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Complete Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Less Wrong - T

Discussion in 'Almost Recommended' started by headbanger22, Mar 9, 2010.

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  1. headbanger22

    headbanger22 Third Year

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2007
    Messages:
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    Location:
    boston uk
    Title: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
    Author: Less Wrong
    Rating: T
    Genre: Drama/Humor
    DLP Category: Humor or Parody Terribad
    Chapters: 122
    Words: 661,645
    Updated: March 14, 2015
    Published: Feb 28, 2010
    Status: Complete

    Summary: What if Petunia had married higher on the food chain and snagged herself a scientist? Rationalist!Harry enters the wizarding world armed with the lore passed down from Richard Feynman, the ideals of the Enlightenment, and a cursed scar...
    Link:http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality

    Every once in a wile a true gem appears. This story is one them
    and I have really enjoyed this one so far. Just one warning do not drink anything wile reading chapter five.

    5/5


    Checked by Minion, March 14, 2014
    Thank Merlin's Balls, that's done now.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 14, 2015
  2. Juggler

    Juggler Death Eater DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2008
    Messages:
    993
    Location:
    Nova Scotia, Canada
    I have to say I was expecting this; Harry's father, Professor Scientist McAtheist Darwin, is a completely stereotypical figure. Dismissive without evidence and arrogant.

    And, to back him up, we have Wesley von Potter-Verres-Evans, the captain of knowledge who obviously loves everything (being a ten-year-old, which is usually reason enough to enjoy things like not reading boring books all day), and can understand why the world works the way it does better than anyone ever.

    Professor Scientist McAtheist Darwin is far too accepting of magic in the second chapter. He obviously doesn't believe it in the first chapter, yet his character radically changes from angry smartass into cool-as-a-cucumber sideprop right after being levitated. In fact, his only part after that was to laugh histerically at Harry for something that surely would've lost its humour over four years.

    Another thing that pisses me off; While it may be possible that McGonagall would say "That is the most Ravenclaw thing I have ever heard.", not only does it sound completely stupid (that'd be like me saying "Why, that was quite Zimbabwaian of you!"), McGonagall has been teaching at Hogwarts for many years. You'd think, at one point or another, she would either hear something more bookwormish, or at least learn to refrain from making such possibly-insulting comments out loud.

    A small nitpick in the description of how McGonagall described Voldemort attack Godric's Hollow; she said that he killed James, and then Lily, and then came for Harry. Of course, it could be figured out as the most likely situation, but none but Harry and Voldemort know who was killed first that night. It's annoying to read that everyone knew every detail about that night except why.

    Harry just pisses me off more by showing off his big juicy brain that stores all knowledge about everything in chapter four, so I'll skim over that nerd-rage piece.

    Goblins are actually reasonably liking Harry, unless all of them are as soft as Griphook. Then they'd be back to being teddy bears with fangs.

    Chapter five inexplicably made me crack up laughing. The humour did require some suspension of belief, but I could believe that an 11-year-old Draco Malfoy would do what he did in that situation, given the circumstances.

    I'm going to keep watching this story, because right now my rating stands between 3 and 4, depending on the chapter I read at any given time.
     
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2010
  3. Shinysavage

    Shinysavage Madman With A Box ~ Prestige ~

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    High Score:
    2,296
    A bit hit and miss, but when I laughed, I laughed hard. Particularly at the Madame Malkin scene. Worth following I think, although there's danger of Harry becoming so rational and dictionary-esque it's annoying.

    3.5/5
     
  4. Silens Cursor

    Silens Cursor The Silencer DLP Supporter

    Joined:
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    The other side of reality
    ...you know, that was surprisingly good. Harry's OC to the n-th degree, but I'm finding that I'm not really caring all too much, because the story's pretty fucking funny. Not too shabby at all. However, it's not without its flaws. Harry's pretty precocious, but it's a little absurd at points how 'smart' Harry is.

    Still, I'll follow this - it's pretty interesting, at least. Not really enough to rate, but I'd give it a 4/5 right now.
     
  5. SmileOfTheKill

    SmileOfTheKill Magical Amber

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2007
    Messages:
    1,219
    Location:
    Florida, Sigh...
    The Madame Malkin part was quite good.

    However, I fear though that I will grow to hate this story. Harry is too smart and I feel like the story will end up having Harry declare the Wizardry world is stupid and he is awesome and smart and LOGIC is KINGGG.

    The random adding of math terms and other things is going to ruin this.

    Rating is withheld because it could get a lot worse very fast.
     
  6. azrael

    azrael Professor

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 2008
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    480
    Location:
    Texas
    I'll admit that it was mostly pretty mediocre. But chapter 5, for some unexplainable reason, did in fact make me crack up. Still, it doesn't really make up for the story as a whole. 3/5
     
  7. Dethklok

    Dethklok Order Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    The power of Christ compels him not to tell you.
    What made me run from this fic was the first paragraph that has Harry with three last names.

