1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,480 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com. 2 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:16,080 I am recording this a while after I had recorded the other section, which is a casual book chat, 3 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:24,640 on the Harry Potter series. So I'm pulling up notes right now to give more of the full 4 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:29,840 treatment, the professional treatment, the more measured treatment, and I'm going to admit to you 5 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:37,200 that I used the Bing Chat AI function to pull together some information on the Harry Potter 6 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:41,280 series by J.K. Rowling. I'll share that with you now, and then I'll just let myself go into 7 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:44,720 the casual book chat on Harry Potter book one, The Philosopher's Stone. 8 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:51,760 Or is it the Sorcerer's Stone? Depends on what country you're from, right? I'm from America. 9 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:55,840 I only speak two languages, English and bad English. So anyway, here we're going to go. 10 00:00:55,840 --> 00:01:04,320 Oh, that was really bad English. I'm so sorry. So, all right. Oh, also it is interesting to me 11 00:01:04,320 --> 00:01:08,720 that today is September 1st, the day that Harry goes back to Hogwarts, and it just seemed like the 12 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:14,320 right time to release this. I've got a couple of these already ready and prepared, well prepared, 13 00:01:14,320 --> 00:01:18,960 but not produced. So I decided today's the right day, September 1st, to produce this and get it 14 00:01:18,960 --> 00:01:25,200 released. So I hope you all enjoy. And if you want to hear about my writing woes, I made a super short 15 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:30,800 about 10 minute long episode of story over everything, standard episode. And then I decided 16 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:35,680 to make this skimming leaves episode separate for me to talk about Harry Potter. So some facts. 17 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:42,240 So the Harry Potter, it says, here's my facts about it. The book was written, The Philosopher's 18 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:46,960 Stone, Sorcerer's Stone, by British author J.K. Rowling, and it was her debut novel. That's pretty 19 00:01:46,960 --> 00:01:54,080 cool. The book was first published in the United Kingdom on June 26, 1997 by Bloomsbury under the 20 00:01:54,080 --> 00:02:00,640 title Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Oh, so 97. Whoops, I got to adjust my thumbnail 21 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:05,120 card thing that I made. The book was published in the United States the following year, 1998, 22 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:10,160 by Scholastic Corporation under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The book had an 23 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:14,720 initial first printing of 50,000 copies and was acquired by Scholastic at an auction for a low 24 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:19,520 six figure sum. I'm assuming the 50,000 copies was in the UK. The book won most of the British 25 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:25,920 awards that were judged by children and the other and other awards in the US. Which other awards? I 26 00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:30,240 don't know. It doesn't say. The book reads the top of the New York Times list of bestselling fiction 27 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:37,760 in August 1999 and stayed near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000. The book has been 28 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:44,000 translated into into at least 73 languages and has been made into a feature length film of the same 29 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:50,000 name as well as six of its sequels. I would say seven because Deathly Hallows is a two-part movie, 30 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:55,200 right? There's two of them. The book has sold in excess of 120 million copies making it the 31 00:02:55,200 --> 00:03:01,200 third bestselling book of all time behind the Bible and what? I don't know. Next bit of information. 32 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:08,320 According to one source, the first Harry Potter book has 76,944 words in it. Assuming an average 33 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:13,520 reading speed of 250 words per minute, it would take about five hours and 32 minutes to read it. 34 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:16,560 However, this may vary depending on your reading speed and comprehension level. Another source 35 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:20,960 provides a handy guide to reading the Harry Potter books for the first time with some tips and trivia 36 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:26,640 and there's a link there that I won't share because that's kind of weird. This is interesting to me. 37 00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:29,520 The reading level of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is measured by different 38 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:34,800 metrics such as lexile rank, grade reading level, and guided reading level according to the very to 39 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:40,000 various sources. The reading level of the first Harry Potter book is as follows. Lexi, I have no 40 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:47,920 idea what this means, lexile rank 880L. What's that mean? I don't know. Grade reading level is five to 41 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:53,760 six for ages eight to eleven and grade reading level is five but Roman numeral V? I don't know 42 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,600 why it's like that. These metrics indicate the difficulty and complexity of the text as well as 43 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:01,520 the expected reading ability and comprehension levels of the readers. However, these are only 44 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:06,640 general guidelines and may not reflect the individual difference among readers. Some factors 45 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:11,600 that may affect the reading level of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone are the length of the 46 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:17,600 book. The first book has 223 pages which may be challenging for some younger readers. The 47 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:21,040 vocabulary and sentence structure of the book contains some words and phrases that may be 48 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:27,040 unfamiliar or confusing for some readers such as British slang, magical terms, and Latin spells. 