Harry Potter and the sport's writting

Submitted by confrita t3_z3uz6k in books

Surely this is something that has been noticed by many and probably heavily discussed at some point, but just now I randomly realized how enjoyable are the Quidditch matches in Harry Potter's books.

I mean, I like some sports but when I think of reading an entire chapter of, for example, a soccer match, it's just seems super boring and frankly tiresome. Now I know that Quidditch has the obvious advantages of beign a entirely fictional thing, so the author can take all the liberties she wanted (within the rules previously determined, of course), but nevertheless I think it's pretty amazing that Rowling made a large group of people not only read through several paragraphs of a sports match, but enjoying it!

I really don't know why I was thinking about this right now, but the fact is that I cannot recall any other book that did something like that.

What do you think about it? Did tou enjoy the Quidditch chapters or hate them?

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crazyGauss42 t1_ixpnq9i wrote

Because it's not sport, it's an action sequence for Harry, packaged into sports flair. That's why the rules make no sense, and why it's needlessly dangerous (as half the stuff in that school). It's the way Harry can be Luke Skywalker for a minute

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farseer4 t1_ixo5jla wrote

Actually, sport fiction is very enjoyable. At least I find it so.

If you have a kid who likes baseball I'd recommend Six Innings, by James Preller.

It's just the story of a baseball match between two children's teams, a little league final. It's basically a play by play description of the game, from the point of view of the players of one of the teams.

That may sound awful, I know, but it's written with so much passion for the game, and with such a heart-felt examination of the characters, their motivations, their hopes and fears, that it's more entertaining and moving than it has any right to be. It's a book about baseball, of course, but also about friendship, and the joys and sorrows of team sports.

If you have no familiarity at all with baseball you can get a bit lost in the technicalities, but the passion still comes through.

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TheBSisReal t1_ixnrdtv wrote

I think it’s a) because the matches described actually had a tonne of plot relevance, and b) it’s fantastical, so easier to create movement in everything that’s happening while peaking the reader’s curiosity.

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Julian_Caesar t1_ixoo0h1 wrote

>peaking

It's actually "piquing" someone's curiosity :)

From the root word "pique" meaning to excite/arouse. The phrase "piqued their/my/etc curiosity" is basically the only time this word is used anymore. So unless you came across it in print (rather than hearing it, since it's pronounced the same as peaked) you'd have no reason to know it

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TheBSisReal t1_ixpho2l wrote

See, I hesitated on that word, but it was late. Thanks.

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Julian_Caesar t1_ixqcjvc wrote

Np

I felt less like "that guy" in this case because it really is an obscure usage at this point. It wouldn't shock me to see it disappear within my lifetime.

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confrita OP t1_ixnw9d7 wrote

Yeah, I think you're correct in both points.

One of the most enjoyable matches for me to read was the final cup at the beginning of the fourth book. For some reason, although none of the main characters was actually playing, the descriptions of the players and the world building around the customs of foreign wizards and witches made that hole chapter specially enjoyable

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MistahBoweh t1_ixouv7o wrote

Sports are a form of direct conflict, like any other. You establish stakes. You introduce the players. You introduce the rules. You set the stage. The competition escalates to a decisive climax, in which two rival characters come head to head. Both have reasons to win, but only one is allowed to. Whether you’re describing a baseball game or the hunger games, both use the same foundations.

What makes Quidditch a bit different is the Snitch. Many have pointed out that because catching the snitch has such a massive point differential, it makes the quaffle goals feel inconsequential, and they’re mostly right. But, because the Snitch is such an important, game-deciding achievement, every game of quidditch leads up to a dramatic climax. If games of quidditch in the books always ended with one team in a 160+ point lead, so catching the snitch did nothing to the standings, it would be far less exciting.

This is what we often mean by ‘spectator sports.’ Competitions that are tailored to be exciting for the spectators, often at the expense of making the sport less fair for competitors.

If I may lean on media from the same era, Yu-Gi-Oh is a great case study for this. The manga/anime has all kinds of swingy nonsense and game-determinative plays that are exciting for the audience, even if they wouldn’t make for enjoyable gameplay. The actual card game, while still quite flashy, tones down or omits many of the cards that appear in the anime counterpart. This way, the game that appears in the show is a spectator sport, while the game that is played on the table is (hopefully) a healthier game.

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casualroadtrip t1_ixpz1at wrote

The only problem I have with quidditch is how insanely overpowered the seeker is. A team can play the best game ever but still lose if the opponents seeker gets lucky and catches the snitch before the difference is 150 points… I think I’m too much of a muggle sports lover to not take issue with that haha.

Like there is literally a game where Harry catches the snitch so fast that his teammates could have just stayed in bed and Gryffindor still would have won.

But maybe I’m overthinking a magical sport in a children’s series haha

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farseer4 t1_ixpzn9l wrote

Yes, I love the Harry Potter series, but quidditch is badly designed. In her attempt to give Harry a good opportunity to shine, Rowling made all players almost irrelevant except for one player in each team. I think Rowling belatedly realized this, and made an effort to show a match where the seeker doesn't win the game (even though that requires the rest of the teams to be ridiculously mismatched, so that a huge difference in goals can be accumulated).

