# People who read Harry Potter and nothing else (kinda lame) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 12, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918 "2004-02-12T21:05:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/41 "2004-02-13T13:27:22Z")
Um…well, my house mostly looks like the fantasy section of a bookstore, so I’d say yes. As for your assertion of: > [@](#): > > Sorry, but I calls 'em as I sees 'em. I’m not an aesthetic relativist who says Terry Brooks is just as good as Joyce and it’s “all a matter of opinion.” No, it’s all a matter of being well read and having good taste. It IS a matter of opinion, unless you’re a lit snob. In which case, you can leave the thread and leave us obviously retarded fantasy lovers to our demise. FWIW, I am very well read, as a matter of fact. Just because I choose to put authors like McCaffrey, Pratchett, L’Engle and Jordan next to my copies of Faulkner, Whitman, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche doesn’t mean I lack taste in literature. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/42 "2004-02-13T13:30:48Z")
_footnote_ I know L’Engle is technically sci-fi, but I’m assuming skutir would lump sci-fi “junk” in with fantasy “junk”. Since it’s not classic lit. and all, which is obviously ALL he reads. ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/43 "2004-02-13T13:32:20Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > So it _isn’t_ a matter of opinion? There’s a Big Holy Yardstick of Literary Excellence somewhere? > > Moron. It’s a matter of opinion, but not all opinions are created equal. I don’t give some teenager who’s never read a grown-up book the same credence as someone with a graduate degree in literature. Like, um, me. ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/44 "2004-02-13T13:32:37Z")
> [@](#): > > And she definitely did not invent fucking hippogriffs. OK? OK. But she did invent big bearded guys that ride motorcycles, right? 'Cause that was cooooooool. kidding, only kidding ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/45 "2004-02-13T13:39:57Z")
Never mind, guys. I don’t even really think the way I would sound here. I do hate most pulp literature (as do the best sci-fi and fantasy writers, by the way), but read whatever you want. I just took exception to the insinuation in the thread that people who don’t know what fucking hippogriffs are not well read. I am well read and will believe unto my dying breath that I’ve chosen my reading well. Stanislaw Lem was kicked out of the Science Fiction/Fantasy Writer’s guild because he went into a harangue at a conference and said most of the stuff being published under that label was crap. It takes courage to tell the truth to a bunch of nerds. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/46 "2004-02-13T13:40:14Z")
> [@skutir](#): > > It’s a matter of opinion, but not all opinions are created equal. So now it _is_ a matter of opinion? > [@](#): > > I don’t give some teenager who’s never read a grown-up book the same credence as someone with a graduate degree in literature. Like, um, me. Oooh, how impressed we are. Let’s all sit around and suck your dick. Please piss off, you backpedaling snobbish fuckhead. ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/47 "2004-02-13T13:44:14Z")
Ah, there’s nothing better than stimulating conversation among well-read people. Pass the scones, Mr. Priceguy, and tell me again about your thesis on the final chapter of _Ulysses_. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/48 "2004-02-13T13:45:34Z")
**skutir** , I agree with you at least in part, but he’s right. That’s probably the most self-serving and obnoxious post I’ve seen around here. If you want to give yourself a blowjob, do it the honest way and have some ribs removed. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/49 "2004-02-13T13:45:43Z")
Didn’t see this before posting. > [@skutir](#): > > I just took exception to the insinuation in the thread that people who don’t know what fucking hippogriffs are not well read. That’s not what I said, that’s your own prejudice kicking in. But you do understand that it’s annoying to see someone reading Harry Potter, which is basically a big load of fantasy staples put into a neat package, and assuming it’s all original, right? If someone watched one of the numerous _Romeo and Juliet_ clones on TV, then saw the Shakespeare play, and then asked if this Shakespeare guy is going to be sued for intellectual copyright infringement by the TV people, you’d take umbrage, right? ---
**Author:** ![In\_Conceivable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@In\_Conceivable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Conceivable)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/50 "2004-02-13T13:46:09Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > Exactly. You would have _guessed_. Not _assumed_. And I hope you would have done a five-second check before acting on that guess. Personally I wouldn’t have cared enough to do either. However, you can’t assume that someone who thinks J K Rowling invented hippogriffs hasn’t read other things. ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/51 "2004-02-13T13:46:45Z")
Aha! But I merely said I was not an aesthetic relativist who SAYS “it’s **all** a matter of opinion.” There are other things, like test-of-time and influence and critical interest that raise the status/social importance of a text. One thing you will learn after you graduate from high school and enter college is that the world of evaluating art is not one confined to each person’s head, but it is actually a social and historical process. ---