49 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:32,400 The content and themes. The book introduces a fantasy world with its own rules and history 50 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:36,960 which may require some background knowledge and imagination. The book also deals with some topics 51 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:42,960 that may be sensitive or scary for some readers such as death, violence, and evil. Therefore, 52 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:46,960 it is important to consider your own reading level and interest before choosing to read Harry 53 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:54,000 Potter and Philosopher's Stone. Of course, that's just a chat, GPT, you know, pandering and 54 00:04:55,360 --> 00:05:01,360 soft peddling so I'm not going to continue reading that. So I thought that that was interesting 55 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:07,760 and yeah now I will after doing that little bit of an introduction there I will let you 56 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:13,440 hear my initial thoughts on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 57 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:22,800 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the UK called the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 58 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:30,880 is an interesting book. My daughter finally decided to read the Harry Potter series and I 59 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:37,040 had read the first two books back in the day when I was in high school actually I think and I 60 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:42,480 which it came out before I was in high school but I was so late to it and uh so much focus on 61 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:46,240 other I was playing Sonic Adventure on my Sega Dreamcast okay I didn't have time to read Harry 62 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:52,800 Potter anyway um but I I think I read the books before I started watching the movies and like I 63 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:56,640 remember my sister and her friend going to like a midnight release of it which I guess if it released 64 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:01,200 in the UK you would have had publicity about it and people talking about how it's sweeping the nation 65 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:05,920 and that could have jumped of excitement but I was like what do you a book about a wizard boy 66 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,280 what are you talking about this is weird you guys are weird why are you going why are you all excited 67 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:14,960 for books and then I realized books are super cool so um anyway which actually uh ironically 68 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:18,320 because of uh other or interestingly enough because of some things that are going on in my 69 00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:22,480 life right now I actually kind of fell in love with books and after reading uh some of the Star 70 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:30,800 Wars books um so many cool old school expanded universe uh Star Wars novels and uh anyway very 71 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:35,760 cool stuff but that's not what I'm talking about here I'm talking about Harry Potter so I decided 72 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:42,400 to anyway my daughter's gotten into it and um it's been a long time and uh I barely know Harry 73 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:45,760 Potter because I watched like the first four movies maybe I think I watched Goblet of Fire which I 74 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:50,320 thought was movie five but I don't really remember it that well and I liked it all right you know I 75 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:54,960 thought it was pretty cool um and uh you know I hadn't read past the first two books and I thought 76 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:59,760 you know what it's there's an opportunity here we're using cloud library from our local library 77 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:04,400 to get all these in audiobook format which is super cool and uh you know why not give them a 78 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:10,640 listen so I've been mainlining Harry Potter books and I actually have already finished book two 79 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:13,920 and I thought you know what I may as well use this for skimming leaves because 80 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:20,720 uh it would be foolish not to so uh here we go I I interrupt my uh planned schedule of books to talk 81 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:25,440 about on skimming leaves to talk about to do a casual book chat about Harry Potter and the 82 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:31,680 Sorcerer's Stone and uh I gotta say now that I've listened to books one and two and I'm on the uh 83 00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:38,080 verge of listening to book three I gotta say I'm very impressed with JK Rowling's planning and 84 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:42,880 plotting that she did for the series I think she must have taken a lot of notes and spent a lot of 85 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:48,400 time some people you can tell it feels like they made stuff up against touching on Star Wars George 86 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:53,760 Lucas made stuff up as he went along and massaged it all and wrote himself into corners and just made 87 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:59,520 it work basically and I he didn't even plan out the prequels as well as he could have but uh he 88 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:03,920 definitely stuck to his own vision and I think that's why the prequels were not a disaster like 89 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:07,200 unto the uh sequel trilogy but again we're not here talking about