What Anti- Means to Me

I have been called Anti-Harry Potter, most recently by my lovely husband.  I was grumbling about something that I disliked about the series and he chuckled and said, "It's funny how anti-Harry Potter you are."

But I object.  I am not Anti-Harry Potter.

So I thought I'd take a moment to explain what I am and am not towards the Harry Potter series.

I do not personally enjoy the series for various reasons that I will list in short:
1 - I don't enjoy most fantasy books, and Harry Potter is no exception.  I have a hard time suspending reality in strange ways.  I can handle some fantasy elements, but Diagon Alley does me in every time.  Talking kettles?  Other people say "Why not?" and I say in despair, "But WHY?"

2 - I don't think it's particularly well-written.  I know most people disagree with me, but I can hold whichever opinion I like.  I wasn't particularly compelled by the story line or characters or method of story telling.  I have cared more about characters that were cats.

3 - It's not literature.  It's a children's book.  I don't object to children's books; in fact I quite like them.  I object when people insist that the Harry Potter series is literature.  In my opinion, it is not.

4 - I don't like the premise.  The perfect ending to the Harry Potter series is that it never began - Harry would have died, even IF his mother died for him.  I HATE this part of the series, and it's the part I feel strongest about.

5 - Regarding the movies:  Some of them were poorly done.  I object when people tell me this isn't true.  Sorry, but movie 2?  Watch it again, people.  It's horrible.  Movie 7.1?  Not a movie.  I would have preferred if someone had given me the whole movie in 10 sentences or less (which wouldn't have been hard to do), one of the sentences being, "And then they waited and waited."

But here's why I'm NOT Anti-Harry Potter:
1 - I don't care if you or your children read the books.  And I don't even care if MY children read the books.  We now own the entire book series, and Rob and Miciah have read and enjoyed them all.  I have even retrieved some of the "extra" Harry Potter books for Miciah from the library without her requesting them.  We also own the movie series and Rob and the kids are watching movie #4 as I write this post.

2 - It gets kids reading books.  Great!

3 - It's a fun story line.  I enjoy when people have read the books and then they tell me the details.  This is very much how I feel about Tolkien's Silmarillion.  I don't ever want to read it, but I like talking to people who have read it.

4 - Lastly, ANTI- is a strong feeling, and not one I have towards the Harry Potter series.  I am Anti-Dan Brown for instance, and threatened to throw away the book Rob was reading if he didn't stop reading it right that second.  He stopped reading a quarter of the way through the book, despite liking it, and hasn't finished reading it in the years since because I feel THAT strongly about it.  In contrast, I have never once been tempted to tear Harry Potter out of anyone's hands.  A similar series that I don't like but don't mind if you do:  The revered Mormon series The Work and the Glory.  You'll never catch me reading them (for similar reasons), but if you love them, then have at.

So there you go.  I hope you read and love the Harry Potter series.  However, I would also like it if you didn't expect me to know the spells.  We can like different things - or, in this case, the whole world can like something and I can be one of the few dissenters.

Hope that helps!