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

[nextian.livejournal.com]

... My god, I'd say something completely different. I'd say it's because, as Diane Duane says, they give the Darkness a tangible shape.

This is one of the great high points of fantasy, even children's lit in general, that you have the Darkness and it is fundamentally opposed to the Light and you can, easily, be on the right side.

But you can also make mistakes and screw around and be a kid and still come back to the Right Side. It's just never a hard choice, because one of them's calling themselves Death Eaters or the Dark Side and the other set is calling themselves the Order of the Phoenix and the Rebellion.

There's also a powerful anti-establishment thing in there. Both of them are books about revolution. Most kids love that stuff, because they dream about overthrowing their Great And Terrible Oppressors, the Entire Adult World. But grownups love that stuff too, especially in this era, when so many of them grew up during the Vietnam War and Watergate.

I'd also say they tapped into the needs of an age. I wrote a paper on this once, because I am a loserface, but: in times of prosperity and wealth and protection, people do not need fantasies. People need fantasies when they feel their world has gone somewhat awry. During the late seventies, the world was still reeling from Nixon, from Vietnam, from the Cold War which was ongoing. We needed someone to say: No, look, it's black and white. It's easy. You are good when you save kittens from trees; you are bad when you strangle dudes on spaceships. I think to some extent the same thing happened to Harry Potter -- maybe not in the first two books, although I don't know the political climate in Britain at the time, but everything in the States went straight to hell at around the same time Prisoner of Azkaban made the books really popular with adults, too.

And finally: they have cool shit. Bizarre, funny, amazing worldbuilding details, hundreds of them for people to remember and seize on and cling to as fascinating and make trading-card games about and dream about at night. They are both genuinely good works of world creation.

[nextian.livejournal.com]

... and apparently "different" mostly means "wordier.*

*hides*

[yardlong.livejournal.com]

Now that made me LOL. Are you hiding from yourself? Hehehe.