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- Sep 2, 2006
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Well that saves me from buying it now.
Good point. Could Posters resist the temptation to give just a bit too much detail, about new books, films and etc., please?jefflovestone said:Well that saves me from buying it now.
PeniG said:On the one hand, I'm very sorry.
On the other hand, how can you discuss a work meaningfully without going into specific details?
On the foot, if finding out barebones facts like who dies is enough to keep you from reading the book - you probably didn't want to read it that much, anyway.
I personally always stay away from discussions of things I want to view/read until after I've viewed or read them. Therefore, it is easy for me to forget that other people don't do this.
It's not for me to tell you how to read any particular book, but here's a little exercise that I find useful. If something about a scene bugs or displeases you, sit back and ask youself - could this be the sensation the author wished me to feel? You can't know the author's intention unless she makes a public statement about it, but the point is to derive maximum benefit from the book.
A lot like wartime, I thought.
She says nothing, i repeat absolutely nothing, that hasn’t already been covered by Enid Blighton,
Firstly, Dahl's children's books are mostly written for 9 year old (and under) kids who like to pull wings of small insects. Secondly, his adult books are written for adults who like to pull wings off small insects. Neither of which are Rowling's target audience.Zoffre said:Well, I'm not too familiar with the Potter books, however if I had to choose between giving my (future, maybe...) kids Rowling or Roald Dahl I'd plump for Dahl every time. Children's books need to stir up the imagination, and I think the combination of Dahl's slightly off-centre themes and Quentin Blake's illustrations does that perfectly. They certainly inspired me as a kid.
I see Rowling primarily as a not-very-talented latecomer who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Let's face it - in this media-dominated time any old tosh can become popular if it's marketed in the right way...
I don't really see where you're going with this. Dahl wrote for a rang of ages and some of his books are more sophisticated than others. I fail to see him as "targetting" only one type of kid/adult.Pietro_Mercurios said:Firstly, Dahl's children's books are mostly written for 9 year old (and under) kids who like to pull wings of small insects. Secondly, his adult books are written for adults who like to pull wings off small insects. Neither of which are Rowling's target audience.
Again, I fail to see what her being a single mother has to do with anything. As I said - right place at the right time.Pietro_Mercurios said:Yes, quite a media hype, that boosts a single mother into the richest woman in Britain category, in 10 years. If only all publishers were as adroit with the marketing.
_TMS_ said:True, she has encouraged countless people who probably didn't read too much to go out and digest a few books, and for that she has to be proffered some respect, but the overarching plot is juvenile - indeed infantile- in terms of thematic resonance. Jung would have, no doubt, numerous things to say about the character of Harry himself, unloved orphan who discovers that not only is he very special, and rich, and everyone (in his magic world) knows him is kindergarten wish-fulfilment of the direst order. The fact that so many adults read the books says more about their personal psychological development than it does about Rowlings penmanship.
Read them all, and enjoy every word by all means, as long as you understand there are far, far superior products on the shelves of Waterstones - or wherever - that cover all of the topics JK crudely renders in an entirely more satisfying manner.
Just proving that I've actually read and am familiar with the work of both authors.Zoffre said:I don't really see where you're going with this. Dahl wrote for a rang of ages and some of his books are more sophisticated than others. I fail to see him as "targetting" only one type of kid/adult.Pietro_Mercurios said:Firstly, Dahl's children's books are mostly written for 9 year old (and under) kids who like to pull wings of small insects. Secondly, his adult books are written for adults who like to pull wings off small insects. Neither of which are Rowling's target audience.
Since you doubt, apparently unread, Rowling's abilities as an author, I was searching around, tabloid style, for other factoids, that might be significant to her success. Had she been a plumber, or sky diver, I might have popped that in to the sentence, instead.Zoffre said:Again, I fail to see what her being a single mother has to do with anything. As I said - right place at the right time.Pietro_Mercurios said:Yes, quite a media hype, that boosts a single mother into the richest woman in Britain category, in 10 years. If only all publishers were as adroit with the marketing.
Well, I'm not too familiar with the Potter books, however if I had to choose between giving my (future, maybe...) kids Rowling or Roald Dahl I'd plump for Dahl every time.
Which is also true.Bistoinferno said:Well, I'm not too familiar with the Potter books, however if I had to choose between giving my (future, maybe...) kids Rowling or Roald Dahl I'd plump for Dahl every time.