The fact that a match can last from a few seconds to months is also a bad thing. Imagine paying to see the World Cup final and it's over in ten seconds. Or imagine paying to see it and having to leave because it just doesn't end and you have a life and work to go back to.

The previous problems could have been avoided with some slight tinkering with the rules. But there's another, more philosophical problem: quidditch is basically two different games going on at the same time: the chasers and goalkeepers playing one game, and the seekers playing a different one. That's not how a good team sport is designed: you want to have all your team cooperating and working together, not just a couple of them doing their own thing.

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casualroadtrip t1_ixq35lg wrote

Yes, completely agree. The idea of quidditch isn’t completely bad but a few small changes would absolutely make it better.

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morhp t1_ixrn0j3 wrote

"So let me get this straight," Harry said as it seemed that Ron's explanation (with associated hand gestures) was winding down. "Catching the Snitch is worth one hundred and fifty points? "

"Yeah -"

"How many ten-point goals does one side usually score not counting the Snitch?"

"Um, maybe fifteen or twenty in professional games -"

"That's just wrong. That violates every possible rule of game design. Look, the rest of this game sounds like it might make sense, sort of, for a sport I mean, but you're basically saying that catching the Snitch overwhelms almost any ordinary point spread. The two Seekers are up there flying around looking for the Snitch and usually not interacting with anyone else, spotting the Snitch first is going to be mostly luck -"

"It's not luck!" protested Ron. "You've got to keep your eyes moving in the right pattern -"

"That's not interactive, there's no back-and-forth with the other player and how much fun is it to watch someone incredibly good at moving their eyes? And then whichever Seeker gets lucky swoops in and grabs the Snitch and makes everyone else's work moot. It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that Harry thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing...

Ron's face pulled into a scowl. "If you don't like Quidditch, you don't have to make fun of it!"

"If you can't criticise, you can't optimise. I'm suggesting how to improve the game. And it's very simple. Get rid of the Snitch."

"They won't change the game just 'cause you say so!"

"I am the Boy-Who-Lived, you know. People will listen to me. And maybe if I can persuade them to change the game at Hogwarts, the innovation will spread."

A look of absolute horror was spreading over Ron's face. "But, but if you get rid of the Snitch, how will anyone know when the game ends?"

"Buy... a... clock. It would be a lot fairer than having the game sometimes end after ten minutes and sometimes not end for hours, and the schedule would be a lot more predictable for the spectators, too." Harry sighed.

  • Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
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CrushedByTime t1_iy0a9l8 wrote

I started reading this online, and it’s genuinely baffling how good it is. Thanks for commenting it.

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Fredo_the_ibex t1_ixq2mvr wrote

thats the point, to make it seem a bit whacky like all magic

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antiquemule t1_ixqkinz wrote

I feel part of it is making mock of sports in expensive private schools, like the Eton wall game or royal tennis, or even cricket with its 11 ways of getting out. Loads of obscure and completely arbitrary rules.

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Oolonger t1_ixrs5pf wrote

It’s kind of a reflection of Harry’s character as the chosen one. Apart from everyone else, and the Most Important. I feel like she was playing with the trope.

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_ixo67o7 wrote

I agree that sports writing needs to be done well to be enjoyable. One good example for me is Grisham 's basketball novel Sulee. It was just well done. But yes it is very easy for writers who love sports to write boring descriptions because they assume everyone is an enthusiast.

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SCBennett2 t1_ixp3rai wrote

I always remembered the Quidditch chapters positively, but when I reread the books recently I enjoyed them a little less.

There’s not actually a ton of detail and they’re fairly short. I do appreciate that things tend to go wrong for Harry/Gryffindor in Quidditch.

Related: Bleachers by John Grisham has an entire half of an American football game radio commentary as a chapter and it’s really great.

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bofh000 t1_ixppcze wrote

Those chapters channel radio transmissions of football matches (regular football, not American). They are a lot more entertaining than tv transmissions, because the narrator is describing all the action in vivid and highly embellished detail. You can actually read those passages out loud using their very specific tone of voice to make if even more recognizable.

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washington_breadstix t1_ixq7x0c wrote

The action itself may have been well written, but overall I hated Quidditch. The nonsensical rules kind of broke my suspension of disbelief.

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CanibalCows t1_ixoxrhs wrote

I really liked the quidditch chapters. In fact I was really disappointed when the fourth movie excluded the world cup match.

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SpectacularB t1_ixq076i wrote

Try George Plimpton if you like sports writing with humour and some really funny stuff

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Ron_deBeaulieu t1_ixrahm1 wrote

In the past year alone, I've read, as a parent, at least two school stories with extended sports matches (pages upon pages of blow-by-blow play), *A Prefect's Uncle* by Wodehouse, and *Tom Brown's Schooldays*, by Hughes. When I was a kid, I definitely read other children's books with that type of writing.

I was okay with the Quidditch chapters, when I read it as a child. I didn't love them enough to really understand how it became an IRL sport, though.

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