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JK Rowling

Rowling to fight plagiarism claim

Harry Potter author JK Rowling calls claims that she plagiarised parts of her best-selling book series "absurd". Ref. Source 5

Rowling JK

From Harry Potter to the dark side

JK Rowling's first book for adults will be a "blackly comic" novel set in an idyllic English town where all is not what it seems, her publisher says. Ref. Source 5

JK Rowling UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

Its amazing how she used her talent to get from where she was to her position as a major influence in the minds of millions of children around the world.

Rowling JK

Life after Harry

She arrives early and unannounced, a lick of elegant cream wool with pale skin, blonde hair. Skyscraper heels the colour of champagne. The one splash of colour, tucked under J K Rowling's arm, is the cover of her new novel, The Casual Vacancy - still, when we met in Edinburgh last month, the biggest secret and hottest property in publishing. Ref. Source 2

Rowling JK

J.K. Rowling novel coming to TV

British author J.K. Rowling's first adult novel The Casual Vacancy will be adapted for the small screen, the BBC announced on Monday (Tuesday NZ time), unlike her Harry Potter adventures which went on to become one of the biggest film franchises of all time. Ref. Source 4

JK Rowling

This woman is not a very good author, in my opinion. One dimensional characters in a rich, vivid world. I'm not denying that she created something beautiful and wonderful, I just don't believe she writes well, as compared to other authors.

She also claimed that she didn't write fantasy books, and described fantasy as "Women in garb dancing to Greensleeves." (Paraphrased) Terry Pratchett, author of Discworld as well as many other awesome books, responded with, "You would think trolls, witches, flying broom sticks, magic newspapers, etc, would have tipped her off." (Paraphrased) Makes her seem like a pompous jerk, in my opinion, especially when there are many better authors writing many better books. Besides, doesn't Sci-Fi count as Fantasy, when you really get down to it?

Edited: Oinodaemon on 3rd Mar, 2013 - 6:22am

JK Rowling

You're probably the first person I've read that is critical of her. I'm not into her works nor the Potter series as other are but do you have any specific examples of how you find her characters lacking?

JK Rowling Sciences Education Art Writing & UFO

Many. I've considered doing public blogs on each Harry Potter book. My biggest "Character" issue came in the form of Harry Potter himself, most notably around Book 5. Throughout books 1-4, his behavior is almost entirely cliche, as if his entire personality is formed from the "Underdog Hero. " His moments of emotion feel shallow to me, and never do we see true rage, hatred, or even sorrow. Sad, sure, angry, sure, but when does he ever just blow his top, or have a fit of depression? Book 5, Order of the Phoenix. He behaves like an entitled brat for the entire first quarter of the book, then we never seem him act like that again. Did he hit puberty at fifteen, or was that just his first time experiencing angst? He just isn't written as a realistic human, in my opinion. When I was that age (11-18) my emotions were all over the place, and I didn't know anyone even a tenth as balanced as Harry Potter. Then there's the Roald Dahl checklist.
Abusive family? Yup.
Fantastical new world where almost everyone is loving towards the character (except for one person or one group of people)? Yup.
Overcoming obstacles with the help of a mentor figure? Yup.


I'm going to stop with the checklist thing, but it seems obvious to me many of her elements, especially in her first book, are very heavily borrowed from Roahld Dahl, even down to following the same plot rythyms.

I may start doing blogs on these topics shortly, where I wil go into more detail. I need time to organize my thoughts.