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?

Have all the posters who are being sarcastic and sneering at the OP being upset by a fictional book, honestly never been moved by a book or a film because its not real?

No, it's spot on:

If you have the patience to read it without noticing how plodding it is, then you are self-evidently someone on whom the possibilities of the English language are largely lost.

And that sums it up. If you have to be told why the prose in Harry Potter is not great, then you aren't the kind of reader who will appreciate why the prose in Harry Potter is not great. Just read it!

If you have the patience to read it without noticing how plodding it is, then you are self-evidently someone on whom the possibilities of the English language are largely lost.

Ok. I read a lot, in four languages. I did a largely literary Oxbridge MFL degree. I don't find HP plodding and have read the books multiple times. I'm pretty sure I'm not 'somebody on whom the possibilities of the English language are largely lost' . The insufferably pompous critic is entitled to his opinion though, I suppose.

You can be smart and have no taste.

MasterBeth - get the audiobooks. It isn't clumsily read when it's Stephen Fry reading them.

You can be smart and have no taste.

Smart people know that taste is a matter of opinion.

• Actually, even most not-very-smart people know that.

It isn't clumsily read when it's Stephen Fry reading them.

This.

I read it as an adult and never thought it was great writing did think it was great story telling - I personally found Gormenghast the opposite well written but lacking in compelling story telling.

I also think it can be hard to go back and read teen favorites again - many don't do the same thing to you because you've changed with time - others like Pride and Prejudice I found my view of the characters changed I was more sympathetic to Mrs. Bennet and more critical of Mr Bennet.

I think they're worse than "difficult", imo they're trite, derivative, shallow and dull.

They pale into insignificance besides earlier fantasy series for younger readers, like Alan Garner's "Brisingamen" series, Ursula Leguin's "Earthstar" books, and even the Lord of the Rings books.

Oddly, I quite enjoyed the Coromoran Strike books, and think they're much better written.

I recently reread the books and I really enjoyed all the stuff I forgot/missed the first time round. Still a fan, and can't wait for the tv show when/if it gets made. It is however clumsy in parts and I found it impossible to read it out loud to DD. However, the plot and story makes up for it.

I didn't find it upsetting, but I did find it highly frustrating (characters actions/decisions) , a lot more than I did when I first red it. Tbh, that's the sign of a good book in my eyes, the ability to still cause strong(if different) emotions even when it's a re read and you're very familiar with the plot,ending ,dynamics etc.

I was a 70s child and loved and still do love Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, CS Lewis, Tolkien, Tove Jansson - all the fantasy greats.

This little girl loved battles, swordplay, monsters, horses, fantasy landscapes, magical creatures, spaceships, robots, pirates, aliens, Vikings - and this big one still does.

So when Harry came along and I was already middle aged, I jumped in and love the whole world.

I feel the earlier books are better written, tighter, less inclined to go off on a tangent.

As the series and the book size grew, I do think quantity won over quality in the writing style.

Having read the lot aloud recently, there are some interminable, clunky, exposition-heavy passages that are something of a challenge to bring to life in the later books.

But the imagination, world-building, characters, relationships etc are captivating throughout (Eng Lit grad hat on here).

I’m halfway through Deathly Hallows having read all the preceding books aloud to my DC (I have read them all myself several times). I don’t agree that they are badly written.

I do accept that perhaps I’m just so stupid/limited I wouldn’t notice. However with 2 academic literary degrees and a 20 year teaching career behind me I do wonder if it matters? I mean just how complex and perfect does something need to be before the sneery are satisfied!?

Just reread with DS and I agree, the lack of supervision of the dursleys as adoptive parents is criminal.

They pale into insignificance besides earlier fantasy series for younger readers, like Alan Garner's "Brisingamen" series, Ursula Leguin's "Earthstar" books, and even the Lord of the Rings books.

I love all of the above and also love Diana Wynne Jones and Susan Cooper. I don't find Potter inferior to those, just different. I don't think LotR can really be compared with the others or Potter though - it's a whole different kettle of fish and aimed at adults.

Oddly, I quite enjoyed the Coromoran Strike books, and think they're much better written.

As a JKR fan I wanted to like them,but I found the first one very dull. Not my genre really.

Of course... and?

Just reread with DS and I agree, the lack of supervision of the dursleys as adoptive parents is criminal.

Is that a criticism of the book though? Children's fiction has always been full of children being put in dangerous and unwise situations, having unrealistic amounts of autonomy or having mean or incompetent parents. Otherwise the escapades and drama wouldn't actually be able to happen and they wouldn't be able to rise above their miserable lot in life!

No-one mentioned stupid or limited, did they? The claim is that the prose is plodding and functional. It doesn't sparkle. It's overly pedantic. It doesn''t need to be more complex, it needs to be less.

Also, why is it sneery to not like something. Or find it less than perfect? It's hardly a hot take that JK Rowling is a great storyteller before she is a great wordsmith.

It's clumsily written.

Stephen Fry can make the most of clumsily written text - and here he has to.

I read the first two or three books to DS just because part of his bedtime routine was me reading to him, and it was something we both enjoyed. I must say, when I discovered them I was delighted, as I didn't particularly enjoy much of what I read to him and some of it sent me to sleep quicker than it did him. But with HP I found myself wondering what happened next just as much as he did, and I remember keeping him awake longer than I should have reading the climax of Philosopher's Stone just because there was no way either of us could go to sleep not knowing. There are very few children's books that could achieve that.

As time went on, DS started reading them for himself, but I continued to read them too, sometimes before he did, because I too was hooked by then.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

It's your opinion , but constantly repeating it doesn't make it right.

That quoted sentence is in itself incredibly pretentious and pompous. I'm in no way someone on whom the possibilities of the English language are lost, and for what it's worth I have the qualifications to prove it. I don't find the HP books plodding. I don't suggest JKR's style is problem-free, but the author of that article comes over as unbelievably self-satisfied and up himself. It's noteworthy that at the time he wrote the article he had only just started work on The Guardian and was probably trying to get noticed, and that his own literary career has definitely been less than sparkling.

I read it as an adult, I lost my parents young, and related to a lot of the ‘loss’ themes.

It isn’t sneery to not like something. However, sentences like this:

It's hardly a hot take that JK Rowling is a great storyteller before she is a great wordsmith.

and

If you have to be told why the prose in Harry Potter is not great, then you aren't the kind of reader who will appreciate why the prose in Harry Potter is not great. Just read it!

Are sneery in the extreme 😂

I understand OP, annoyingly I have become far more sentimental since becoming a mum. I full on sob at puff the magic dragon now, loved it as a child. But remember that these stories are important for children. It's developmentally healthy to engage with painful things via the safe medium of fiction, it teaches empathy and emotional intelligence among other things.