Whether Diane Can Read Harry Potter or Not

[worlebird]

By the way, I'm a newbie here, so feel free to give me a nudge in the right direction.

You seem to be doing just fine to me. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

I agree that the whole concept and style of Harry Potter is so vastly different that the Young Wizards books could never do any real copying and still be able to maintain any consistency whatsoever.

BTW, you're from Salt Lake City? That's cool; I used to live in Orem, just a ways south of there.

Worlebird
------------------------------------
At the beginning of the week, we sealed ten BSD programmers into a computer room with a single distribution of BSD Unix. Upon opening the room after seven days, we found all ten programmers dead, clutching each others' throats, and thirteen new flavors of BSD.

[Caitlin]

the only MAJOR differences that i find between fantasy novels is the WAY the magic(wizardry, w/e) is accepted in the world, and how it is performed. In hp, its not accepted, but magic is both inherited and learned, but you dont start out with all the power. In YW, you get the power, and have to learn to control it. In the enchanted forest chronicles, magic is abundant and accepted (and there are dragons-yipee!) In the pit dragon triliogy, dragons are real, and accepted, in the dragonriders of pern books, dragons are also accepted (i have a thing for dragons-can you tell?) thats the way i rank which books i like better that others- the way the magic or w/e is presented.

If one is a TRUE book lover, one cannot have a favorite book...it would be an insult to all the many books that one has read and loved.

[Rowen Avalon]

Just a postscript to my other post: If there's anything DD shouldn't be reading, it's this message board!

Caitlin, dear friend, I have a few bones to pick with your post. No personal offence intended.

the only MAJOR differences that i find between fantasy novels is the WAY the magic(wizardry, w/e) is accepted in the world, and how it is performed.

This had better not be the only major difference! Most of the superficial differences between books occur here, but the most meaningful differences are further down. The message of the books, the morals of the characters, ethics, etc. The true meat of the story that goes beyond the details of the world and is the reason that we tell stories at all. You've missed a lot in these books if you can't see these differences!

thats the way i rank which books i like better that others- the way the magic or w/e is presented.

I strongly disagree with this! Yuck! As your signature says, you can't rank books. (Or authors, not beyond "good" or "bad" anyway. I am offended by all these people saying DD is "better" than JKR. I think they just choose to write differently. There's no comparison. Anyway . . . )

There is no way of presenting magic that is preferable. The more creative and different, the better! Otherwise, all books would be about the same type of magic world and that would be boring. I think it's not the way magic is presented but how well thought out and fleshed out the author makes their world and their magic.

Yours till the bed spreads,
Rowen Avalon
mysites/ravensiggys/constitutionality

[This message was edited by Rowen Avalon on 31 December 2002 at 17:07.]

[StarReader89]

I'd have to say that while the series are very different, they do have enough similar stuff (teenaged wizards, hello!) that if you aren't careful, you could end up with a very small amount of ideas being pulled from one book to the other. My fanfiction (HPr stuff) pulls ideas from every book I've ever read, as well as all the fanfiction I read, which is also a lot! But the only way a author can be completely sure that they don't borrow another author's character, plot twist, or anything else, is to not read anything. How can we ever have any author stop reading? Reading other people's stuff just inspires new ideas for the author. When I get inspiration from another fanfiction author, I might start something out just like their work, but I put in my own ideas. There is nothing wrong with borrowing ideas, as long as you develop them on your own! So Diane, if you want to read Harry Potter, I doubt it will influence YW enough for anyone to tell. The stuff is great, so go for it if you want to!

YOUNG WIZARDS IS 999999999999999999% better then YOU KNOW WHO.

Louis20011

[Quill]

Some do say that there are only seven original plots in the world...

Inside every cynic there's an idealist desperately yearning to be let out, and when they are let out they're usually a real pain and cause all sorts of trouble. --Chris Boucher

[Rysade]

Quill, you've got my attention. What are they?

--Dai Stihó


- Michael Schermer, Skeptic Society

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

[Quill]

Oh, I'm not sure...I'm not one of those who say that! Mostly I remember the idea from L.M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon, where one of the original plots mentioned was a maiden of noble birth separated from her family as an infant and raised in a woodcutter's family. There was another one, but without the book to hand I can't specify.

Inside every cynic there's an idealist desperately yearning to be let out, and when they are let out they're usually a real pain and cause all sorts of trouble. --Chris Boucher

[Rowen Avalon]

Did some "googling" on this, here's some pages with stuff about the seven main plots (or 36, or 12):
Comments on the idea of 7 plots
More commentary
List of 7 plots
Academic essay on the subject - good

Here's a nice quote on the subject from a loverly page I found while searching Google. This is my opinion on the subject to a tee.

In other words, could be true, but who cares? I want to enjoy my books and pretend I can create something original. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter.

