Re:Any opinions of Harry Potter? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Zoe · 03-09-2001, 01:28 AM

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Shade of Carn Dûm
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Re: Redwall

Tolkien did not 'invent' elves, dragons, goblins, trolls, etc. I think even Ents come from previous literature. Tolkien's work was intended to be a mythology for England, and as such contained elements found in english/european folk tales.

Harry Potter, on the other hand, is a school story, with wizards and (very much "abracadabra", mechanical) magic thrown in. (This fact doesn't affect the quality at all, it's just a classification.) As such, it bears considerable similarities to The Great English School Story, as written well-known-ed-ly (?!!), but certainly not exclusively, by Enid Blyton. If you read the Mallory Towers books and then read Harry Potter, you will see far more similarities between the two than between HP and Tolkien.

I could even go as far as hypothesising that the similarities (or copying/making fun of, as you call it, Sam) found between the two are more a result of our natural wish to find similarities between things which are in the same category, and to work out why they are in the same category. Harry Potter and Tolkien's work have both been put into the 'fantasy' category by book sellers, and therefore, we see similarities which are simply coincidental, minor, and meaningless.

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03-09-2001, 01:28 AM	#10
Zoe Wight Join Date: Sep 2000 Posts: 223	<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Shade of Carn Dûm Posts: 257</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE> Re: Redwall Tolkien did not 'invent' elves, dragons, goblins, trolls, etc. I think even Ents come from previous literature. Tolkien's work was intended to be a mythology for England, and as such contained elements found in english/european folk tales. Harry Potter, on the other hand, is a school story, with wizards and (very much "abracadabra", mechanical) magic thrown in. (This fact doesn't affect the quality at all, it's just a classification.) As such, it bears considerable similarities to The Great English School Story, as written well-known-ed-ly (?!!), but certainly not exclusively, by Enid Blyton. If you read the Mallory Towers books and then read Harry Potter, you will see far more similarities between the two than between HP and Tolkien. I could even go as far as hypothesising that the similarities (or copying/making fun of, as you call it, Sam) found between the two are more a result of our natural wish to find similarities between things which are in the same category, and to work out why they are in the same category. Harry Potter and Tolkien's work have both been put into the 'fantasy' category by book sellers, and therefore, we see similarities which are simply coincidental, minor, and meaningless. </p>