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Offline rooster

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #140 on: March 07, 2015, 05:18:24 PM »
It's not actually generic. The soul it's holding bleeds into the people close to it which is a staple of the horcruxes. And we get a ton of background on Voldemort and the Riddle family in that book. Annnd,  we learn about Parseltongues.

Sure, you could try and scatter all that information into other books but then you'd be making already large independent readers even bigger. I think it's enough for its own book. I think it's just a bit slow because it's mostly laying foundation to the rest of the series.

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Offline Ghost Spaghetti

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #141 on: March 07, 2015, 05:42:24 PM »
It's not actually generic. The soul it's holding bleeds into the people close to it which is a staple of the horcruxes. And we get a ton of background on Voldemort and the Riddle family in that book. Annnd,  we learn about Parseltongues.

Sure, you could try and scatter all that information into other books but then you'd be making already large independent readers even bigger. I think it's enough for its own book. I think it's just a bit slow because it's mostly laying foundation to the rest of the series.

Oh, come on. The Evil Object storing the soul of the Big Bad making good characters do bad things has a whole TV Tropes page dedicated to it Soul Jar.

OK, I'll concede that it does set up a lot of little things for the rest of the series, but we only really learn of their significance four or five books down the line. As a standalone novel it doesn't really hold up as well as the rest of them.

Ghost of V

Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #142 on: March 07, 2015, 05:43:01 PM »
To be fair, I'm pretty sure JK made most of the story up as she went along. I'm sure she had the basics sorted out (Voldemort's backstory, Harry's, maybe how the series was going to end), but I doubt at the time she wrote The Chamber of Secrets that she had any significant plans for the horcruxes.

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Offline Ghost Spaghetti

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #143 on: March 07, 2015, 05:46:24 PM »
To be fair, I'm pretty sure JK made most of the story up as she went along. I'm sure she had the basics sorted out (Voldemort's backstory, Harry's, maybe how the series was going to end), but I doubt at the time she wrote The Chamber of Secrets that she had any significant plans for the horcruxes.

She said for years that she had the final chapter of the final book written by the end of Philosopher's Stone. Turned out it was that pretty unrelated little epilogue with the next generation going to Hogwarts; and, to be fair, you can tell that she wrote it early on, the naieve writing style really clashes with the more mature writing of Deathly Hallows and I really wish she'd left it locked away.

Ghost of V

Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #144 on: March 07, 2015, 05:49:55 PM »
To be fair, I'm pretty sure JK made most of the story up as she went along. I'm sure she had the basics sorted out (Voldemort's backstory, Harry's, maybe how the series was going to end), but I doubt at the time she wrote The Chamber of Secrets that she had any significant plans for the horcruxes.

She said for years that she had the final chapter of the final book written by the end of Philosopher's Stone. Turned out it was that pretty unrelated little epilogue with the next generation going to Hogwarts; and, to be fair, you can tell that she wrote it early on, the naieve writing style really clashes with the more mature writing of Deathly Hallows and I really wish she'd left it locked away.

I completely agree with you. The epilogue at the end of The Deathly Hallows is possibly some of the worst fiction I have ever read in my entire life. It reads like a bad fan fiction at worst and complete fanservice at best.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2015, 06:32:12 PM by Vauxhall »

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Offline rooster

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #145 on: March 07, 2015, 06:17:11 PM »
It's not actually generic. The soul it's holding bleeds into the people close to it which is a staple of the horcruxes. And we get a ton of background on Voldemort and the Riddle family in that book. Annnd,  we learn about Parseltongues.

Sure, you could try and scatter all that information into other books but then you'd be making already large independent readers even bigger. I think it's enough for its own book. I think it's just a bit slow because it's mostly laying foundation to the rest of the series.

Oh, come on. The Evil Object storing the soul of the Big Bad making good characters do bad things has a whole TV Tropes page dedicated to it Soul Jar.

OK, I'll concede that it does set up a lot of little things for the rest of the series, but we only really learn of their significance four or five books down the line. As a standalone novel it doesn't really hold up as well as the rest of them.
It's not my fault she uses tropes, I'm just pointing out that it's there and it's important to the rest of the series.

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Offline Ghost Spaghetti

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #146 on: March 07, 2015, 06:30:31 PM »
It's not actually generic. The soul it's holding bleeds into the people close to it which is a staple of the horcruxes. And we get a ton of background on Voldemort and the Riddle family in that book. Annnd,  we learn about Parseltongues.

Sure, you could try and scatter all that information into other books but then you'd be making already large independent readers even bigger. I think it's enough for its own book. I think it's just a bit slow because it's mostly laying foundation to the rest of the series.

Oh, come on. The Evil Object storing the soul of the Big Bad making good characters do bad things has a whole TV Tropes page dedicated to it Soul Jar.

