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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

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  • I finally got around to reading a few chapters. It's like he replaced Harry Potter with Artemis Fowl.
  • I finally got around to reading a few chapters. It's like he replaced Harry Potter with Artemis Fowl.
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  • You're deliberately misunderstanding the word "theme" used in its musical sense as part of an analogy to be instead its literal literary counterpart. Punk.
    I'm not deliberately misunderstanding anything. Last time I looked up what theme meant in the dictionary it said this:
    1. a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition
    2. a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc., as in a work of art.
    Yes, there are some definitions that liken theme and setting to each other, but I'm making a very clear distinction between the two to remove ambiguity. If that makes me a punk, so be it!

    And also to be clear, I never meant to imply that I'm against people retelling stories, nor that such works are bad. I'm just not a fan. To reference above, Shinji and Warhammer 40K is a very well written story with a lot of good ideas. But to me, Anno's Shinji is the only Shinji, so I choose to not read other works on it, not even the officially sanctioned ones.
  • edited September 2010
    To reference above, Shinji and Warhammer 40K is a very well written story with a lot of good ideas. But to me, Anno's Shinji is the only Shinji, so I choose to not read other works on it, not even the officially sanctioned ones.
    You are denying yourself a fuckton of awesome. Anno's Shinji is a whiny little cretin. Despite the overall quality of that work, I hate his character. SaW40k Shinji is like Kaneda mixed with Spike Spiegel mixed with Golgo 13 mixed with Kenshiro. With fucking Spess Mehrines.
    Post edited by WindUpBird on
  • You are denying yourself a fuckton of awesome.
    Well, I'm not losing any sleep over it. Plenty of other works out there that I'll never have time to experience as it is.
  • I would agree. It's the same reason Dark Knight Returns is uncreative, worthless bullshit. I mean, c'mon. Frank Miller is creative enough. He could have created his own world to tell that story. How unprofessional.

    In fact, same goes for Naoki Urasawa. Pluto is garbage. He should stop biting Tezuka's stuff and come up with a unique, groundbreaking story. Be professional.
    Easy there, Captain Sassypants. It's not like I said they are the scum of the literary universe and deserve to be lobotomized. Do you at least agree that the (vast?) majority of these types of works are dreck?

    I haven't read either of those, but I wonder if they would hold up on their own. Could they stand as their own story?
  • edited September 2010
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    EDIT: that's some real quality forum software right there.
    Post edited by GreyHuge on
  • Could they stand as their own story?
    Pluto, absolutely. Dark Knight Returns only requires knowing who Batman and Superman are at the most basic level.
  • Anno's Shinji is a whiny little cretin. Despite the overall quality of that work, I hate his character.
    I kinda got the impression while watching Eva that this was the point. You're supposed to hate Shinji. Everyone is supposed to hate Shinji. All the characters and all the viewers are supposed to hate Shinji, because you can see all of your negative traits in Shinji, because Shinji has all the negative traits. He personifies everything you don't want a person to be, and yet everyone has a little piece of Shinji in them.

    Has anyone ever watched Eva and been like "Hey, that Shinji is a pretty dashing fellow. I'd like to be more like him."?
  • Looks like Ch. 48 is out; I haven't read it yet.
  • edited October 2010
    I would argue that THIS Harry Potter universe is MUCH DIFFERENT.
    If it's really that different, then why keep the same characters? Is it really so hard to make new ones that are based on the old ones?
    I think that it is harder to make new ones. There were many moments when reading this story that the author eludes to something that he has not described. The reader must be familiar with the Potter books in order to really understand this story. In this way he does two things: a) He saves time (he doesn't have to explain a brand new world/magic system to the reader), and b) he can tell a story without applying deep character development (it has already been done). This allows someone who is not a writer by trade to tell his story and have it come close to something we would expect from a real writer.

    I for one am hesitant to read books with new universes that I do not have strong recommendations on. I really dislike the "learning" process that takes 10-12 chapters as you try to figure out how this new world works. If it turns out to be a bad book I might not know it until chapter 20 because once I finally figure out the universe I can decide if I like the characters/plot/verse together. Reading something that is consistent with an existing universe is much easier/relaxing and quicker to decide if I want to continue or not.
    I believe that in this case the contrast between the new and original versions of the characters is intended to be instructive. The way you've framed the issue essentially dismisses the entire concept of variations on a theme.

    While it's certainly not the case for all or even most derivative creative works, in many cases similarities are used to make deliberate differences stand out. Extreme similarities - retelling the same story with the same characters, for example - may be profitably employed to highlight the importance of dissimilar elements which might seem insignificant or simply out of place in a work with no familiar context.
    An excellent example of this would be the Family Guy remake of Star Wars.

    I'm enjoying the story anyway, and the changes made to the characters is another aspect of the story that would have been lost had the author attempted to retell the story with an entirely new setting/character set.
    Post edited by Bridger on
  • Is there a way to get an automated update when another chapter of this comes out? RSS, email, etc. I finally got to the last chapter, and I really want to read more! I couldn't find anything from a quick perusal of that site, but maybe one of you knows how?
  • Is there a way to get an automated update when another chapter of this comes out? RSS, email, etc. I finally got to the last chapter, and I really want to read more! I couldn't find anything from a quick perusal of that site, but maybe one of you knows how?
    Theres an unofficial RSS feed listed on the authors page.
  • Oh snap.
    Oh yes, oh snap. This shit is getting ridiculous.
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