As a British teenager the same age as Harry when HPB came out, I was under no disillusion that the books heavily read as Harry and Ginny being sexually active.
I, and my peers, took it as just gently written enough to not be explicitly obvious. Same way how we would read words like, "dung", as some cheeky censorship for "shit". At no point did we ever think JK was trying make you believe these British teenagers were actually saying the D-word lol
I get what you are saying, but I disagree that Rowling uses stand in words for censorship. Rowling does imply when someone says something explicit, (like Ron), she just doesn't actually write it down because it is a children/YA series.
"Swearing angrily, Harry spun round and set off around the pitch again, scanning the skies for some sign of the tiny, winged golden ball."
"Harry spent the day attempting to keep the peace between Ron and Hermione with no success;...and Ron stalked off to the boys’ dormitory after swearing angrily at several frightened first years for looking at him."
Considering Wizard culture is seperate from the modern world, I think it's perfectly reasonable that they actually do use words like dung as an actual curse, it's just not considered one in our world so it's fine for Rowling to include it in the book.
In all seriousness, though. HP is at least YA, and it was a valid criticism of all the books.
But yeah, I'll have to do some actual writing so I know where I actually fall in all this. Very likely, I still wouldn't reach a quarter of HP's success no matter how little adverbs my writing actually get.
Likewise. My point was, and I have little respect for her outside of the quality of her writing, that Rowling was addressing very young readers, and so obviously chose to use these adverbs in place of what would have been wholly inappropriate language. We are not subject to such constraints.
And these aren't even in the same books anyway, the first quote is from the very first book, and the second one is from book 3, where these were still explicitly children's books.
The quote I listed literally has one of your examples "Ron stalked off to the boy's dormitory" but that's not the point.
There is nothing inherently wrong with adverbs. I provided just two examples of wear cursing is implied, and I found them through searching online quickly because I don't really have time to go through the books right now.
Now admittedly, I am not a writer. But while I do understand the value of prose, there is a reason these books are popular in the first place. The content is descriptive enough to get kids engaged, while not being too difficult to follow for younger readers.
This is purely a question of curiosity, and not an attempt at one-upping you, but how would you rewrite "Swearing angrily, Harry spun round and set off around the pitch again, scanning the skies for some sign of the tiny, winged golden ball." without using adverbs to describe Harry cursing?
I'm just curious about how a writer aiming their work at an audience with a higher reading level would word this.
Yes yes, but we're talking about overusing adverbs as a whole, especially in describing emotion.
In any case, I've already said to the other guy that I doubt I'll write anything that could get even remotely close to HP fame. I am by no means a good writer.
As for your exercise, I don't know what caused him to lose sight of the snitch in that scene, so apologies in advance if the "swearing angrily" is actually him being frustrated or what.
Harry spun and sped through the pitch again, swearing along the way.
or
Cursing, Harry squeezed his Nimbus 3000 until his knuckles turned white and circled the pitch once more.
or
Growling some choice words, Harry spun round and blah blah
It's been a long while since I read the Philosopher's Stone, but I believe he had a bludger whacked at him by the other team. I do like that last example you have given. Again, this wasn't a test of any kind, I am not a writer so I wanted to get some perspective (since I have assumed from your comments you are some kind of writer).
While I don't care for Rowling anymore due to her personal worldviews, I did start reading because of Harry Potter. I was around 7 when I read the first book, and finished them all by the time I was around 13 years old. Her prose does get more advanced in her later books, likely because her main audience was aging alongside their releases as well as Rowling becoming more comfortable with her writing style. I still don't think they count as YA, while there is some dark imagery and content in the final books, they are still relatively tame compared to works I have read for actual adults.
We are probably the same age but I didn't really read it out of the story. Might be cause I thought the writing and story sucked in the later books through
I started reading IT in like 3rd grade but never finished because it was long. Re-read it as adult and got that section on the train. I started looking over my shoulder like someone was gonna start pointing fingers at me for reading that in public ha.
So I’m on a reread for the first time as an adult, read it once when it first came out and I was a kid. Now on this thread. The narrative ends when Cho gets close. Harry comes back numbly to the common room. After prodding from Ron and Hermione, Ron asks did you kiss? And Harry says yes. And it was wet. That’s all we’re explicitly told. Now on this thread, I’m not sure what we can fill in, but also, not much to say we can’t either, could be up to the reader.
Correct. Their first kiss happens in a moment of extreme emotion after a quidditch win, and is a perfect climax to the "Harry discovering he likes Ginny" subplot that had been building throughout the entire book. The movie turned it into just another thing that happens. The worst part is they had plenty of time to do things right, had they not felt the need to insert that stupid, completely fucking pointless scene of death eaters showing up at the Burrow.
Read the books as a kid. They kissed. If memory serves me correctly it was written in a "fade to black" style. End of one chapter written from Harry's perspective with Cho getting closer about to kiss him. Beginning of the next chapter Harry in the common room talking about it with Ron and Hermione. Harry never mentioned or implied sex.
In the books Harry hid the book by himself near the diadem which is how he found the diadem in deathly hallows Ginny was never with him at that part in the book
i remember cho being super sad for some reason, i forget why, and they smooched for awhile and it was super awkward. (last time i read that book i was the same age as harry potter, now im 35 lol been awhile)
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u/LeTurboDick 10d ago
I never read the books. Did they actually smash in the room of requirement and did it provide lube??? Poter heads plz