I don’t dislike the decision to make it Harry Potter fanfiction; I agree with everything you’re saying about the original series and I think it fits with Yudkowsky’s goal. My gripe is with how diluted the fanfiction element is in HPMOR. So far, the dialogue is stiff and uninteresting, the pacing is unbelievably dull, the story moves in sudden stops and starts, and our protagonist is insufferable. It seems as though the fiction part of the project was a hand-waved afterthought, which is strange because it’s the thing that houses the thought the series is meant to inspire in the first place.
Looking online, it seems like most members of the rationalist community adore HPMOR and most members of the fanfiction community despise it. That makes sense; Yudkowsky’s goal does not seem to be to write an effective piece of fiction, but rather to communicate personal philosophy… but if he was going to use the medium of fanfiction at all, I don’t see the point in forgetting about its standards entirely. If he wasn’t going to adapt to the medium he chose, why use it at all?
I don’t dislike the decision to make it Harry Potter fanfiction; I agree with everything you’re saying about the original series and I think it fits with Yudkowsky’s goal. My gripe is with how diluted the fanfiction element is in HPMOR. So far, the dialogue is stiff and uninteresting, the pacing is unbelievably dull, the story moves in sudden stops and starts, and our protagonist is insufferable. It seems as though the fiction part of the project was a hand-waved afterthought, which is strange because it’s the thing that houses the thought the series is meant to inspire in the first place.
Looking online, it seems like most members of the rationalist community adore HPMOR and most members of the fanfiction community despise it. That makes sense; Yudkowsky’s goal does not seem to be to write an effective piece of fiction, but rather to communicate personal philosophy… but if he was going to use the medium of fanfiction at all, I don’t see the point in forgetting about its standards entirely. If he wasn’t going to adapt to the medium he chose, why use it at all?