(Narrowing to two groups. I'm going to omit alt.fan.harry-potter
because, while on-topic, I do have a comment that's possibly too harsh
and I don't want this to become a flame war...)


On 2026-05-03, Titus G wrote:

On 03/05/2026 03:10, The True Melissa wrote:

Verily, in article <0001HW.2FA5B1170A1D200C30655938F@news.eternal-
september.org>, did dalton@nfld.com deliver unto us this message:

May 2 is International Harry Potter Day.

I never could get into the Harry Potter books. They were such a huge
phenomenon, but it just didn't speak to me. I thought the first one was
kind of cute, with the OTT fairytale vibe and the "nice is different
than good" lesson at the end, but the others didn't really interest me.
I read them because I was in the field and literally everyone was
reading them, but I didn't get it.

They clearly spoke to a whole lot of other people!

My experience was similar. There was unexpected humour in the first but
I have yet to read the second.

I did find them entertaining, although I've only read each one
once. That they took years coming out probably means I could have a
different experience reading from beginning to end nowadays.

I plan on maybe rereading the series sometime, to assess how much it has
on top of being a public school story, with a setting that incentivates needless rivalry, besides the usual bullying. That's probably coming too strong, and I may have forgotten a significant chunk of the richer
aspects of the plot and their weight overall, hence why I want to reread
it.

(BTW, if we're discussing Harry Potter, there's also /Harry Potter and
the Methods of Rationality/):

<https://github.com/rrthomas/hpmor> <https://github.com/rrthomas/hpmor/releases/expanded_assets/v1.2.15>
)

--
Nuno Silva

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> writes:

(Narrowing to two groups. I'm going to omit alt.fan.harry-potter
because, while on-topic, I do have a comment that's possibly too harsh
and I don't want this to become a flame war...)

On 2026-05-03, Titus G wrote:

On 03/05/2026 03:10, The True Melissa wrote:

Verily, in article <0001HW.2FA5B1170A1D200C30655938F@news.eternal-
september.org>, did dalton@nfld.com deliver unto us this message:

May 2 is International Harry Potter Day.

I never could get into the Harry Potter books. They were such a huge
phenomenon, but it just didn't speak to me. I thought the first one was >>> kind of cute, with the OTT fairytale vibe and the "nice is different
than good" lesson at the end, but the others didn't really interest me. >>> I read them because I was in the field and literally everyone was
reading them, but I didn't get it.

They clearly spoke to a whole lot of other people!

My experience was similar. There was unexpected humour in the first but
I have yet to read the second.

I did find them entertaining, although I've only read each one
once. That they took years coming out probably means I could have a
different experience reading from beginning to end nowadays.

I plan on maybe rereading the series sometime, to assess how much it has
on top of being a public school story, with a setting that incentivates >needless rivalry, besides the usual bullying. That's probably coming too >strong, and I may have forgotten a significant chunk of the richer
aspects of the plot and their weight overall, hence why I want to reread
it.

After that, you may want to compare/contrast with Nuttall's _Schooled in Magic_ series. There are 24 in the series, plus a couple of novellas.

_Past Tense_ (#10) is a particularly interesting take on time travel.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)