Unpopular Geek Media Opinions

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Popularity drives mainstream analysis and critique. And mainstream analysis and critique is usually pretty lacking (as compared to academic analysis and critique).

and yet it's only HP I see get pulled part and not Twilight, Divergent, Hunger Games, Ender's Game.

 

[BookTenTiger]

and yet it's only HP I see get pulled part and not Twilight, Divergent, Hunger Games, Ender's Game.

I can help you with that!

Twilight: teaches unhealthy lessons about relationships, and features an age gap that's "May / December" to an insane degree. It's basically the Roblox of romance vampire fiction.

Divergent: never read or watched.

Hunger Games: a lazy rip-off of Japanese media, the first book (the only one I read) is poorly-written pulp and the movies show violence against children but not consequences thereof (in order to secure its family-friendly rating), which feels like it glorifies and celebrates violence instead of an indictment of it.

Ender's Game: though I absolutely loved this book growing up, the author's homophobia shows up as subtext in the violent interactions between the boys.

 

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I guess if you don't want to read criticism of works you enjoy, don't read unpopular opinions about them?

I will say, with Roald Dahl, his antisemitism is well documented. As an elementary school teacher who is culturally Jewish, I've debated whether to have his books in my classroom library. However, I feel like his books are so good and subversive that they're still worth reading. And I love their message of not trusting adults just because they're adults!

I wasn't aware of his antisemitism, i was just thinking about the lack of safety standards, unhealthy candy, the white savior trope, darkest Africa that lead to a re-write of the original. The portrayal of the Indian Prince.

 

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Hunger Games: a lazy rip-off of Japanese media, the first book (the only one I read) is poorly-written pulp and the movies show violence against children but not consequences thereof (in order to secure its family-friendly rating), which feels like it glorifies and celebrates violence instead of an indictment of it.

We could just point to Battle Royal being an out growth of Lord of the flies.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I wasn't aware of his antisemitism, i was just thinking about the lack of safety standards, unhealthy candy, the white savior trope, darkest Africa that lead to a re-write of the original. The portrayal of the Indian Prince.

Yeah, if it came out now we'd definitely be talking about the colonialism, racism, and the author's outspoken antisemitism.

 

[pukunui]

Ender's Game: though I absolutely loved this book growing up, the author's homophobia shows up as subtext in the violent interactions between the boys.

I loved this book so much as a freshman in high school that my glowing book review convinced my English teacher to put it on his required reading list for subsequent freshmen! The sequels got weirder and weirder until Card ended up plagiarising himself by retelling Ender's Game from the perspective of another character, complete with all passages lifted verbatim from the original.

Let's not forget that Card is a devout Mormon who rewrote his faith's foundational text as a futuristic sci-fi series (The Homecoming Saga).

 

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Hunger Games: a lazy rip-off of Japanese media, the first book (the only one I read) is poorly-written pulp and the movies show violence against children but not consequences thereof (in order to secure its family-friendly rating), which feels like it glorifies and celebrates violence instead of an indictment of it.

Actually the characters do deal with PTSD

 

[The Firebird]

and yet it's only HP I see get pulled part and not Twilight, Divergent, Hunger Games, Ender's Game.

Hunger games got a lot of talk among people my age (the boundary between millennial and Gen z). I think we were mostly reading it ourselves, rather than with parents, so it had less cross generational impact? Also fewer books so influential for not as long.

Ender's game has a lot to talk about, and that I've seen.

But none of these come close in size to HP, which has (I think multiple?) theme parks. Rowling's recent actions have also motivated a revisitation and more "I never liked that anyway" analyses.

 

[pukunui]

And when even were the events you refer to exactly? Which books? Because I'm suspecting the the Albus Severus (lol these names, at least it's not Cho Chang or Kingsley Shacklebolt I guess) one is in what, the Cursed Child? A play written 20 years later?

No, it's in the "many years later" epilogue of the last book / movie, when Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione are putting their children on the Hogwarts Express.

I will say, with Roald Dahl, his antisemitism is well documented. As an elementary school teacher who is culturally Jewish, I've debated whether to have his books in my classroom library. However, I feel like his books are so good and subversive that they're still worth reading. And I love their message of not trusting adults just because they're adults!

Not here to argue about his antisemitism. However, I am rewatching all the old Bond movies with my teen daughters, and we watched You Only Live Twice last night. Dahl did the script for that movie, and he actually did a pretty good job turning Bond into the "other" (literally in one case). His portrayal of Japanese culture (the late 60s version of it at least) seems fairly respectful, and the two Japanese Bond girls are actual baddies compared to their European counterparts. Even Bond behaves somewhat more respectfully to his love interests here than in the previous films. No sexual assault in barns or day spas here! And Aki repeatedly rescues Bond instead of the other way around. The scene where Tanaka tells Bond that in Japanese culture, women are subservient to men, so he must allow his women to bathe him, seems more representative of Japanese sexism than the general societal sexism of the 60s (considering Tanaka comments that English women would never do that, although Bond says he can think of a few who might).

Actually the characters do deal with PTSD

Exactly. Struggling with PTSD is a major theme in the books / movies. Katniss and Peta deal with their PTSD from surviving one Hunger Games throughout the second book / movie and their PTSD from surviving two games throughout the third book / third and fourth movies. Drowning his PTSD in alcohol is also basically Haymitch's entire deal.

 

[Reynard]

and yet it's only HP I see get pulled part and not Twilight, Divergent, Hunger Games, Ender's Game.

Weird. I see all of those things get pulled apart (in amounts reflecting their cultural relenance). HP is a touchstone for an entire generation (or two, depending where you draw that line) so it is unsurprising that it gets talked about a lot. Plus, the author is a bad person,which means people want to explore those elects by way of the work.