Well this aged like milk.

[u/waiha]

Stumbled upon this while clearing out the attic.

She visited my primary school in Edinburgh shortly after releasing TPS. The girl in front of me (my friend and train-to-school comrade) was Southeast Asian and has an incredibly elaborate sounding name. When Joanne screwed up her face when my friend gave her her name for the signature, I laughed. This is how she decided to sign my copy.

I was laughing at you, JK.

EDIT: It’s on EBay.

[u/FantasticTraining982]

For real it’s like these people forget the target audience was like 10-12 year olds

I’m listening to the new audible full cast versions (very good btw) and looking back it’s amazing how obviously they’re written for juveniles

[u/Rainy_Leaves → u/FantasticTraining982]

The ‘it’s a kids movie, not that deep’ argument, but for books instead. Any good media wouldn’t be dumbed down to try and appeal to kids, as kids are smart and can understand complexity and appreciate good writing. Is it ‘for kids’ or is it a bit lazy and saying it’s not for adults excuses that laziness. I feel it’s beyond just harmless or badly thought out tropes, it has some representation and stereotyping issues that other kids media manages to avoid.

People liked what it was trying to be but not what it was. A magical school is on its own accessible to kids without needing to dumb down other aspects. And people upon rereading realise it either doesn’t hold up as they hoped or that there are biases that JK has personally that show through some of the character choices in worrying ways

[u/Troubadour_Tim → u/Rainy_Leaves]

What do you mean by "People liked what it was trying to be but not what it was." ? I'm fairly sure people like what it was... given it's the best selling book series of all time by a margin of ~200 million, and is selling as much now as it was twenty years ago.

Rowling's ability to choose names that compliment her characters and world is one of her standout skills as an author.
Severus Snape, Gildory Lockheart, Draco Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore, Dudley Dursley Rubeus Hagrid etc. are all iconic names that help the characters come alive.

I get that it's popular to hate on Rowling but nitpicking over names and making out like she's some evil bigot because of it is stupid. Harry Potter is a very stereotypical British name, same as Seamus Finnegan is sterotypically Irish but nobody's crying about that.

[u/Alwaysme47 → u/Troubadour_Tim]

👏 👏 👏

[u/grassfedd43 → u/Rainy_Leaves]

I don't understand how their names could possibly add complexity to the story. What exactly changes if Cho Chang's name was Cassandra Lin? Catherine Huang? Or do you want every character to have an ambiguous name and then JK will pointlessly describe each characters ethnicity??

[u/Rainy_Leaves → u/grassfedd43]

Why is describing a character's ethnicity so important? is it not suspicious that one of the only black students at Hogwarts is a sports jock type? That the stereotyped Irish charcter likes alcohol and setting things on fire? Why would there be token ethnicities that fall in line with racial stereotypes? beyond just the names, their characterisation is beyond mere tropes.

Young people who read books are more than capable of understanding fair and respectful representation of human diversity. Relying on racial stereotypes reinforces bias. It is pure laziness or shallow stereotyping. It's serviceable, but don't pretend it creates meaningful and positive representation to write characters that way

[u/lazypieceofcrap → u/Rainy_Leaves]

is it not suspicious that one of the only black students at Hogwarts is a sports jock type?

Are you calling Angelina Johnson a sports jock?

Do you really know the story you are criticizing?

Dean Thomas is canonically black in the books. Not a jock.

Lee Jordan? Too busy causing mayhem with Fred and George.

Blaise Zabini? Slytherin guy who doesn't play quidditch.

What are we even talking about? You don't know the story you want to trash talk so badly.

Edit: bro replied with Dean Thomas being a "sports type" when he doesn't even play on the Quidditch team until sixth year.

You might be racist.

[u/Rainy_Leaves → u/lazypieceofcrap]

Angela and Dean are displayed as sports types and that's their main role. Lee Jordan is a sport type also but admittedly a commentator. The stereotype to make a lot of black students as sports types is weird. Blaise is not a sports type but is a criminally hollow one-note character, the fanbase wrote them in better depth than JK managed with how underused they are. 'Zabini' is also another badly stereotyped surname for a character of african descent

You're fixated on a small aspect of my comment because you can't disagree with the rest of what i said. You don't want a good-faith discussion. The representation was biased and should have been better, no matter if it was designed for kids or not. Kids can handle real-world representation without it being dumbed down

[u/grassfedd43 → u/Rainy_Leaves]

Its not important but she probably wanted distinguish their ethnicity in some way. That's why she gave them stereotypical names. But those stereotypes aren't harmful so its not an issue (which is my point). I never said it created meaningful and positive representation.

[u/FantasticTraining982 → u/Rainy_Leaves]

Let’s hand a kid some Lacan then and see what happens since they apparently appreciate non-dumbed down, complex writing

My Mai point is that you’re ostensibly an adult complaining about a book for youth, and that is simply ridiculous