Star Wars we're talking about 90 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:11,280 Harry Potter um which is the story of an orphan boy who lives with his aunt and uncle until one 91 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:16,640 day he tragically gets called something crazy happens and he gets called into adventure uh and 92 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:22,240 plenty of people have pointed out over the years how much uh you could say that Luke Skywalker and 93 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:26,880 Harry Potter are similar characters to each other and I would say uh just on the surface that's true 94 00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:32,240 but the details are what make the difference and the details are what matter and I think Harry is 95 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:38,000 very different from Luke uh in a lot of ways and they're significant and uh I would say beyond 96 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:43,680 that uh basic outline or sketch of the hero's journey there are not many similarities between 97 00:08:43,680 --> 00:08:48,080 the two characters which I think is good because as much as I like one character and I can't stop 98 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:56,560 referring to the franchise he belongs to um I also like Harry as his own entity and uh yeah there's 99 00:08:56,560 --> 00:09:01,360 more parallels than that because of the things that happen later on in the other books as you 100 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:08,160 know get into a little bit more of he who shall not be named and uh his connections to Harry and 101 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:15,680 whatever their parallels it is interesting though but uh I think um I think Harry Potter 102 00:09:15,680 --> 00:09:24,240 the Harry Potter series is less a fantasy story and it's more a coming of age series 103 00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:31,600 slash like academy series which I think I haven't read a lot of the genre but I think the academy 104 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:39,120 series is not a super old thing again talking about Star Wars I can't believe this they have 105 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:43,040 uh Jedi Academy books and they have young Jedi Knights books I believe those are the two 106 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:49,600 series that are written for kids for a children's audience and that uh started in the early 90s so 107 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:54,320 even before Harry Potter was released I believe the first Harry Potter book released in 1997 108 00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:58,960 and I'm gonna guess the first Jedi Academy or first Jedi young Jedi Knight book was released 109 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:05,760 in like 94 95 um just based on my background uh history and knowledge with the Star Wars and I 110 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:09,600 remember like some of the stuff was coming out in Scholastic catalogs while I was in school I was 111 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:15,840 in high school until 2000 I think so I would have been exposed to that stuff then before then anyway 112 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:22,640 um anyway um so I'm not super familiar with the genre of the like school academy boarding school 113 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:28,880 type thing but I think it's new-ish uh it's definitely more popular now you even have in 114 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:34,560 like anime you know My Hero Academia Little Witch Academia you've got uh you know a lot of stories 115 00:10:34,560 --> 00:10:39,200 in anime that take place in school or high schools or whatever but like this whole uh we're gonna do 116 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:45,120 a year one year well it tells you in book one that Hogwarts is seven years worth of school 117 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:49,920 and it becomes pretty clear oh each of these books is going to be one school year and the crazy 118 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:53,360 events that happen with Harry or to Harry and his friends and what they you know the adventures they 119 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:56,640 go through throughout these as you're reading them and I think that's apparent by book one 120 00:10:56,640 --> 00:11:03,040 because uh at the end of it there's the hook for them coming back for the next year and I gotta say 121 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:06,960 it's a gutsy move of rallying to just think I'm gonna make seven of these and I'm gonna put them 122 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:10,960 out and people are gonna like them and it's gonna be a success and I don't care what happens especially 123 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:20,320 because uh that's risky you know how can you do that but then again uh I think I don't know I 124 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,600 don't know what her mindset was but it's really interesting but again I think she did a really 125 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:30,720 good job of seeding things for the first book or in the first book for later books so uh again I 126 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:35,040 don't know how to talk about this casually other than to talk around the book for the most part 127 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:43,360 which is what I've been doing most of this time but yeah I'll say I'll just say this uh it's 128 00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:47,040 interesting there's stuff and I'm not going to spoil anything but there are 129 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:57,040 it's really interesting how she tells a complete story while setting up the future stories uh you 130 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:03,840 get the enigmatic you get the introduction to the enigmatic character of Elvis Dumbledore and you 131 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:08,320 kind of sense his favoritism towards Harry and you sense that he's got a sweet spot for the kid 132 00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:17,600 but you're not quite sure why and I think by the end of book two it isn't 100 clear why but the 133 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:23,520 genre savvy reader the clever reader the reader who's been really paying attention will see 134 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:28,000 