(thoughts after listening to the episode “Victorian Realism” of the BBC’s In Our Time, originally developed as a review of “Strangers at Drakeshaugh” by Northumbrian and also a possible commentary on “Everything Wrong With HARRY POTTER Fanfictions” by Purplemist14, which is HIGHLY recommended reading for any hopeful fanfiction writer …
Category: literature Tagged: harryPotter review blogComment realism
Read More(my reaction to the published review of “Grow Young with Me” by Taliesin19)
Except the quality of this review is on par with those on the DVD box. This is not a review, it is a promotion by a fan. There is not one weakness found, and although I like …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment
Read More(my comments during the thread “Stories where Ginny is actually nice to Harry’s girlfriend?” by /u/AcerbicOrb)
Let me add here a dump of my “muggles” folder (for later reference):
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment zettelkasten muggle
Read More(my comments on the thread “why does almost everyone hate the Harry/Hermione ship?” by patriot_man69420)
I don’t hate the ship, although I generally prefer Hinny, I could admit that Ginny is extremely poorly written by JKR, and fanfiction has to add a lot of her personality to make …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment
Read More(my comments on “the thread on reddit”)
First of all, you should avoid the dark trap of all adventure/fantasy stories: my story must be more dramatic than the previous one, my heroes and my antagonist must be more significant than the previous one. It is not enough to save …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment fromReddit storyPrompt
Read More(my comments on “Breakfast in New York” by Radaslab)
Finished reading the story and there are two overwhelming thoughts in my head. The first is obvious and rather normal for most of the fanfiction stories (and especially so-called romantic ones): it should be cut to like one quarter or so …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment HPreligion
Read More(my comments on “My theory on Christianity in the Wizarding World” by LordMacragge)
I prefer the explanation in chapter 16 of Thou Shalt Not Suffer by TheWizardsHarry: there are horrible problems with our translations of the verse, because all Bible translators were Muggles, and they just couldn’t grasp the …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment HPreligion
Read MoreBashing and similar are not the cause of poor quality of their stories, but they are just a symptom of the author being lead by the poor design of his story into areas, which would be impossible to resolve or it would be too difficult, so bashing is then just …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment fromReddit
Read More(my comments on the thread “Overused tropes” by u/Aa11yah)
OK, I will suggest a very weird book for reading. The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers (yes, the author of detective stories with Lord Peter Wimsey) is one of the best books on the art of writing …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment fromReddit
Read More(my comments on the thread “What are your thoughts on the direction taken by 'Animagus at War' by White Squirrel?” by u/SnobbishWizard)
I have already (many chapters ago) wrote a review, which included my comments on this story, and so far I stand behind it.
On top of that …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment fromReddit
Read More(my comments on the thread “Best Luna fics” by u/jasoneill23)
I like Luna in the Northumbrian’s stories, but there she is not very central to the story (perhaps, aside from Yggdrasil by Northumbrian, but it is not his best story). Actually, the chapter 3 of Tales of the …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment fromReddit
Read More(my comments on “LF Fics to introduce me to fem!Harry by u/frostking104” Reddit thread)
There are two types of fem!Harry stories:
Where Harry (with a different name, of course) is naturally a girl, always was and always will be. Usually, I guess, the motivation is that the …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment fromReddit
Read More(Major spoilers follow, I am sorry, but I cannot explain my opinion on the story without revealing most of the plot; if you haven’t read the story, finish it first.)
I have followed To All the Wizards I’ve Considered Before by FullofWrackspurts first with excitement. It seemed like …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter
Read More(originally posted on Reddit)
Yes, everybody is redeemable. I believe redemption stories of some former SSmen (and SSwomen), guards in the Nazi concentration camps, etc. Redemption (or let’s use the old-fashioned term “conversion” or “penance”) however doesn’t mean to somehow excuse previous deeds. It requires true acknowledgement that …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment fromReddit
Read More(my comment on the discussion under “Summer Vacation” by Forrest_of_Holly)
I have rather complicated history with the Deathly Hallows. I have bought the book six hours after it was published (no I couldn’t bother myself to get up at midnight) while on the work-related conference in Birmingham (I am …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment
Read More(my comments on “The Augurey” by La Matrona, originally published on Reddit)
What is my pet-peeve is when the characters behave like idiots just to keep the plot together. Let’s see. I have just deleted “The Augurey” from my computer.
First of all, just let me state, I have …
Category: literature Tagged: review storyPrompt harryPotter blogComment fromReddit
Read More(my comments on “The Character Development of Ginny Weasley” by u/goodlife23)
For me the main idea of everything written (originally, I have this from an excellent book by Walter Kerr “How Not to Write a Play”) is that the plot (and character development and many other things in any …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment zettelkasten plot story
Read MoreOriginally published as “Harry & Ginny are brother and sister” on Reddit.
I see it like this. Lily was already pregnant with her second child (it is slightly over a year between Harry and Ginny so it is biologically possible), when they found out about the Prophecy and need to hide …
Category: literature Tagged: storyPrompt harryPotter plotBunny fromReddit
Read More(my comments on “What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?” by angua9)
As I wrote elsewhere, I am not a big fan of Harmony stories (stories, where the main pairing is Harry/Hermione), but when they happen, I usually don’t discount them automatically, and some of them are …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment
Read More(my comments on “Canon and the Moral Dimensions of Killing in War” thread on reddit)
This is no question of agreeing and disagreeing with me. What I wrote was not exactly my opinion (which I specifically emphasized), but what I consider the prevalent notion among Europeans. Discussion here is very …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment justice
Read More(my comments on the thread “Probably gonna catch some hate for this. Religion and Mythology and its place in fiction.” on Reddit by RhysThornbery; edited for this blog)
The question is about the role of religion [1] in the HP universe, and it is very interesting one. I am a …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment fromReddit HPreligion zettelkasten
Read More(my comments on “Terms of Matrimony” by Galad Estel)
First of all, this story has broken link on Fanfiction.net, so I have had to look up and down all over the Internet to find that only working copy known to me is at ff2ebook.com link shown above. Even …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment fromReddit
Read More(my comments on “A magical love affair” by charmed9292)
I have to admit reading of this story was an exercise in frustration for me. I think the general idea of Petunia and Severus crying over one another’s shoulder is a great. Both of them are nicely complicated and somehow …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter blogComment
Read MoreAristotle in the seventh and eighth chapter of his Poetics writes:
Now, according to our definition, Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is complete, and whole, and of a certain magnitude … As therefore, in the other imitative arts, the imitation is one when the object imitated is one …
Category: literature Tagged: review harryPotter
Read More(review of Must Have Changed A Lot)
This certainly works as a one-shot, but as many (most?) fanfics it is necessary to distinguish between exposition and story. There are zillion fanfics with at least interesting exposition (OK, so not only "what if Harry was a girl/has a sister"), but …
Category: literature Tagged: harryPotter review blogComment
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