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Crazy Harry Potter Theory. Harry Potter is about mental illness.

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Ash Ketchum is in a coma too, also Finn from Adventure Time and Frankie from Imaginary Friends is an autistic child staring at a snow-globe
 

quesalupa

Member
GAF is a lie. Denis Dyack was just a representation of his inner torment, everything he has kept locked away behind an iron wall of heavy moderation.

You can't ban your feelings Evilore. When will the denial end?
giphy.gif
 

ElFly

Member
Has there been any recent fiction that actually pulled this off? Pretty sure most authors wouldn't attempt it because it would (rightfully) piss people off in most cases.

Well, you asking for super spoilers.

The one that paints it like this from the beginning is Life on Mars, the UK version. I hear the US version is crazy times.

At least the UK one is watchable because it respects the viewer by providing the plot twist upfront. It is not great but surely it would have sucked if it had been all explained in the last episode.
 

kamineko

Does his best thinking in the flying car
What if I told you....

...being mentally ill isn't like that.
 
Has there been any recent fiction that actually pulled this off? Pretty sure most authors wouldn't attempt it because it would (rightfully) piss people off in most cases.
Jacob's Ladder

Alan Wake does it brilliantly where it gives you a few minutes of "you know what, that makes sense with what's happened" but that's only chapter 4.
 
Ugh, it's that "Pokemon" all in Ash's head theory. Can't things really exist like they are, do they have to have a M. Night Shama-lama-ding-dong twist?
 

Zomba13

Member
I hate this garbage where people always try to read way too much into fiction. Maybe the author just wanted to tell an entertaining story about a kid wizard? Shocking concept.

Same. In some cases the author is doing something like this but like, Pokémon isn't a post apocalyptic nuclear future Japan with mutants, Ash isn't in a coma, Squall isn't dead and Harry is a wizard.
 

Platy

Member
Wouldn't the Horcrux theory have warped Hermione and Ron too. At the very least? To say nothing about Harry himself.

yes, which is why it is my favorite "CRAZY theory"

maybe harry just takes way more time to work on people ... maybe after they departure they became even more good ?
 

jtb

Banned
I hate this garbage where people always try to read way too much into fiction. Maybe the author just wanted to tell an entertaining story about a kid wizard? Shocking concept.

The problem with these dumb readings isn't that they're reading too much into it. The problem is they're not reading into it at all.
 
There was even a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6 episode which explored this exact notion. Buffy was a teen in a mental institution having delusions of fighting monsters.

That's what I thought of too. Great episode.

This kind of after-the-fact "interpretation" just seems like reeeally low-hanging fruit... "It was all a dream." Okay, then what? What does it add to our understanding or appreciation of the work?
 
It really is weird how under acknowledged the Dursleys treatment of Harry is in the books. Social services in the muggle world, or someone didn't step in?

And that theory is rubbish she wrote a fucking fantasy book thats it.
 

ElFly

Member
yes, which is why it is my favorite "CRAZY theory"

maybe harry just takes way more time to work on people ... maybe after they departure they became even more good ?

We never see Harry returning to the Dursley's, just the last week before leaving at the start of each book.

Maybe he is p well received for the first few days, then the Horcrux kicks in again and it's cinderella time.
 
I remember when Rowling had to debunk that Harry coming out of the closet when he was eleven to live in a magical world was a metaphor for homosexuality.
 
I think a more interesting HP question is whether he was actually (last book spoilers)
in a literal "limbo" in the last book when he "dies" and sees Dumbledore again, or whether that's a construct of his unconscious mind. IIRC - and it's been a while - I don't think he actually "learns" anything from Dumbledore that he didn't already know or couldn't figure out, which could be what his mind is doing by creating this experience.
I'd have to reread it and see if that holds up, though.
 

genjiZERO

Member
That's an interesting interpretation.

I've always wanted to write a Batman story that was in a similar vein. Basically, a schizophrenic goes on a killer spree. Batman, Joker, Penguin, etc are all just his various personalities. The story is from the perspective of Gordan who is trying to solve the crime.
 

bengraven

Member
Or it's about a magic school for kids that helps a kid overcome the depression of living with the fucking Dursleys.
 

