What is it about George Lucas and J K Rawling?

[xiphias]

I mean, let's face it -- both of them are, well, mediocre story-crafters. And the universes they create don't REALLY hold together all that well -- their world-building is, y'know, okay. Their characters are fairly two-dimensional.

But, damn, there's something there. Something about what they create just sticks with you.

What is it?!

I can point to the weaknesses in Star Wars, and in Harry Potter. But that doesn't matter. There's SOMETHING in those that works.

Are there other fictional universes that just, y'know, get you that way? Even if the people who created them are fairly mediocre in their craft?

And what IS it? Can it be learned? I mean, all of you who write for a living -- you've probably asked yourself this question occasionally, too. . .

Is it the same thing for Star Wars and for Harry Potter?

Comments

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Part of it may be that the characters are just complicated enough; they're not, say, the completely interchangeable characters in the early Adventure Legion of Super-Heroes, but they're nowhere near Hamlet either.

Basically, what I'm going for is transferring a bit from Scott McCloud to writing from art. He makes the point that the less complicated an image of a person is, the more the viewer can read into it what they want to, whereas increasing complexity limits how much their perspective can read into it.

The Potter/SW characters are complicated enough to be of certain archetypes, with just a bit of a fillip via quotable lines or setting to not be completely cookie cutter. So people can both find something to identify with and feel that they're contributing to the characterization via what they're reading into it themselves.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Not-too-complex characters allow the reader to project themselves into the character and the narrative. They don't require too much brain space or effort.

And Star Wars and Harry Potter are hardly unique--if you poke around, you'll notice that nearly anything really wildly successful has some of the same

See also:

James Bond
Nancy Drew
The Hardy Boys
Jack Ryan
Piers Anthony
Lillian Jackson Braun
Dan Brown
The Bridges of Madison County
mid-period Elvis music

There's also a certain amount of luck in it. Not only do you have to put together the right formula, but you have to get discovered, and the viral thing has to happen. And then after a while it becomes self-sustaining: people read the new Harry Potter novel because *everyone* is reading the new Harry Potter novel.

The person upstream who said it was doritos and coke is correct. And the secret ingredients are corn syrup, salt, and grease.