Sorcerer’s stone: Chapter 1 & 2
Rivan9000
Experienced.
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2015
- Messages
- 2,590
- Likes received
- 26,124
This is a cross post of my readings of Harry Potter from SB. Thought you all might enjoy watching me take a children's book way too seriously. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!
So I've never read Harry Potter before. Seen the movies but never read the books despite owning them for years. I thought "Hey, let's read the things."
So this will be my reactions to the story.
Now the reason I never got far into the books is because the Dursleys scared the shit out of me. They hit a little close to home.
So to start off.
Chapter 1: Overall the Dursleys are quite unpleasant, spying on the neighbors and Vernon enjoying yelling at his employees. I really can't quite wrap my head around it, they kinda seem like cartoon characters. What really put a bee in my bonnet was Dudley. The fact that he kicks his mother and was throwing a tantrum because he wanted sweet was disgusting. Oh, not Dudley, he's a little kid. He only knows what he has been taught. Also, for being estranged form the Potters, Vernon spent a decent amount of time thinking about them. The fact the Dursleys felt the Potters were their dirty little secret felt weird but hey that's just me.
I do find it funny that there are so many wizards around celebrating, almost like keeping magic as a secret from people wasn't that big a deal originally.
Now besides the unpleasantness of the Dursleys the bits I had issues with is Dumbledore leaving Harry on their doorstep. McGonagall (who is depicted as much younger in the books then the movies.) was not wrong in that leaving Harry with them would be bad for the boy. But her thinking that it be better for him to be raised in the magical world because he is famous is flawed thinking. Dumbledore is right on that at least.
Leaving him on the doorstep with just a letter bothered me but I understand this is meant to be a whimsical children's book, so I let it slide. I still would of preferred for Dumbledore to have a sit down with the Dursleys. I overall don't have much to say about chapter 1 other than it leans on tropes I'm not overly fond of, specifically the "Nasty uncle and aunt." thing.
Alright that's all I got for now. I'll be back with chapter 2 when I get around to it.
Edit: Chapter 2
Ok so there's a bit to unpack here. First I forgot that Harry's cupboard was filled with spiders. That's just so petty. I actually mean the writing. I feel like Rowling was taking inspiration form Cinderella on this one. The Dursleys are rude and bitter, and they take out their unhappiness on Harry.
And what they are doing to Dudley is simply tragic. The kid is very overweight, the amount of health problems he will endure unless that gets under control are myriad. He is older then Harry and yet he can't do basic arithmetic. They reward his greed and indulge his tantrums.
They are sabotaging that poor boy. Life is not kind, and they are denying their son the tools he needs in order thrive.
And Harry, growing up in a house with no love is damaging. I'm honestly amazed that he's as well adjusted as he is. It takes a certain strength to not embrace bitterness and hate. At the very least the Dursleys are not physically abusive to the boy. Still emotional abuse can lead to a lot of bad stuff. Maladaptive coping mechanisms, anger issues, low self-worth and even worse.
It can get bad.
Also, the "first rule is don't ask questions." is so over the top that it would circle around to comical if I didn't know some people actually do this. The denial of food thing also pisses me off.
Rowling went overboard with all of this. I am reminded of why I hated this as a kid. It was too close to home and completely unnecessary. The "extended family is awful." trope needs to die a fiery death as far as I'm concerned.
Snake scene was funny though.
Sorry about hyper focusing on the mental health aspect but that's something important to me and I can't not see it.
So I've never read Harry Potter before. Seen the movies but never read the books despite owning them for years. I thought "Hey, let's read the things."
So this will be my reactions to the story.
Now the reason I never got far into the books is because the Dursleys scared the shit out of me. They hit a little close to home.
So to start off.
Chapter 1: Overall the Dursleys are quite unpleasant, spying on the neighbors and Vernon enjoying yelling at his employees. I really can't quite wrap my head around it, they kinda seem like cartoon characters. What really put a bee in my bonnet was Dudley. The fact that he kicks his mother and was throwing a tantrum because he wanted sweet was disgusting. Oh, not Dudley, he's a little kid. He only knows what he has been taught. Also, for being estranged form the Potters, Vernon spent a decent amount of time thinking about them. The fact the Dursleys felt the Potters were their dirty little secret felt weird but hey that's just me.
I do find it funny that there are so many wizards around celebrating, almost like keeping magic as a secret from people wasn't that big a deal originally.
Now besides the unpleasantness of the Dursleys the bits I had issues with is Dumbledore leaving Harry on their doorstep. McGonagall (who is depicted as much younger in the books then the movies.) was not wrong in that leaving Harry with them would be bad for the boy. But her thinking that it be better for him to be raised in the magical world because he is famous is flawed thinking. Dumbledore is right on that at least.
Leaving him on the doorstep with just a letter bothered me but I understand this is meant to be a whimsical children's book, so I let it slide. I still would of preferred for Dumbledore to have a sit down with the Dursleys. I overall don't have much to say about chapter 1 other than it leans on tropes I'm not overly fond of, specifically the "Nasty uncle and aunt." thing.
Alright that's all I got for now. I'll be back with chapter 2 when I get around to it.
Edit: Chapter 2
Ok so there's a bit to unpack here. First I forgot that Harry's cupboard was filled with spiders. That's just so petty. I actually mean the writing. I feel like Rowling was taking inspiration form Cinderella on this one. The Dursleys are rude and bitter, and they take out their unhappiness on Harry.
And what they are doing to Dudley is simply tragic. The kid is very overweight, the amount of health problems he will endure unless that gets under control are myriad. He is older then Harry and yet he can't do basic arithmetic. They reward his greed and indulge his tantrums.
They are sabotaging that poor boy. Life is not kind, and they are denying their son the tools he needs in order thrive.
And Harry, growing up in a house with no love is damaging. I'm honestly amazed that he's as well adjusted as he is. It takes a certain strength to not embrace bitterness and hate. At the very least the Dursleys are not physically abusive to the boy. Still emotional abuse can lead to a lot of bad stuff. Maladaptive coping mechanisms, anger issues, low self-worth and even worse.
It can get bad.
Also, the "first rule is don't ask questions." is so over the top that it would circle around to comical if I didn't know some people actually do this. The denial of food thing also pisses me off.
Rowling went overboard with all of this. I am reminded of why I hated this as a kid. It was too close to home and completely unnecessary. The "extended family is awful." trope needs to die a fiery death as far as I'm concerned.
Snake scene was funny though.
Sorry about hyper focusing on the mental health aspect but that's something important to me and I can't not see it.