oh I think this is what the trajectory of the rest of the books are going to be which again 135 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:31,440 I have not seen all the movies or read all the books so I don't know the full trajectory of the 136 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:37,440 series but I know the broad strokes and I believe I'm correct but I think that's again seated in 137 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:44,880 book one and it's grown a little bit it developed a little bit in book two and I think that's really 138 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:51,760 interesting there's something with with Hagrid the lovable weird character Hagrid he has at least 139 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:58,640 two things that are seated with him in book one that become manifest in book two which is really 140 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:03,360 interesting and I think there's even a little bit more to come from him and it sets up different 141 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:07,680 ideas like you hear that he was in the book one you hear that he was expelled from Hogwarts 142 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:18,160 although nobody knows why you find out in book two but you also get to hear a mention of when 143 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:23,760 he's with Harry in Diagon Alley buying his wand or helping him buy his wand you hear the wand maker 144 00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:30,400 whose name I can't remember right now ask or say something about Hagrid's wand being still in his 145 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:37,520 possession somewhere but being properly snapped in half or snapped in two and it's kind of interesting 146 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:44,960 because you get to see Harry put two and two together and figure that Hagrid still does have 147 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:53,840 his wand and the way that he's carrying it around it he's Hagrid is treating it like contraband and 148 00:13:53,840 --> 00:14:02,480 he's got it basically concealed and it makes sense um yeah it definitely makes sense and it's just 149 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:06,560 it's funny the way like you're introduced into it in like a kind of a backwards way like Harry sees 150 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:12,800 it being used but he doesn't realize what it is and neither does the reader for sure but it asks 151 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:18,640 it raises questions and it brings it brings up suspicion about Hagrid which is actually utilized 152 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:26,160 in book two because he's scapegoated for an incident that's going on and he's actually 153 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:32,880 scapegoated twice for the same incident which is kind of funny and it all makes sense in the 154 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:37,120 context of who Hagrid is as a character and everything that you've learned about him up into 155 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:44,560 that point starting in book one and continuing through into book two so that's pretty fun 156 00:14:44,560 --> 00:15:00,080 pretty neat let me see what else I think the stuff with the dynamics between Ron and Hermione as 157 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:04,960 friends and even like Fred and George and Percy to some extent and then Jenny comes along in book 158 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:12,880 two like the Weasley family is a great surrogate family for Harry and they're just they're marvelous 159 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:20,000 they're very lovely people and they're a lot of fun and it's it's interesting because they're you 160 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:26,400 know these pureblood wizards and Hermione's muggle born and Harry is I don't know I don't know if 161 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:32,320 he'd be called a mix or not because his mother is muggle born like Hermione was but his father is 162 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:39,600 we don't know he could be a pureblood wizard or he could be whatever so it's interesting like you 163 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:46,320 get basically it's this coming-of-age story but it's also like this it's not only a coming-of-age 164 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:54,720 story it's like a coming-of-worth story like Harry doesn't know why he's treated so shabbily by his 165 00:15:54,720 --> 00:16:03,040 by the Dursleys and he hates it and it's the worst and he has learned to be like subservient 166 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:08,240 and he's learned to get by and he's actually kind of as a mistreated person been given a lot of the 167 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:16,080 tools that he needs to succeed in the wizarding world he's been given the ability to like I don't 168 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:22,240 know kind of like being an independent thinker kind of be a rebel to know to question authority 169 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:29,360 like the Dursleys are authority figures in his life but there are corrupt evil authority figures 170 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:36,080 in his life who if he just listened to blindly to everything that they said he would end up 171 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:43,680 in a very bad way but there's something resilient in Harry there's something rebellious in him that 172 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:53,920 endures and bucks against them and that ability to persist in the face of hardship and to buck 173 00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:59,840 authority and to say I know they told me to do this but I'm not going to do that and what they're 174 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:05,280 saying is wrong so I'm going to do the right thing I'm going to do what I know is right even if it 175 00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:14,880 costs me that that definitely that's like a crucial that's like a crucible for some of his 176 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:20,560 character development and it pushes him to do the things and to defy Voldemort and whoever else he 177 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:30,480 needs to in you know in book one and then also in book two and that's pretty