Economist writes against economy of magic in Harry Potter

[Patroklos]

They just walked their ass onto the Tantive IV with no problem, huh? And Hoth? And Endor(until the Wookie got an AT-ST)?

I think you took my comment the opposite way, as all you have mentioned supports my view.

Wasn't DV standing right behind the stormtroopers? Would it have killed him to perhaps tell the squad leader where every rebel was positioned? Or how about cut through the hull in multiple spaces, there upwards of a 38,000 crew/soldiers available I am sure they would swing it. How about tossing in a grenade after kicking in the door? Nope, the elite commandos of the Empire just go frontal, and their armor didn't stop a single bolt.

Hoth is the only place a stormtrooper even displays a hint of the elitness their reputation aludes to. Then again, why did the Empire not have any air cover? How exactly does a base the size of a few football fields produce a sheild the can deflect the bombardment of an Executor and attending ISD-IIs?

How many Ewoks die on Endor? Yeah, case closed.

Same reason no one else does. It's messing. Besides, chking someone to death leaves an impression, and you can stop mid-way I you have second thoughts.

Ripping the eyes out of someone's head leaves an impression, and DV doesn't have second thoughts. At least not until Lucus writes a plot hole in.

Oh, you mean the daughter of the most powerful Jedi ever? Hmm....It couldn't be latent force resistance, no sir...

Somehow I doubt DV should have trouble manipulating the mind of an untrained unkowing force adept teenager, as he is that most powerful Jedi ever you mention. He did kill almost the entire order of the Jedi, lets not low ball him.

You mean the one made out of METAL?

No, I mean the one not made out of armor.

Sure it did.

If it did it should have burned through her chest and other shoulder to given the angle. Odd how the "precise" stormtrooper couldn't get a head shot though (or hold the trigger down and kill everyone at that door in a second, I doubt their ROE was as restrictive as ours).

[Colon™]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Is polystyrene edible? Can you drink kerosene?

If we're taking this into the field of chemistry, then you also might also want to consider "edible" isn't a chemical definition.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Elok
I don't have a problem with the blaster bolts burning through stormtrooper armor, as the stuff is clearly made out of cheap plastic. Albeit that does raise the question of why the Empire can't spring for at least kevlar or something for its elite forces...

Yes, I heard sometimes that the armor isn´t worn to deflect blaster bolts but to protect them from physical objects, liek shrapnells and the like.
One wonders however if it then shouldn´t have protected the stormtroopers better against the stones and the arrows from the ewoks on endor

[Bkeela]

Harry Potter makes me deeply embarrassed for the Western world.

Why don't people get as excited about Enid Blyton? Oh, that's right, there is no huge marketing juggernaut attached to Enid Blyton.

If these marketing juggernaut's tried to sell poo, people would be lined up for miles for a piece.

Anyway, I'm about as excited or motivated to read The Famous Five or The Adventures of Mr. Pink Whistle as I am to pick up a Harry Potter book.

Humans, like my Siamese cat, have an insatiable curiosity. All one needs to be a J. K. Rowling is to be able to arouse curiosity, and then be able to bob that carrot for as long as possible.

[Jon Miller]

I read it, it was good. There is other fantasy that is better. If Enid Blyton is good, I will read it. Could you give me an amazon link?

JM
(I didn't read Harry Potter until the first 5 or 6 books were out)

[Sandman]

Enid Blyton was a writer of plummy kids mysteries. Avoid unless you like unsupervised twelve years olds foiling smugglers and pony thieves.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Bkeela
Harry Potter makes me deeply embarrassed for the Western world.

Why don't people get as excited about Enid Blyton? Oh, that's right, there is no huge marketing juggernaut attached to Enid Blyton.

If these marketing juggernaut's tried to sell poo, people would be lined up for miles for a piece.

Anyway, I'm about as excited or motivated to read The Famous Five or The Adventures of Mr. Pink Whistle as I am to pick up a Harry Potter book.

