The DaVinci code sold 80 millions copies.
The first HP book alone sold 120 millions, and the whole series 600 millions, being the most sold series of books.
Not only they are one order of magnitude apart, but I think they sold for different reasons.
I haven’t read Dan Brown’s stuff, but I also doubt it’s terribly written by the way. Books that capture the interest of a population more and more unused to read can be shallow, banal, inconsistent, whatever, but not terribly written. Casual readers can hardly finish a terribly written book.
In any case, HP books are children’s books. Children or teenagers are not literary critics, it’s not about reading “great literature”, however you define that.
I also can’t help to notice the coincidence that all the HP critiques started appearing in the last years, when the author went bananas. A series this popular, which ended in 2007, and suddenly 15 years later people notice that it’s “terribly written”? This smells more to me of a damnatio memoriae than genuine critique.
You haven’t read it, but that’s what you reckon? Okay.
As to the other point: JKR’s stuff is trite and derivative, but I do think that some of its “problematic” aspects are likely just because it’s regurgitating European fantasy tropes, which themselves may (originally or later on) encode antisemitism and so on.
And when it comes to it, subjecting any popular series to close reading with an eye for affront is likely to show up its flaws. Just think of all the janitors who blew up with the death star.
But Brown’s stuff is utter garbage (not to mention just ripping off “the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail”, which was pretty awful to begin with) - if you have the chance to pick it up second-hand I’d encourage you to see if you can finish it.
“If it was “terribly written” it wouldn’t have made the success it did”
Dan Brown’s millions beg to differ.
If people like HP stuff they might want to try Dianna Wynne Jones’ stuff: earlier, better, and didn’t have the same fortunate exposure.
The DaVinci code sold 80 millions copies. The first HP book alone sold 120 millions, and the whole series 600 millions, being the most sold series of books.
Not only they are one order of magnitude apart, but I think they sold for different reasons.
I haven’t read Dan Brown’s stuff, but I also doubt it’s terribly written by the way. Books that capture the interest of a population more and more unused to read can be shallow, banal, inconsistent, whatever, but not terribly written. Casual readers can hardly finish a terribly written book. In any case, HP books are children’s books. Children or teenagers are not literary critics, it’s not about reading “great literature”, however you define that.
I also can’t help to notice the coincidence that all the HP critiques started appearing in the last years, when the author went bananas. A series this popular, which ended in 2007, and suddenly 15 years later people notice that it’s “terribly written”? This smells more to me of a damnatio memoriae than genuine critique.
You haven’t read it, but that’s what you reckon? Okay.
As to the other point: JKR’s stuff is trite and derivative, but I do think that some of its “problematic” aspects are likely just because it’s regurgitating European fantasy tropes, which themselves may (originally or later on) encode antisemitism and so on.
And when it comes to it, subjecting any popular series to close reading with an eye for affront is likely to show up its flaws. Just think of all the janitors who blew up with the death star.
But Brown’s stuff is utter garbage (not to mention just ripping off “the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail”, which was pretty awful to begin with) - if you have the chance to pick it up second-hand I’d encourage you to see if you can finish it.