interesting I mean I 178 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:35,360 guess in that way it is just a coming-of-age story it's just in the context of this wizarding world 179 00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:41,200 and I don't know it's really curious and again I don't think I finished my thought on this earlier 180 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:46,480 this isn't a pure fantasy series it's like a coming-of-age story through this academy you 181 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:56,560 know sub genre or whatever and I think it's really interesting in an interesting way it 182 00:17:56,560 --> 00:18:04,720 in an interesting way it neuters the magic and I I grew up hearing you know the Harry Potter fear 183 00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:11,200 and like you know I was I was around people who were saying it's evil but then again I heard 184 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:14,880 people who were saying that Lord of the Rings is evil and Star Wars is evil and 185 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:22,000 like the force is a replacement for God and wizards are you know wizards are just evil even 186 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:29,760 though like Tolkien was a Catholic and I don't know about Rowling but she comes from a you know 187 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:40,880 Anglican or you know Catholic probably background being in in the UK and you know she has Halloween 188 00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:45,680 and Christmas and like all these different seasons are touched on in the school they are all 189 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:51,360 celebrated in the school and they give Harry like a sense of normal life and they're kind of like 190 00:18:51,360 --> 00:18:56,880 broadly speaking I don't know how big of a deal Halloween is or how it's celebrated in the UK 191 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:03,280 but in America I know what it's like and I almost wonder if she left those like muggle holidays in 192 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:11,840 to add some familiarity with the kids and see oh well this is how they do Halloween at Hogwarts 193 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:16,080 this is how they do Christmas at Hogwarts this is how they do whatever at Hogwarts and similar to my 194 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:19,520 life even though it's you know fantastical and different and special in its own way 195 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:26,400 and I think the fact that it's in a school the fact that it's a young hero the fact that he feels 196 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:36,480 you know trot upon basically like all of those things make the character relatable to kids and 197 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:41,120 relatable to people who've gone through a school system and I think probably the success of these 198 00:19:41,120 --> 00:19:48,400 academy type stories is that so many people go through the Prussian school model and they 199 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:54,800 hear that familiarity with them and it's like an instant like they can commiserate with Harry 200 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:59,280 with over how much his life sucks in these different ways and the bullies he deals with 201 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:05,920 and the persons of you know Malfoy and his cronies and you know even the home life being not so great 202 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:10,880 some kids are gonna have that experience and some aren't and everybody always imagines they have it 203 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:18,480 worse than they do so I've gone from talking about how interesting it was how Rowling you know seeded 204 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:23,120 all this cool stuff for later on in the series and now I'm talking about how it's interesting 205 00:20:23,120 --> 00:20:30,640 how like the formula and the format of the story make Harry and his friends more relatable and 206 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:37,280 endearing to young readers and I think that's good I think you really need both and I think Rowling 207 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:44,640 did a good job at making these characters sympathetic putting them in a familiar background and setting 208 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:51,520 and then adding in this splash of wonder and awe with all the fantastical elements that she 209 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:56,320 put into the book and there's some ridiculous things too but the ridiculous quirky elements 210 00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:03,680 are like what makes Harry Potter distinct from everything else and the 211 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:08,960 interesting it's like she niched down by adding in you know the every flavored beans and 212 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:16,960 you know the Gringotts bank and all these different weird elements that are so quirky 213 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:22,960 you know they separate it and make it its own individual thing and that's a good thing that's clever 214 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:28,400 now I'm talking about like as an author and thinking about how to you know brand and 215 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:33,920 position my fiction so that it you know appeals to the most broad audience possible and in the 216 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:38,640 deepest way possible and I definitely think that's what Rowling did but yeah I don't want to I don't 217 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:43,760 want to talk about too much spoilers even though I know it's an older property but I think the 218 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:50,000 really cool thing at the core of it is like this town family that Harry has in Hogwarts and in these 219 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:54,480 other you know with his school chumps with Hermione and Ron and you know the 220 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:58,560 Weasleys generally but in the you know in the first book you don't get as much of the rest of 221 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:05,920 Weasleys as you do later on so it is interesting how there's like you know the home life with the 222 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:12,400 