Humans, like my Siamese cat, have an insatiable curiosity. All one needs to be a J. K. Rowling is to be able to arouse curiosity, and then be able to bob that carrot for as long as possible.

I feel so ashamed that I've been duped into enjoying JKR's books. Now that you've exposed it, I realized they were actually terrible and I didn't like them at all

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yes, I apologize as well for being duped into enjoying a fantasy series that happens to be popular. Next time I'll pick someone who is not well known so I can turn my nose up and pretend to be an intellectual! That's the ticket...

Let me guess, you refuse to see the Lord of the Rings movies because it's all marketing hype, right?

[Bkeela]

I saw all three films at the cinema and hated them, though I thought the films fairly well crafted. I'm as easily caught up in hype as the next idiot.

When it comes to things like The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter that don't attract me in the slightest, I positively enjoy being aloof and laughing at those who camp outside bookstores in freezing conditions. It does make me feel special and intellectual to be above such childish things, and it does wonders for my inferiority complex.

[Lorizael]

Well ****, at least you're honest.

You realize, of course, that you getting enjoyment out of being an elitist is probably even more immature than adults getting enjoyment out of a juvie fantasy series, right?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Bkeela
I saw all three films at the cinema and hated them, though I thought the films fairly well crafted. I'm as easily caught up in hype as the next idiot.

When it comes to things like The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter that don't attract me in the slightest, I positively enjoy being aloof and laughing at those who camp outside bookstores in freezing conditions. It does make me feel special and intellectual to be above such childish things, and it does wonders for my inferiority complex.

In addition to what Lorizael said, how does it feel to be less mature than 14 year old readers of the Harry Potter series? .

And, of course, watching three films will give you more than enough insight on the BOOK series. Do you normally "watch the movie" when someone says you have to read X book? Though it is amusing for someone to claim some sort of intellectual pride while basing a book on its movie.

[Kuciwalker]

What Imran and Lori said, except I think he was referring to the LOTR movies, Imran.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Arrian


The book is better about this than the movies. The book mentions the rich lands surrounding Minas Tirith (which get burnt by Sauron's army), for instance. The movie (and the book, IIRC) mention farmland in Rohan as well. The movies' weakness in this regard is that they showed Edoras and Minis Tirith as stand-alone fortesses with no supporting fields/pastures. Given all they were trying to cram in, I imagine it was pretty tough to justify getting that in there.

...

As for magic in LotR...

Bear in mind that the wizards are humanish manifestations of supernatural beings (angels, basically). Sauron is a fallen angel. Morgoth, Sauron's imprisoned master, is a fallen Archangel, basically Lucifer.

The elves have "craft" which Tolkien asserts is fundamentally different than "magic." Craft = a natural ability, honed by practice. Magic = doing more than you were really meant to do. Or at least that's my simplification of it. The elves' "craft" seems magical to humans, because they can do things naturally that humans simply can't.

Both Morgoth and Sauron are greatly weakened by their use of "magic." Morgoth uses his power to create his various minions (Orcs, Trolls, Balrogs, Dragons, etc) and thereby slowly loses much of his original strength. He was once the most powerful of the Valar, but in the end, once his armies are defeated, he cowers before the others. Sauron loses much of his original power to the ring when he makes it - and therein lay the seeds of his ultimate downfall.

-Arrian

Wasn't it Melkor who created the Orcs and Trolls and Balrogs and Dragons? I'm not sure about this (it's been a long time since I've read the Silmarillion).

[_BuRjaCi_]

Aren't the Dragons non-created?

[Agathon]

Originally posted by aneeshm

Wasn't it Melkor who created the Orcs and Trolls and Balrogs and Dragons? I'm not sure about this (it's been a long time since I've read the Silmarillion).

All but the Balrogs. They were not created by him, and are of the same order of beings as Gandalf, Saruman, etc.

Being magical sucks in LOTR. If you are magical, then you are being slowly pushed out of the world.