h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chronicargonaut,

You have discovered the secret of JKR's books, which makes them so popular for children: Predictability! Children love knowing what's going to happen. I'm not giving away any secrets to say that the third and fourth books are exactly the same.

...and that kids (as well as hootoo Researchers) find the toilets irrascibly funny.

B

Actually, the third and fourth books aren't exactly the same.

OK, not exactly the same, but they follow the same pattern that was outlined above: Harry escapes from his adoptive parents, goes to Diagon Alley etc.

I've not seen no 2 yet but on the basis of no 1, the books have a lot more going for them than the films and there's an awful lot that they have to leave out. This will be all the more so for book 4 as it's so long!

Having said that, usually films ruin my mental picture of what I've read, but most of the first film fitted in pretty well and the casting was great.

Still not sure about Viggo, though...

Well, when I was young (it was all green fields here once) I don't think I would have been impressed by forking out my pocket money on reading regurgitated stories.

As far as I can remember, the plan for 4 was to make it either as two films, or as a (very, very, VERY lucrative) TV series.

B

When I was young I forked out my pocket money on regurgitated stories. I read Enid Blyton.

And Terry Pratchett is forever "regurgitating" stories. Brilliant they are too.

A film critic was also complaining that Chamber of Secrets (the film version) was too similar in plot to the first.

Well, it will be, won't it. Each book takes us through a full school year at Hogwarts. It has to start at the Dursleys, take us to Diagon Alley and then to Hogwarts. There will be more of the same lessons with the same characters.

The films only show highlights. For example, there is more than one Quidditch match a year but we only see the game against Slytherin in the films. Griffyndor don't win every match.

One of the delights of the books for children, I think, is that they revisit familiar places and meet familiar characters in each new story.

For anyone who has seen children reading these books, and the way they devour the 600 pages of The Goblet of Fire, the way they enthuse about the story and the characters, there is no question that they are *that* great.

That said, I think there's a certain unpredictability. Since I'm a mystery fan, I like trying to spot the bad guy, who isn't always that obvious (to me anyway). To my mind, they're only as formulaic as a great many different series of books and those who moan are really only complaining that Harry's popular.

I'm rarely able to predict the bad guy either, but I never can with any film or book.

I agree that many people seem to be criticizing the books for no other reason than that they're so popular. Arguments that it's not proper literature, or it has similar characteristics to other stories, these just don't seem relevant to me. Arguments that children read them because it's a trend or because of the hype, are just false. The books became popular because they were so entertaining.

I think that is the point that people are missing; the hype existed because the books were popular, not the other way round.

if I remember rightly, the fourth book doesn't visit Diagon Alley at all, and the second film almost did feature a second Quidditch match.

and I don't know if everyone else likes them, but I find them entertaining, so the books have done their job and I can't fault them that.

R, tA

True dat!

The fourth book forgoes Diagon Alley for the delights of the Quidditch World Cup - and that's going to be fantastic on the cinema screen. Imagine if you will a giant stadium that seats thousands of witches and wizards on stands high in the air, and the spectacle of the World Cup Final - Ireland versus Bulgaria. Complete with team mascots (leprechauns and veela, respectively). Mmmmmm *drools*

Excuse me.

On plot digressions - the third book begins in more or less the same pattern, but that's to be expected - as usual it begins near the end of the summer holidays. However, the enemy is much more interesting, and far harder to predict. It has an absolutely thumping conclusion, and hippogryphs!

And you just can't beat a good hippogryph ...

Love the books. You could venture that I am a numpty at plot-guessing, but... why is prediciting a *good* thing?
Film was worth seeing again, definately. (If only for the presence of Mark Williams:

you'll have to send a letter...
...to Hogwarts...




...WITH AN OWL!

actually I reckon the films could yield as rich a seam of audience participation as the RHPS.

I did enjoy both films, and I'm not a Harry Potter basher, but seeing the second film and realising that its a retread has definitely put me off reading the remaining 3 books. You can have a succesful literary character and change he setting/plot without upsetting the readers.

Trust me! The third book is somewhat different, the fourth more so. They're both much better than the first two - at least read the third, it's the best one in the series (unless book five comes up trumps, which would be nice after the insanely long wait).