Comment by ecshafer
4 days ago
Wait... Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality was written by Eliezer Yudkowsky? So that means he wrote that totally straight and its not a joke?
4 days ago
Wait... Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality was written by Eliezer Yudkowsky? So that means he wrote that totally straight and its not a joke?
It’s real. The excessive length is one of several things that serves as a filter. Anyone dedicated enough to get through it is a believer by the end. It even includes completely unnecessary uncomfortable parts like the rape threat sequence which further filter out all but the true believers.
The ridiculousness of it all serves as a type of hazing ritual. To enter the cool club you have to grit your way through it and also The Sequenced.
Most people tap out early. Those who persevere get to join the cool kid’s club, where they haze others into reading it all too.
> Anyone dedicated enough to get through it is a believer by the end.
Got through the end, not a believer in anything. Not only your statement is wrong (because most absolute statements are) even the weakened statement of most who finished are believers is likely wrong because likely most people who read it are just fanfics enthusiasts like me.
> The ridiculousness of it all serves as a type of hazing ritual.
I have read way worse btw.
> because likely most people who read it are just fanfics enthusiasts like me.
Sorry but I don’t believe that HPMOR holds a particular draw to normal Harry Potter fanfic readers.
The parts I read were basically Yudkowsky doing a self-insert into the book and trying to dress rationalist lecturing up with Harry Potter themes.
> I have read way worse btw.
That’s about the level of endorsement I’d expect for that book. “Technically, even worse writing exists”
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My Immortal?
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Another PoV - it was just one weird-premises HP fanfic, in a world containing literally millions of weird-premise HP fanfics. If you felt that your only options with it were (1) read every word, in order, and (2) stop reading it entirely - that is your reading style, and your choice. Other folks may chose to peek at the ending first, skip over the parts they don't like, go back later to read one of the dreary & long-winded part that they realized was plot-relevant, or whatever. They may skip back and forth between reading HPMOR and reading some steamy superhero fanfic with a Batman/Spiderman romantic pairing - that is set on a jungle-style Venus, in the 1890's.
I was totally enjoying it. If you think that everyone needs to grit through it, as an initiation ritual, no less... The sneer club, I presume?
> The sneer club, I presume?
No. My exposure to HPMOR was a very long time ago from an eccentric coworker and his friends who tried to get me to read it. I curiously read a little bit and couldn’t believe people were taking it seriously.
Then I Googled it and found lively discussions from rationalists bending over backward to defend the part of HPMOR where Draco says he’s going to rape someone, and noped right out of that entire subgenre of the internet for years.
I do think it’s fascinating how the rationalists are so unwilling to accept that people may not resonate with their material that everyone who disagrees is assumed to be part of an ideological outgroup with bad intentions. Sneer Club is a tiny subreddit that appears basically inactive?
Why would you presume that the only way for someone to dislike HPMOR is to be indoctrinated by a tiny subreddit instead of having their own opinion? I suppose it tracks that rationalists would view ideologies as being sourced from groups and communities and look for group membership to assign someone’s opinion to, rather than accepting that someone might be able to form their own independent opinions.
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As a perseverer, I can confirm it was a waste of time and, functionally, a poorly-written demonstrative exercise on the abuse of rhetoric to disabuse others of their beliefs, dignity and agency. Imagine my surprise when I found out about the cult stuff.
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> Those who persevere get to join the cool kid’s club
Are you sure “cool” is the correct adjective?
I read it for a while, when it first got published. It started very strong (first several chapters), then was weird and refularly was giving me vibes of Atlas Shrugged.
Then author got his diva moment, at least this is how I remember it. He constructed some impossible to solve situation and had tantrum that if readers won’t give answer how one of protagonists will solve it, author will stop writing the book. I think it had even time limit for readers.
After that I dropped the book and never returned to it.
That is a interesting take! I think the ultimatium was that readers had to guess the solution to get the best ending.
Most fans loved that challenge. We're you worried? Angry? Either way you just had to wait for the next installment.
Strange that you dont remember that the protagonist was the titular Harry Potter.
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Quite a feat to drop a book at the very end of it.
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That's correct. Harry Potter fanfic is a huge part of the rationalist movement, the Zizians, and more. Behind the Bastards' episodes on the Zizians do a fairly well-cited dive into it.
It's a recruitment tool.