Dursleys and then there's the school life at Hogwarts and how the two are separate and really 223 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:17,520 kids do have their own life at school because they spend so much time with those people and 224 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:24,720 they really do exist in these two realms and it's interesting how sharp the relief is or how sharp 225 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:31,120 the contrast is in that as you see Harry you see you know everything with his life in the beginning 226 00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:34,640 with the Dursleys and then you see how different is the Hogwarts and like he doesn't want to go 227 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:38,640 back for Christmas or anything like that and they probably don't want him back and if he was back 228 00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:42,960 they would treat him badly and he would be like you know he's not going to be able to go back to 229 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:47,840 and they probably don't want him back and if he was back they would treat him badly again. 230 00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:53,760 So that's all really interesting I don't feel like it's a you know negative thing it's about 231 00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:58,080 you know rebelling against your home family or the people who've taking you in or taking care of you 232 00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:03,280 because the Dursleys are terrible people and Lily and James Potter, Harry's parents, sounded like 233 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:08,560 they were wonderful people and the way that you learn by the end of book one that they 234 00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:17,920 they well they died protecting him is really interesting and it adds like a very sweet 235 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:22,640 it adds a very sweet and touching 236 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:34,480 aspect I guess to the tragedy of him being orphaned as a one-year-old baby and it's really 237 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:40,560 interesting how I think the movie did a little bit of a better job like showing this I think 238 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:46,640 because they did flashbacks like showing Lily protecting her baby and in the book it's a little 239 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:52,320 drier it's a little colder it I was expecting it to be this big emotional thing because I still 240 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:57,120 remember that's like one of the things I remember most is that you know the love of this mother 241 00:23:57,120 --> 00:24:02,000 protected her son and like empowered him to overcome you know the most powerful you know 242 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:08,640 death-dealing spell of this you know super dark super evil dark wizard guy and the book didn't 243 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:15,360 quite do it as good of a job of that I think but it still it still did it I'm gonna wrap up now 244 00:24:15,360 --> 00:24:18,320 because I've been going on for too long I don't think I'm doing a very good job with book one I 245 00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:23,200 think I need to do each of these books one after the other or well I need to do the book chat after 246 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:28,880 I finish each book so I'm not muddling them together like I have in books one and two so 247 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:38,480 um it's funny to me that at the end of book one Harry passes out wakes up in hospital the final 248 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:43,600 the final battle is over without him being 100 involved even though he was involved like 249 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:51,600 uh like in the hobbit uh how Bilbo gets knocked out in the final battle like in 250 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:58,000 oh what was it we talked about this in Tarn Wanderer that happens uh not in Tarn Wanderer in uh 251 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:03,920 is it the first book anyway I think it's the first predane book Tarn the main character gets 252 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:11,120 knocked out and gets out of a battle that's by Lloyd Alexander and then C.S. Lewis in A Horse and 253 00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:19,120 His Boy uh Shasta uh or Prince Cor gets knocked out and misses out on the battle and this is a 254 00:25:19,120 --> 00:25:25,280 really weird thing that my daughter and I noticed that these fantasy type authors keep doing to 255 00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:33,040 their young innocent uh you know sweet male hero protagonist guys and it's an odd quirk it's an odd 256 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:38,640 thing to keep doing and uh that happens in book one of Harry Potter as well and then it's like 257 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:43,840 explained to him how he had the victory over Voldemort and it's just it's it's an odd thing 258 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:49,920 to do I don't quite understand why uh why you would choose that I can understand why Rowling as a 259 00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:54,800 you know fantasy reader probably you know absorbed that trope and was like oh I'll do this it'll be so 260 00:25:54,800 --> 00:26:01,360 funny it'll be so sweet just like those books I loved when I was like last and uh anyway it's 261 00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:07,600 just it's kind of odd so anyway that ends my casual weird book chat about mostly the Flosser Stone but 262 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:12,160 a little bit of Chamber of Secrets and I'll be back for another one uh talking about Trident 263 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:18,560 and another one uh talking about Chamber of Secrets alone I hope you enjoyed that go to 264 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:25,680 MJMunoz.com to leave any questions comments or other feedback you might have there you can find 265 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:34,560 all of my analysis art and fiction I cover books tokusatsu comic books anime and more look around 266 00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:43,840 to find something else that you'll enjoy as well this has been a story over everything production