OK, I'll concede that it does set up a lot of little things for the rest of the series, but we only really learn of their significance four or five books down the line. As a standalone novel it doesn't really hold up as well as the rest of them.
It's not my fault she uses tropes, I'm just pointing out that it's there and it's important to the rest of the series.

You protested that it wasn't generic. But it pretty much is, until several books and about a thousand pages later.

Rama Set

Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #147 on: March 07, 2015, 06:42:51 PM »
People give tropes a bad rap. Mythological my resonant symbols are really important to a good story. It is when the story is not fleshed out that they fall short or feel two dimensional.

Ghost of V

Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #148 on: March 07, 2015, 06:47:09 PM »
People give tropes a bad rap. Mythological my resonant symbols are really important to a good story. It is when the story is not fleshed out that they fall short or feel two dimensional.

I see nothing wrong with the use of already existing tropes. Even if you try to be super unique in your writing, you're going to fall into a trope here and there almost every time. It's impossible to avoid, but that's the nature of tropes. There's only so much you can do as a writer.

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Offline rooster

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #149 on: March 07, 2015, 07:37:29 PM »
But it pretty much is, until several books and about a thousand pages later.
It sounds like you don't have any patience for a good build up or at least can't appreciate it. Just because everything is not immediately explained in full doesn't mean it doesn't add to the story.

Ghost of V

Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #150 on: March 07, 2015, 07:44:00 PM »
But it pretty much is, until several books and about a thousand pages later.
It sounds like you don't have any patience for a good build up or at least can't appreciate it. Just because everything is not immediately explained in full doesn't mean it doesn't add to the story.

I don't think you're looking at the book for what it is. Chris and I seem to be judging the book by itself, not based on what kind of impact it had on later books in the series. The Chamber of Secrets itself is sub par, in my opinion, and I'm not going to change my opinion just because later books in the series build upon ideas presented in it.

You can't say one book is great because a later book in the series is better.

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Offline rooster

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #151 on: March 07, 2015, 07:56:08 PM »
Whoa, whoa. I never said Chamber of Secrets was great. It's definitely in the least favorites for me, I'm just arguing that it did add a lot to the series. I view it as one of those boring build up episodes you see a lot in television.

I thought the weakest of the series was either The Goblet of Fire or Chamber of Secrets. The first because I didn't really care too much about the Triwizard Cup and the former [I believe you mean latter] because, as Vauxy said, it doesn't really add anything to the series that the first didn't.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2015, 07:58:05 PM by rooster »

Ghost of V

Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #152 on: March 07, 2015, 07:57:01 PM »
Whoa, whoa. I never said Chamber of Secrets was great. It's definitely in the least favorites for me, I'm just arguing that it did add a lot to the series. I view it as one of those boring build up episodes you see a lot in television.

My mistake.


I thought the weakest of the series was either The Goblet of Fire or Chamber of Secrets. The first because I didn't really care too much about the Triwizard Cup and the former [I believe you mean latter] because, as Vauxy said, it doesn't really add anything to the series that the first didn't.

I never really even said that. I just said it's too similar to the first book in the series for my tastes. The plot is similar and it progresses in much the same way.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2015, 08:00:18 PM by Vauxhall »

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Offline Ghost Spaghetti

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #153 on: March 09, 2015, 03:49:18 PM »
Whoa, whoa. I never said Chamber of Secrets was great. It's definitely in the least favorites for me, I'm just arguing that it did add a lot to the series. I view it as one of those boring build up episodes you see a lot in television.

I thought the weakest of the series was either The Goblet of Fire or Chamber of Secrets. The first because I didn't really care too much about the Triwizard Cup and the former [I believe you mean latter] because, as Vauxy said, it doesn't really add anything to the series that the first didn't.

I already conceded that it did set things up (albeit viewed from 3 or 4 books on) what else do you want from me?

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Offline rooster

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #154 on: March 09, 2015, 04:57:24 PM »
I already conceded that it did set things up (albeit viewed from 3 or 4 books on) what else do you want from me?
Why would you make a post about this two days later? I haven't been pushing any more points so I obviously don't want anything from you... I was just responding to Vauxhall.

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Offline Ghost Spaghetti

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #155 on: March 09, 2015, 06:35:41 PM »
I already conceded that it did set things up (albeit viewed from 3 or 4 books on) what else do you want from me?
Why would you make a post about this two days later? I haven't been pushing any more points so I obviously don't want anything from you... I was just responding to Vauxhall.

I didn' see the date.

Ghost of V

Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #156 on: March 09, 2015, 06:37:19 PM »
It's still a shitty book.

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Offline rooster

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Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #157 on: March 09, 2015, 06:44:56 PM »
It's still a shitty book.
I agree. Terrible movie as well.

Saddam Hussein

Re: FES Book Club
« Reply #158 on: March 09, 2015, 07:33:35 PM »