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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

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Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

#21

Post by AngryParsley »

araneae wrote: post #18
gxti wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you like his writing, see also "Three Worlds Collide": http://lesswrong.com/lw/y4/three_worlds_collide_08/

I love HP and the Methods of Rationality, and absolutely hated "Three Worlds Collide" because a)It was very contrived, and b)Rape will never be legal, sorry, unless it's an anti-feminist society similar to some Arab countries, which that society wasn't. I know it's just one little thing, but that completely killed the suspension of disbelief for me.

It's contrived because the goal of the story was to get people to think about metaethics. It's still pretty good for entertainment value though.

b) was a reference to http://lesswrong.com/lw/xm/building_weirdtopia/

There was some discussion of this when the chapter was posted. The rape idea was really weird, but it made more sense after reading some of the discussion:

http://lesswrong.com/lw/y8/interlude_with_the_confessor_48/q... http://lesswrong.com/lw/y8/interlude_with_the_confessor_48/q... http://lesswrong.com/lw/y8/interlude_with_the_confessor_48/q...

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

#23

Post by mdemare »

What I like about this novel that is not directly related to rationality, is that Eliezer pays a lot of attention to the motivation of the "villains". Why would anyone want to be a Death Eater? Why on earth do Malfoy or Crabbe & Goyle act the way they do. Completely unconvincing in the original, (and almost all villains in Hollywood movies for that matter), but in MoR they have a convincing motivation for why they act the way they do.

This is really a pet peeve of mine - nobody thinks they're the villain, not Hitler, not Bin Laden, not Timothy McVeigh, nobody. Comic villains and Bond villains are just silly, impossible for me to take seriously. So writers must give an explanation for their villains' evil acts that is distinct from "because they're evil". Most writers don't, but Eliezer Yudkowsky does, and it's a breath of fresh air.

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

#24

Post by Jach »

mdemare wrote: post #19
whimsy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or use bookmarklets like Readability: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

Or send it to Instapaper. There are very few websites that I prefer reading in the original form, as opposed to in one of the above formats. I wonder what that says about the state of web design.

Not much, it says more about your personal preferences than it does about web design.

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

#26

Post by MBlume »

mdemare wrote: post #23

What I like about this novel that is not directly related to rationality, is that Eliezer pays a lot of attention to the motivation of the "villains". Why would anyone want to be a Death Eater? Why on earth do Malfoy or Crabbe & Goyle act the way they do. Completely unconvincing in the original, (and almost all villains in Hollywood movies for that matter), but in MoR they have a convincing motivation for why they ac…

Well, he did also write [Are Your Enemies Innateley Evil](http://lesswrong.com/lw/i0/are_your_enemies_innately_evil/)

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

#27

Post by Eliezer »

mdemare wrote: post #20
Symmetry wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who also reads a lot of fiction, I think this fic is in great need of a good editor... but that after the normal publication process it would be as good as anything Asimov or Heinlein wrote.

Sadly, because it is fan fiction, it will never be published.

But because it's fan fiction, I wouldn't object if, after the story finishes, someone produced their own edit of it.

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

#28

Post by bgutierrez »

iron_ball wrote: post #5

Recently re-read it myself. A tip for new readers -- if you find this version of Harry insufferable, yet the basic concept makes you keep reading, wait for around Chapter 20, where a much-needed mentor helps him learn some self-control.

Thanks for the tip. I'm slowly reading this aloud with my wife, and she's pretty distracted with Harry's flaws.

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

#29

Post by swombat »

Eliezer wrote: post #27
mdemare wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, because it is fan fiction, it will never be published.

But because it's fan fiction, I wouldn't object if, after the story finishes, someone produced their own edit of it.

Oh wow, there you are.

I just wanted to say that I absolutely love this series of Harry Potter stories. Awesome. Brilliant. Genius. This is as someone who does read a lot as well. It's really, really, really excellent. It's the only mostly static website on the web which I go and manually check every couple of days, excited at the thought that maybe there's a new chapter up. It's like having a child's Christmas every few days. I love it.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

#30

Post by Eliezer »

rflrob wrote: post #15
smanek wrote: post #7

It sounds crazy, but as someone who reads a lot of fiction (and very little fan fiction, because most of it's crap), I sincerely think this is one of the best things I've read in years. I'd personally rank it up with Asimov or Heinlein at their best. If you're the kind of person, upon discovering a 'wizarding world' would: - Look into establishing arbitrage between the wizards' fixed ratio of Gold/Silver currency and…

"I'd personally rank it up with Asimov or Heinlein at their best." There's also a healthy dose of Pratchett, acknowledging the fundamental silliness of magic.

But perhaps it is J. K. Rowling who should get credit for doing the acknowledging. If you write "students are given time machines so they can attend more classes" and no one in-universe points this out as odd, that's Harry Potter. If a fanfiction has someone notice how odd this is, that may bear a greater stylistic resemblance to Terry Pratchett, but the core silliness was still J. K. Rowling's idea to start with...
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