One Does Not Simply Spock Into Mordor

Alas, considering I've never seen nor do I care to see any Star Trek, I can't offer an original opinion on that famous rivalry.  I will say that Gus Logsdon's and Ned Katz's posts definitely enlightened me on the various features that Star Wars and Star Trek boast, and in the end I was not surprised to hear that Star Trek's plot generally lacks the depth of Star Wars', despite its time advantage.  It is my understanding that television in the '60's and '70's rarely if ever approached the depth of plot that HBO programs feature today because, you know, you had to wait a week to see the next episode back then.  So, with my suspicious about Star Trek's shallowness and general cheesiness confirmed, I have to choose Star Wars as my personal favorite.

But my young life has taken me through the vaults and valleys of the epic sagas of TLOTR and Harry Potter, and although I've only read 4 of the Harry Potter books and none of TLOTR books, I can already tell you I'm going to straddle the fence all my life when deciding which series is better.  Because I will always ask, "Better to whom?  Better at what?"

Harry Potter targets an audience so different from TLOTR that comparing the two, whether in the field of writing style or awesomeness of creatures, is almost like comparing Twilight to Dracula.  Blaspheme, I know--to even hint at sticking Harry Potter in the same analogy as Twilight would surely bring a torch-bearing mob to my house if I weren't writing this blog late.  And I would be in agreement with the mob; the epic adventure of  Potter exists on an exponentially higher tier than the melodramatic smut of Twilight.  But while comparing Potter to TLOTR, you should still consider that Potter targets youth while TLOTR young adults, and thus you should compare them on the same scales you would use to compare Twilight to Dracula.  In that light, doesn't Potter come out looking much stronger?  Of course Potter didn't win any Oscars--but I hear it won oodles of Kids' Choice Awards.

So yes Harry Potter's writing style lacks the eloquence, its battles lack the salivation-inducing violence, its good vs. bad story lacks some of the maturity of TLOTR's jaded theme of ubiquitous evil.  But come on, man, for those very reasons most of our parents chose to start our literary adventures with Harry Potter instead of TLOTR.  For what it's worth, Potter offers some outstanding, thought-provoking subject matter and so masterfully spins a story that even young Dylan, an avid anti-reader, couldn't resist turning those pages.  I have a feeling TLOTR would have bored the same young Dylan.  In the end, I recognize that Potter may not satisfy the literary taste buds of the mature reader, but anyone who tells me that the epic fantastical journey of a boy orphaned by the awesome power of a former student of the very school he must, as a wizard, now attend--anyone who tells me that's intellectual candy corn needs to get of their pedestal and stop listening to Radiohead.

In the end, I plan to read TLOTR in the future, but not Harry Potter.  I've already passed my prime to read Potter, and in truth I would like much more to experience the first, the mother of all, and arguably the best contemporary fantasy series ever--The Lord of the Rings.