hp's similarities to other books

[pinky p]

i've noticed a lot of similarities between hp and other books by different authors... particularly lotr. there is so much that is similar, even the main theme good v. evil (though that is the main theme in almost every adventure book so we can't really hold that against her can we?). one of the biggest similarities i've seen are the dementors/black riders... they're soulless ghoulish things that wear black cloaks... . sometimes i think jk kinda ripped off j.r.r. tolkien... then i remember how much i love the books

what other similarities have you noticed?

(p.s. i guess this could have been in the books section... but this way if anything comes up about ootp we can talk about it...)

[Charis]

i've noticed a ton too... especially in LotR like u said. there was even an obscure character in LotR named longbottom! lol

another one i've noticed are similiarities between Fred and George and the Tarleton twins in Gone with the wind. they both are idntical twins that have bright red hair, both troublemakers who either left school or got kicked out, and both have really big families. actually the tarleton family in general is kinda like the weasly family, just not as nice.

[highsorcerer]

There is actually very little originality; themes of good verses evil, wars, dark vilians and epic heros have been around since the dawn of recorded history.

In fact, originality seems so rare that when somebody does something original, it generates outcry. The most controversial mystery novel of the 20th century was "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie. She did something original in the book, and at the time it caused a firestorm of controversy.

So take HP for what it is; a fresh and interesting take on a theme that over 2000 years old.

[Mint]

Just wanted to say that I agree with u highsorcerer.

I have seen many LOR fans that claim that JKR stole the idea of Lor. I really wanted to show them that this IDEA has been around for ages now.

[pinky p]

thats true, this type of story has been around forever. i guess tolkien really just started a sort of modern surge, so he gets a lot of the credit.

[Scellanis]

oh goodie!!! I love these topics.... *gets out books and prepares*

I beg to differ...dementors are not like Black Riders....

take dementors: they are a species of magic creature, always were dementors and always will be dementors, their attack is to suck the happyness out of someone and the dementors kiss when they will suck someone's soul out through their mouth...they have grey rotting foul skin and because Harry sees a hand they must be solid real creatures

Black riders are ring wraiths or nazgul....they were once great kings of men, but Sauron gave to them nine magic rings and they fell for it, blinded by their greed they took the rings and fell under his shadow, they are neither living nor dead, they have no physical form, they do not suck the soul out of someone as far as i can tell.....they can however turn people into wraiths like themselves by stabbing them with a morgul blade (magic) and they have something called the black breath which has a similar effect i think

they are vaguely similar if you struggle but look at depth and they arent really....

i mean its obvious you are gonna get similarities with books....its even possible to accidently get some of them i bet....i manage it with my art..getting told it looks like its inspired by an artist ive never ever heard of or seen any pictures from before......

[pinky p]

i was reading [url=this thread]http://www.broomsticksandowls.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2455[/url] when i found another similarity. the (summarized) theory in this thread is that the chess game in SS tells the whole hp series. in the book Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, the whole story is basicly one big chess game. if this theory proves true, thats an awful big similarity to this kid's book.

[Scellanis]

some people have too much time on their hands

I don't get why people cant just enjoy books for the story in that particular book...why do people always have to try and predict the endings or attempt to find things that are similar to other books....it just ruins the book for the person who does it and anyone else who happens to end up trying to defend them....

its like maths, you get the basic building blocks and then every theorem after that is a combination of these.....story writing is the same, tolkien used greek mythology, jkr used greek mythology, no doubt lewis carrol and c s lewis did so too since they were tolkiens friends.....

[Centaur Lord]

Hey i agree! Id rather find things out for myself when i finally read the book then try to guess on whats going to happen. It makes the story so much better and the surprises are better.

[pinky p]

oh goodie!!! I love these topics....

um... i do believe sonkem said that earlier... ??? now you hate them?
if you're going to post in here do it to describe hp's similarities to other books, not to describe how much you dislike these threads, please.

anyways....
i sort of stole this from another thread (don't exactly remember which... sorry ) but its this: in jk's and jrr's series, both involve giant spiders and possibly both in the second books... (can't remember if shelob is in TTT or ROTK)

[yasmane]

Well dear Princess, the spider appeared at the end of the second book (TTT).
And let's be honest : the giant spider has always been (and will still be for a long time I guess) the perfect creature to represent our greatest fears.
We could say JKR isn't very original, but I don't think we can say that she's stolen the idea from someone else.

[Scellanis]

well actually, the end of the second book (TTT) is infact the end of the fourth book of the LotR series...

and before you mention the names of the spiders being similar JKR's spider Aragog literally means giant spider...since if you research it like was done for the threads on this topic in the great hall Ara is the spider and gog is the giant.

and this has all been done before anyway, there were a series of closed threads started by JRRowling person that tried to persuade us all J K Rowling copied LotR but if that was the case wouldn't Christopher Tolkien have successfully sued her by now??

and do you expect me to see this topic and not post in defence of the books??

I think it should also be pointed out that as far as the story of the Ring goes you can say that The Hobbit is the first part...then the LotR book contains 6 books (2 per part of the trilology) and then if you want to go further there is that book called the Silmarillion that tells the History of Middleearth....

[gecko]

Please, let's not get angry at each other.
This topic is not a topic solely to point out how JKR has copied stuff from LOTR (or hasn't copied), but to talk about similarities from the HP series with other books.

I think highsorcerer said it very well, about the age old theme of good versus evil. Similarities between books that have that theme will always occur.

Do you know of (a)other(s) book(s), written before the HP series, about someone going to a wizard school? I should think there isn't, but maybe..

[pinky p]

thank you, gecko. i will point out the title of this thread: HP'S SIMILARITIES TO OTHER BOOKS... which implies talking about hp's similarities to other books, not slandering jk rowling and the harry potter series, which i have no intention of doing.

yes, i think giant spiders probably give the creepy crawlies to everyone... it is definately the perfect thing to use in a book if you are trying to scare your readers

[gecko]

If truth be told, I think I'd be scared of a lot more from the HP-world than just the giant spiders!
Imagine coming across a 3-headed dog!

Speaking about which, do you envision Fluffy as scarier than Cerberus (the guardian of the entrance to the Hades)?
I envision Fluffy as less evil for some reason..