Sunday, June 8, 2014

Harry Potter fanfiction

for some time now i've read a fanfiction called harry potter and the methods of rationality. the author states that:

Rule of Rationalist Fiction states that rationality is not magic; being rational does not require magical potential or royal bloodlines or even amazing gadgets, and the principles of rationality work for understandable reasons. A rationalist!hero should excel by thinking - moreover, thinking in understandable patterns that readers can, in principle, adopt for themselves. As opposed to the hero just being a born “genius” who comes up with amazing gadgets through an opaque discovery process, or who flawlessly pulls off incredibly complicated gambits that would fail miserably if the reader tried something similar in real life.
All fanfiction involves borrowing the original author’s characters, situations, and world. It is ridiculous to turn around and complain if your own ideas get borrowed in turn. Anyone is welcome to steal anything from any fanfiction I write.
 harry potter and the methods of rationality

basically in this story harry potter is a rationalist and a scientist to the core. he explores the laws of magic the same way he would do science experiments. the characters are more complex than in the original story and "good and evil" are not so easy to distinguish. the story loosely follows some of the main events of the original story, so it's best not to read it if you don't want to know any spoilers (in case you have for some reason lived in a barrel since 90's potter craze). 

the story has odd rewritings and chapters that don't belong to the "finished" version and harsh criticism of j.k. rowling so it's not for people who expect book like read or fans who worship rowling. especially the grim rationalistic touch made me also question my viewpoint on harry potter and if i can feel the same about the original story like ever. then i just made the distinction that the original story is a magical fairytale and the other well grimmer, "rational" take on the matter (i wouldn't call it realistic as it is still situated in the magical world).

i really enjoyed reading "harry potter and the methods of rationality" which made me rethink a lot of things (especially moral dilemmas were interesting). it's not easy to read but it's worth a try.

word of warning: in case you get hooked on - the story is not complete yet!


äitisuomennos: olen lukenut englanniksi netistä harry potter fanifiktiota (nettiosoite ylempänä hyperlinkkinä)