Amir0x

Banned
I can assure you J.K. Rowling couldn't write with any of the subtlety required to keep such an intention hidden for this long if the fan theory was right. She lives for smashing people over the face with the obvious black and white.
 

way more

Member
Are people just stupider these days or is mediocracy celebrated too much on the internet? Actually I think the problem is people just care about plot points and events, It's the only way such dumb theories can gain any traction.

The problem with these dumb readings isn't that they're reading too much into it. The problem is they're not reading into it at all.

It's shocking how vapid they can be. It's mad-libs with literary analysis.
 
I can assure you J.K. Rowling couldn't write with any of the subtlety required to keep such an intention hidden for this long if the fan theory was right. She lives for smashing people over the face with the obvious black and white.

Harry Potter

is DEAD


EEEEEEEEEEH HEH HEH
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Interpreting fiction as a metaphor for psychological breakdown ("It was all a hallucination, Billy is in a coma") is really popular. Probably because it's so easy. You can force anything to fit the suggestion that the point of view character in a story is delusional and imagining everything. Because the story is, in fact, fictional! There is no reality to provide facts which back up the veracity of the story.

Of course, it also usually comes off as very forced because much fiction deviates readily from a single character's point of view. Sometimes even stories written 99% in first person.

The popularity of this trick is one reason why I can't fully buy into the "death of the author" concept. You cannot really pretend a specific story is about anything you like without just plain turning your essay into fan fiction.
 

Gattsu25

Banned
So your telling me that if you alter every single major event in a story to work around some introduced and unrelated central theme.. that the story can then seem to resolve around that theme?
 

Toad.T

Banned
Every piece of fiction ever written is just a dude in a coma.

What about Go Dog Go?

Go Dog Go: 1
Every other piece of fiction: 0

(Yeah, you can make parallels with tons of series to mental illnesses/comas/whatever. But as said earlier in the thread, a majority of the time, said comparisons add nothing to the thematic elements or messages each author is trying to convey.)
 

PSqueak

Banned
And Link is dead in majoras mask!
Batman is commited in arkham and imagines his doctors as super villains!
Nobita is an autistic kid who imagines Doraemon!
The main character from Captain Tsubasa was a legless kid imagining he could play soccer!
Homer has been in a coma since the beer prank!
Finn is in a coma!
Ash is also in a coma!
You're in a coma!
COMAS FOR EVERYONE!
 

PSqueak

Banned
I like more the one that the Drusleys are evil because of how the horcruxes afect people who are near it

That would work except for the fact that it was explicitly stated that Petunia became a horrible bitter person because she couldn't get over her dear sister being taken away by the magical world, so to speak.

I found that kinda depressing, she went on to become one of the worst human beings in the world because she loved her sister too much as a kid.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
Harry Potter is really about the socioeconomical state of the commonfolk of the Holy Roman Empire
 

riotous

Banned
It's a basic revenge story for people who think they don't fit in/and or got dealt a bad hand at life. Instead of the rich jock being allowed to break all the rules, the poor nerdy kid get's too!

/the end

just getting into the spirit of silly analysis, although I'm PARTLY serious
 
I see that scene at the end where Harry asks if its all in his head as Rowling speaking through Potter, asking if everything was in her head and then Dumbledore talking to her, telling her that it doesn't mean it isn't real. The HP series was huge and I think she was coming to terms with what it all meant. I remember exiting the last movie and people around me saying "That was the end of my childhood."
 

genjiZERO

Member
I don't get why people are so hostile to this. It's an interpretation. It's not saying it's the only interpretation. It's taking a set of facts and discussing them in light of another set of facts. There are lots of other interpretations that both can and should be had. Interpretation is the whole point of art. That's why the artist's intent is usually irrelevant - or ar most just one more interpretation.
Reminds me of this graph

english.jpg

You're missing the point. Your teacher is trying to get you to use your mind and think about things.
 
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