**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/52 "2004-02-13T13:48:52Z")
> [@skutir](#): > > I did say “with a few notable exceptions,” which would include Tolkien and Mervyn Peak maybe even Rowling. But Christ, have you been to the fantasy section of a bookstore lately? Have you been to ANY section of a bookstore lately? 99% of everything published is total crap, and that includes many so-called “classics”. No genre is excepted. ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/53 "2004-02-13T13:50:08Z")
You know, if we were discussing a point of law and someone with a law degree came in, you wouldn’t jump all over him because he mentioned it. Also, I haven’t called anyone names, and I’ve been nothing but personally attacked. If I could edit or delete the post, I would, but frankly nothing in your own posts has lead me to believe that any of you deserve my apologies. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Conceivable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@In\_Conceivable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Conceivable)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/54 "2004-02-13T13:50:42Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > That’s not what I said, that’s your own prejudice kicking in. That is what you said. Remember this [quote] \*\*People who read Harry Potter and nothing else (kinda lame) \*\* To the people (not many, but enough to annoy) who have written me asking if I have to pay J K Rowling anything to be allowed to use her invention hippogriffs in my game… try reading a fucking book that didn’t fucking come to you through the fucking fad-of-the-fucking-month club. [quote] At least you got the lame part right. ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/55 "2004-02-13T13:51:10Z")
> [@Myrr21](#): > > Have you been to ANY section of a bookstore lately? 99% of everything published is total crap, and that includes many so-called “classics”. No genre is excepted. Hell, I agree with that, but I didn’t start a flame calling people poorly read because they don’t know the origins of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/56 "2004-02-13T13:53:15Z")
> [@](#): > > You know, if we were discussing a point of law and someone with a law degree came in, you wouldn’t jump all over him because he mentioned it. Putting your own words out of context makes for very lame self-defense. You brought up your degree as a credential to prove your good taste and authority to tell all the fantasy-loving peons out there what good literature is and to prove why your opinion was factually correct and others were wrong. > [@](#): > > Also, I haven’t called anyone names, and I’ve been nothing but personally attacked. Being a snotbag will get you that around here. > [@](#): > > If I could edit or delete the post, I would, but frankly nothing in your own posts has lead me to believe that any of you deserve my apologies. Nobody asked for an apology. They just said you’re a fuckhead. Which you are. Fuckhead. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/57 "2004-02-13T13:55:11Z")
What you should learn is that there is an entire world out there. I’m not from the US, so “high school” and “college” mean nothing to me. Had I ever been in high school, I would have left it a long time ago. It is only in the US that Faulkner, Joyce or Melville are considered required reading. I have read Shakespeare and Dante. Have you read any Strindberg, Lagerlöf or Moberg lately? Well, I have. Does that make me more well-read than you? Obviously not. And should you happen to have read any of those authors, I can just go from country to country around the globe until I find one whose great literary works you’re not familiar with. Oh, and that bullshit about evaluation of art being a social and historical process is bullshit. Beauty _is_ in the eye of the beholder, and your deathly fear of having wasted your life doesn’t change that. On preview: OK, **In Conceivable** , I should have phrased it differently. Point to the idiots. Happy now? ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/58 "2004-02-13T13:55:53Z")
Fine. Fuck all of you and your shitty books and your potty mouths. I don’t need to be redressed by a bunch of pimple-popping nerds. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Conceivable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@In\_Conceivable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Conceivable)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/59 "2004-02-13T13:58:21Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > On preview: OK, **In Conceivable** , I should have phrased it differently. Point to the idiots. Happy now? Idiots? Who exactly are you calling idiots? ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918/60 "2004-02-13T14:07:55Z")
> [@skutir](#): > > Fine. Fuck all of you and your shitty books and your potty mouths. I don’t need to be redressed by a bunch of pimple-popping nerds. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. Btw, hippogriffs, (or hyppogryphs) ARE from historical literature…unless you consider Italian Renaissance poetry fantasy-crap too. [http://www.bardwood.com/BEASTS.HTML](http://www.bardwood.com/BEASTS.HTML) > [@](#): > > The Hyppogryph is the offspring of the Gryphon and the horse. The hippogryph is the creation of a single known writer, Ariosto, an Italian Renaissance poet, who devised the beast for his epic, Orlando Furioso. In classical tradition, the Gryphon is the morta lenemy of the horse. Ariosto mated the improbable pair, inspired by a line from Virgil’s Eclogues: “Now griffins will be mated with horses.” In Orlando Furioso, Ariosto joins the two as a symbol of love. (Joe Nigg, The Book of Gryphons, p. 32) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-read-harry-potter-and-nothing-else-kinda-lame/228918.md?page=4)