In any case, I would like to say: Thank goodness for Google!

Yours till the bed spreads,
Rowen Avalon
mysites/ravensiggys/constitutionality

[no]

i think that if 1 of the 2 authors were to get introuble for copying something, it should be j.k rowling, since she started writing her books after diane duane. The books are extremely different, in harry potter there are bad and good wizaards, but in the young wizards series, wizards can only be good, since that is their job. also, harry potter is about them learning to be wizards, but the young wizards is also about heir work, someone would be more likely ot be able to sue tamora pierce for the circle of magic.

I have to admit, I am a huge fan of Harry Potter - and the only reason I started reading YW was because I caught the word Wizard in the title of the first book, read the summary, and thought that it would be a fun read while in Cancun . As it turned out, one book wasn't enough to last a week, and when I got back, I bought all the books and read them as quickly as possible. That said, I also read all of Goblet of Fire in a day.

Personally, I think that the books have the basic similarities that all fantasy fiction books have - magic, wizards, The Bad Guy and The Heroes. While HP and YW have similarities - Hermione/Nita being smart, bookish girls is the first thing that comes to mind - the books are also very different.

The magic, for one. The way they work their magic is different. The way they get their magic is different. Nita and Kit could potentially lose their magic, I believe, since magic does not live in the unwilling heart. The HP characters have their magic for life, even if they choose not to use it.

2: The characters live in very different worlds. Nita and Kit in the NYC area, the HP gang mostly in a remote castle presumably in Scotland.

3. The language of their magic. True, this could go under #1, but eh well . As far as I can tell (and I'm by no means an expert), the wizardry of YW is all in the Speech, while the wizardry of HP is mostly in various forms of Latin. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.

4. The dangers they deal with. Nita and Kit seem to deal with things that could potentially affect the entire galaxy, at times, while Harry & Co., mostly Harry, deal with things that immediately affect them or those in their immediate vicinity.

5. (And last) The characters themselves are different. While the similarity I listed above is there, I honestly can't see any between Kit and Harry or Kit and Ron. Tom and Carl could be, combined, a Dumbledore-like guy, but Dumbledore is more old and wise old cooter - Tom and Carl are very cool guys. Dairine, the annoying little sister (what little sister isn't?) could be Ginny, but she doesn't have a crush on Nita's best friend.

So, in conclusion, I don't think that either series copies off each other, simply because they're too different to be easily copied. If Diane Duane has a free moment or two, of course, she should feel free to read the HP books. They come highly recommended .

Sorry for the essay!

Cheers!
~Manda

And vividly, the dead come back.

[Caitlin]

boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl hates boy. Boy falls out of love with girl, girl falls in love with boy, and every one is happy at the end.
but i found a book that does not comply with any known plot.
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern. since moreta dies at the end of the infamous(or famous, i never can tell) ride, and she was a main character-ish person, i feel that that does not comply with any other known plot.
every one who thinks i need help

so my school is doing Titanic this year, and i get to be benjamin guggenhiem's latest mistress, and last year i was mrs. potifar in joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat....are we seeing an alarming trend here?????????

[FireWitch]

My strange annalogy of HP to YW...

In anime
Chibi to real anime
In books
HP to YW

For those of you who are scratching your heads at the last coment, here's the translation:

HP is a nice story about nice kids. I really love the books and at time they do get very serious...HOWEVER...in the end everything is pretty much resolved and Harry is still the hero. The ending is "cute."
The YW books are about dynamic characters who feel so real that I always wonder if I've ever met Nita at school or the mall once. The problems that Nita and Kit face are big. In addition, the books feel alot more complex. These stories seem to be written for a more mature audience. I like them.

PLEASE NOTE: I am a full-time Harry Potter fan. Even if the above comments seemed scathing, please keep in mind that I was Hermione for Halloween, that I have a Harry Potter lunch box, and that neither rain, nor snow, nor angry parents will be able to keep me from the midnight book party on June 21.

*~*FireWitch*~*

[Zinnia Zeroth]

I think that they are really to different to be confused. I mean, yeah, they are both fantasy and have teenage wizards, but what being a wizard means is a lot different. Nita and Kit weren't just born with powers- they had to take the Oath, and they don't use any of the same traditional wizardry methods (potions, wands, broomsticks, etc.). The Young Wizards live in the real world for the most part, including school, whereas Harry only encounters muggles and the world we know in the summer. The books would have to change drastically for there to be confusion, since what is similar is that they are fantasy books about kids in the same age range.

"Beware the women of warrior class, for all they touch is both decorative and deadly." - Squire by Tamora Pierce

Apathy! Apathy! A-P-A-T.. Never mind.

Time heals all wounds, but what heals time?

"Reading one book is like eating one potato chip." (SYWTBAW)o