kirito210 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kirito210) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
antishurtugal_reborn2024-04-13 09:59 pm
kirito210) wrote in antishurtugal_reborn2024-04-13 09:59 pm
I found this article.
elftor.medium.com/harry-potter-and-the-possible-plagiarism-of-one-j-rowling-c19f1b05595c
I found this linked to a thread on Twitter/X.
I don't know what to think about it, so I wanted to share it with you.
(I might end up deleting this post later)
no subject
Interesting! I'll have to read it properly later.
On the headline, though, I think there are a lot of similarities between HP and older works because HP is merely the latest in a long and grand tradition of English boarding school stories, and a slightly less long sub-tradition of magical boarding school stories. It leans heavily on established genre tropes developed by writers like Enid Blyton, Sarah Fielding, Talbot Reed, the Jennings and Billy Bunter serieses, and so on.
There is also a tradition of "magical orphan discovers they're special and escapes from abusive situation" stories, one of which I distinctly remember involved a character named Harriet being locked in a coal cellar by her uncle when she refused to eat a disgusting rice pudding.
That said, I would be absolutely not surprised at all if it turns out JKR intentionally and knowingly committed plagiarism. One of the stories I read before HP was Groosham Grange, which is eerily similar in many oddly specific ways, but was published almost 10 years before the first Harry Potter book.
no subject
One of my favourite critiques of the series goes like this:
Far from being the plucky orphan underdog, Harry is the rich and famous trust fund jock who receives blatant favouritism from almost the teachers and then marries his high school sweetheart.
In any other school story, he would be a minor villain, in the style of Johnny from The Karate Kid (even though arguably Daniel is the villain of that story).
no subject
Far from being the plucky orphan underdog, Harry is the rich and famous trust fund jock who receives blatant favouritism from almost the teachers and then marries his high school sweetheart.
He only receives favoritism from Madam Hooch for his skill, and Hagrid's favoritism extends to Ron and Hermione due to them being friends. However, Snape irrationally and obviously bullies him cause of reasons that the author later tries to get him sympathy for.
no subject
Oh, his mother wouldn't date you because you were a slimy little creep who publicly called her by a particularly nasty slur? How terrible for you. Seriously, fuck Snape. Anyone who thinks he's some sort of Byronic hero (and especially when it includes that he should have gotten together with Hermione) is out of their damn mind.
no subject
Oh, his mother wouldn't date you because you were a slimy little creep who publicly called her by a particularly nasty slur? How terrible for you. Seriously, fuck Snape. Anyone who thinks he's some sort of Byronic hero (and especially when it includes that he should have gotten together with Hermione) is out of their damn mind.
I argued with my English teacher about this exact thing. Imagine a white guy calling his black friend the n-word, and then joining an alt-right group. Snape is that creep who thinks you being nice to him is flirting. He's still creepily pining after a girl from school. This is not healthy and weird as hell. Also, Snape is responsible for Harry being an orphan. He should have the decency to have SOME guilt around that.