become "the chosen one". But his character arc is such that he grows into this hero from an unfortunate, clumsy, feckless, chubby little boy. The "chubby" is totally unnecessary 🤷‍♀️

Absolutely don't try reading "My Dark Vanessa", "What I Loved", "The People in the Trees" or "A Little Life"

Or any Dickens

Or any decent adult literary fiction come to think of it.

Why was Dumbledore never investigated for how many children died or were seriously injured at that school????

Why was Snape never done for child abuse????

Why did no one find it odd that that old man put a secret chamber in the little girl’s bathrooms?!?!

Lots of kids are chubby and then lose weight as they get older. I don't think his weight was meant to be seen as a negative characteristic - in the same way that it wasn't negative for Molly Weasley.

If the room of requirement changes according to who needs it the most desperately how on earth did a kid die in there? The room could have opened an exit at any time. And he was a student too. This blows my mind!

I think there’s nothing wrong with enjoying HP books, or any other book aimed at teens. Or adults.

Reading is all about being immersed in a fictional world - almost like dipping your head into a Pensieve and entering another person’s thoughts!

Reading is magical. It doesn’t have to be literary heavyweight to be enjoyable.

We don’t all have to like the same books. That’s fine. What moves me to tears might leave you cold. And that’s partly to do with the writing but it’s also because we all experience books - and films - through the lens of our own life.

Central trends like loss, abandonment, grief, abuse affect us all differently.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a great comedy film but fuck me, those opening couples of minutes with his mum……I cry every time.

My children laugh at me as I’m regularly found wailing “why do they have to always kill the mum off?!”

I don’t understand people mocking the OP. Surely you have felt moved by a fictional book? Or if you’re not a big reader, a fictional film??

Art and literature explores very real themes which can be hard emotionally - even if they are wrapped up with wizards, house elves and butter beer!

I remember being horrified by the fate of the children from the chronicles of Narnia. So I only read The Last Battle once, the others countless times.

I've just finished reading every HP book aloud to my partner. Doing all the voices. We got them as they came out and this is the only time we've ever immersed in them as one whole arc. Really enjoyed it, with some thoughts. I think JK would have benefited from the guiding hand of an editor in the later gas giants. The earlier books are tighter and more controlled. Long long passages of exposition and story dead ends like Hagrid, Maxime and the giants sometimes dull and weigh down the inventiveness and the energy.

Now we're watching a film a day and marvelling watching the children grow up and realising just how much had to be cut to create a film script.

If a TV series is ever made the long form option could be very interesting.

But people are not entitled to their own facts.

I really enjoyed reading them to my children because she writes dialogue in a very readable fashion, as Stephen Fry also demonstrates in the audiobooks.

If a TV series is ever made the long form option could be very interesting.

supposedly HBO are going to create a TV series that will be super loyal to the books. Exciting in some ways, but the films were only completed about 10 years ago, it would have been more interesting for them focus on stories on the world not told so recently, I think it's a major missed opportunity to do something new but within the world.

@JFDIYOLO HBO are making a full-length series.

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

How strange. I didn't find it clumsily written at all.

Or Jane Eyre!

Oh absolutely, Neville is a true hero. Don't forget, he could easily have become "the chosen one". But his character arc is such that he grows into this hero from an unfortunate, clumsy, feckless, chubby little boy. The "chubby" is totally unnecessary 🤷‍♀️

So there is no validity in showing that children who have unfortunate characteristics (including physical traits forwhich other people mock them) can end up being heroes?

Why did no one find it odd that that old man put a secret chamber in the little girl’s bathrooms?!?!

Oh fgs! Who knows that it was even a 'little girls' bathroom? Salazar Slytherin made it hundreds of years before.

can’t say I got worked up about a fictional boy who turned out to be the wizard saviour of the world. I was more troubled by how bloody awful her writing is. I read it in my early 20s and really enjoyed it but when I’m reading it aloud for my kids it is hard to know who is speaking and some of the grammar is questionable at best. Thankfully the kids don’t mind but it did ruin the warm and fuzzies I had of reading the books when I was younger.

Like fuck is she!

These kind of comments always amuse me. Obviously you could write several of the best selling books in the history of the world but just haven't had the time to get around to it , right @MasterBeth ?

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

How ridiculous. Maybe try being a bit less sneery and a bit more open-minded. Stories are stories. Some are good, some are not, whatever ages they're aimed at.

I won’t hear a word against JK. She is an angel.

Hear, hear.

I don't see anything odd about pointing out JKR is an amazing creator of worlds and her imagination is second to none, but her writing ability is not as amazing. This is not new news!

JK is a human with faults, she has made mistakes and she has done things that are damaging. You agree with her on one very topical issue, and you now think she is beyond criticism? Disturbing and cult-y.

I think lots of books could be seen as different when an adult really.Its difficult as you were a child back then ,and missed out what you now see as cruelty to children .The whole topic with Childrens books is to do away with parents/ Adults and let the kids rule! I think HP is a brilliant series ,and came out to help many DC with their reading .

Bless you dear