Seriously. I don't know if any of you have been following this story but J.K. Rowlings is suing a fan for creating a Harry Potter Lexicon. She claims that "this book constitutes the wholesale theft of 17 years of [her] hard work. Ha! That claim is, quite simply, ludicrous.
First of all, in order for that claim to be true, Harry Potter would have to actually be her original idea. Yeah right. Have any of you read the Worst Witch? If not let me sum it up for you. It is about a little girl named Mildred who goes to Mrs. Cackle's Academy for Witches where she is disliked by the potions teacher and a blond bully. Mildred also has to practice flying her broomstick for an important school event but somehow her broomstick gets bewitched. Sound familiar? For more similarities between the Worst Witch and Harry Potter go here. And the sad truth is The Worst Witch is just one example of where J.K. Rowlings stole her ideas. Ever heard of a 1984 book titled The Legend of Rah and the Muggles which coincidentally enough has a main character named Larry Potter? Hmmmm. (As an interesting side note, before making the Harry Potter movies, Warners Brothers made sure to buy the rights to the Worst Witch.)
Secondly, an encyclopedia is not plagiarism. Come on. This guy is not claiming that J.K. Rowlings ideas are his: he is just organizing them for people who have already presumably bought and read all seven of her books. Rowlings goes on to claim that this lexicon would hurt sales of the Harry Potter Encyclopedia she was planning to write. Yeah right. Don't you think that people would still buy her version as the official version?
Don't get me wrong, I really did and do enjoy the Harry Potter books. I just think that it is ironic that an author who stole ideas from other authors without any sort of citation is suing a fan for openly and lovingly (aka giving Rowlings all the credit) organizing the Harry Potter world into a lexicon.
Oh, I just found an article written by Orson Scott Card that said what I was trying to say, only much MUCH better. You can check it out here.
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7 comments:
I loved that article by Orson Scott Card. It punctuates the audacity of Rowling's claim. After all, it is fiction, her fiction is properly cited, and just because someone beat her to the punch and put out a Lexicon before she could, she shouldn't cry about it but should suck it up and figure out how to deal with it.
I loved that article by OSC. He put it perfectly. What is Rowling's deal, anyway? Sheesh!
I couldn't agree more. When I first heard about the guy crying on the stand, I was completely disgusted by Rowling's actions. Here is one of her most devoted fans and she sues him. And I didn't realize she had even given him an award several years back. I'm sickened by how greedy people become.
Ken Jennings, on his blog, made the same points. It's really sad that an author that I do like so much can't allow herself to see the bigger picture.
Man, i hate to agree with Taylor. Geesh!
btw, don't even get me started on how i think Harry Potter has got to be whiniest, wussiest, stupidest hero ever. There's a role model i'd want my kids to follow.
Hey Alan, if Shawn would ever bother to join the blog world, he would totally post a comment agreeing with you. He, too, HATES harry potter. or as he calls him, "Mr I'm-going-to-save-the-world-on-accident-again-and-steal-all-the-credit-from-Ron-and-Hermione"
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