    No.
     
  8. DarthBill

    DarthBill The Chosen One

    Joined:
    Mar 31, 2006
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    2,227
    Location:
    Texas
    The three last names thing, I think, can be rationalized by the fact that his father is a presumptuous snob.

    This is an interesting enough read, but I see a lot of potential for fail. And I had to suspend my disbelief quite a bit for the scene in Madame Malkin's shop.

    4/5
     
  9. Rhys

    Rhys High Inquisitor

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2009
    Messages:
    598
    I wont rate till there's MOAR, but in a just-for-the-lolz sense this is Epic Win. When I thought the Harry-McGonagall interaction couldn't be topped, then we got the best Madam Malkin's scene I've ever read period.
     
  10. silverlasso

    silverlasso Minister of Magic DLP Supporter

    Joined:
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    That's a dumb reason to not read this fic. It is actually pretty funny. It just remains to be seen whether the author can continue to pull this off; I certainly hope he doesn't crash and burn.
     
  11. KrzaQ

    KrzaQ Denarii Host DLP Supporter

    Joined:
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    Poland
    It's quite funny, but not hilarious. Unlike most, I didn't really like Madam Malkin's scene.

    There isn't enough to rate it for now (only ~13k words in 5 very short chapters), but if the quality stays the same, it'll be 4/5 from me.

    What else... Well, it could be one of very, very few fics with acceptable Harry/Hermione.
     
  12. Caput

    Caput First Year

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2009
    Messages:
    24
    ...What?!

    Other than that, I found that scene mildly amusing, but overall the story just doesn't appeal to me.

    One reason being Harry's triple surname (which seems pretty pointless to me), another being that though it makes sense that Petunia's surname is said to be Evans-Verres (as she may not have wanted to lose the Evans part of her name), it has her husband's surname as Verres-Evans.

    I wouldn't really expect him to take on her name too, but even if he did, surely it wouldn't have been reversed and would instead be Evans-Verres too?

    The other reasons for it not appealing to me are already listed in Insane Juggler's post (though the rating and cracking up did not apply to me).

    TL;DR: Didn't like, but won't rate.
     
  13. Rhys

    Rhys High Inquisitor

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2009
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    598
    I got the sense that "awesomecool" was just sarcasm, but that may have been wishful thinking.
     
  14. Zarent

    Zarent Seventh Year

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2008
    Messages:
    241
    Am I the only one that really found this appallingly bad? The writing was good in terms of mechanics, but it was absolutely not funny at any point, and plain pretentious when it tried to come off as such.
     
    Luc
  15. cold burn

    cold burn Third Year

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2009
    Messages:
    92
    Well this is probably going to get really bad really fast. Don't misunderstand me if your looking for a crack-fic written by a person who is both capable of using spellchecker and owns a thesaurus(and uses it liberally) then this may be your thing. But don't go looking for a story that lives up to it's premise, has a decent amount of comedy and anything even remotely resembling characterization.

    Anyways I'm this at a 2.5/5 and rounding down. I might change it latter if the story improves- which I doubt.
     
  16. Sooner90

    Sooner90 Groundskeeper

    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2009
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    330
    Location:
    Oklahoma, USA
    Excellent read. For the life of me I cannot understand the incessant nitpicking of reviewers over the most inconsequential of points.
    WTF?

    Those things are what makes a story unique, and in this case, funny.

    I thought that Harry's interaction with McGonagall was total win. It is very unusual to see her characterized at all in fics and though she is a little OC, I think that the dry humor was completely plausible.

    Harry is obviously precocious and unrealistically egg-headed, but that is what the author was shooting for. It doesn't make any sense to say he's too smart=fail. Just say that you don't like OC or AU Harry. But, I'm betting that if Cassanova!Harry showed up at Hogwarts, screwed Greengrass on the head table and started sacrificing puppies in the chamber of secrets, similar criticisms would disappear.

    Four stars
     
  17. pdo91

    pdo91 Professor DLP Supporter

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    495
    Location:
    Colorado
    Only if the story wasn't mediocre, like this one. I didn't find it funny, though I can see where other people might. It's not bad, but it's not very good either. I give it a tentative 3/5, because it doesn't suck.
     
  18. Gizmore

    Gizmore Minister of Swedish Affairs DLP Supporter

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    Sweden
    Yeah... No...

    2/5
     
  19. Skeletaure

    Skeletaure Magical Core Enthusiast ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I admit, the robe fitting scene made me laugh. Harry's characterisation is obviously not realistic, but it's a guilty pleasure nonetheless. A fun read, the story's flaws are easy to overlook if you don't take it too seriously. 4/5.
     
  20. Richard

    Richard Supreme Mugwump

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    I didn't really like this either. The robe shop scene was mildly funny, but I just couldn't get into it.
     
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