The great thing is you dont have to. Your future kids can read and possibly enjoy (or not) both.
She has the "Sade" effect - not great art, and she doesn't pretend otherwise, but it's amiable and pleasant and as a result sells by the shed load. I like her stuff - she could have done with a more stringent editor at times, but that's a minor quibble.
Interestingly, this is what I think is best about Harry Potter (which I love, and yes, I do read thick, complex and heavy books too, so nyah). It's a retelling of a basic myth, with heavy Jungian resonances - it's a way to look inside oneself, directly analogous with everything from the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, to Beowulf, Icelandic Sagas, to anything really._TMS_ said:Jung would have, no doubt, numerous things to say about the character of Harry himself, unloved orphan who discovers that not only is he very special, and rich, and everyone (in his magic world) knows him is kindergarten wish-fulfilment of the direst order. The fact that so many adults read the books says more about their personal psychological development than it does about Rowlings penmanship.
I still wonder what would have happened if the mania hadn't taken off as it did? If she'd published and completed the series without getting a film made (as many authors manage to do) would the pressure have been lessened and made some of the latter books better as a result?
From The Sunday Times August 19, 2007
Rowling in new murder mystery
Ruairi O’Kane
IT’S a case for Rebus, Scotland’s dogged detective. JK Rowling, who launched her career with stories scribbled in an Edinburgh cafe, has been spotted back in her old haunts with a notebook in hand and crime on her mind.
The sighting, by the wife of Ian Rankin, creator of Detective Inspector John Rebus, has sparked talk among the city’s crime writers that she is planning to apply her populist talent to create the definitive Scottish crime novel.
Rowling, they say, is entering a genre dominated by some of Scotland’s greatest storytellers from Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson to modern bestselling writers including Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Iain Banks and Val McDermid.
Speaking to a reporter at the Edinburgh book festival, Rankin told how his wife Miranda had seen Rowling “scribbling away in a cafe recently”.
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“My wife spotted her writing her Edinburgh criminal detective novel,” he said. He declined to elaborate on how he knew about Rowling’s new direction, but conceded he had not discussed it personally with her. He added: “It is great that she has not abandoned writing or Edinburgh cafes.”
It was in Nicholson’s Cafe and the Elephant House, in Edinburgh, where as a hard-up single mother, she famously penned her first Harry Potter novel in the early 1990s.
Last month Rowling published Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final volume of the series which has helped propel her into the country’s super-rich with a fortune of £545m. She has been characteristically coy about what she planned to do after the series finished. She complained about being typecast as a children’s author and expressed a desire to move into adult fiction.
She offered fans a hint of a change in direction, saying on her website that she wanted to write something “completely different”, adding: “I can take my time. And the idea of just wandering off to a cafe with a notebook and writing and seeing where that takes me for a while is just bliss.”
Edinburgh is a favoured setting for crime writers because its cobbled, twisting wynds and dark, gothic buildings are an ideal setting for murder and intrigue. It has a history steeped in the macabre with infamous residents such as Burke and Hare, the 19th-century grave-robbers who inspired the pen of Stevenson.
Rankin, who lives close to Rowling in the Merchiston area of the city - which is also home to McCall Smith - said her experience of writing fantasy adventure would help with crime fiction. “Her process is classic crime writing - the set-up, the red herrings, the characters who change as they are revealed, the twists and turns, and finally the big lineup at the end.”
He said it was ironic that her decision to take up crime writing coincided with the final volume of his Rebus series which had dominated the past 20 years of his life.
“It is a chronological coincidence that JK Rowling had planned seven books and the way they were published meant this was the last year.
“I envisaged Rebus having a natural lifespan. He was 40 in 1987 so obviously he is 60 in 2007. And when I learnt that in the police in Scotland, 60 is the retirement age, I thought, ‘Well he has to go’. Those two things came together without either of us really thinking about it too much.”
PD James, 87, creator of the Adam Dalgleish mysteries, said she saw no reason why Rowling should not become a successful crime writer. “She certainly has all the skills,” James said. “She is immensely popular with adults and children. She has done a great service to literature by encouraging children to read on that scale. It is a huge achievement to get children queuing for books in the numbers they do.”
Christopher Little, Rowling’s literary agent, refused to comment. A spokeswoman for the author said: “We do not have a definite plan of what her next project is yet.”
Rowling just keeps getting better and better. :lol:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7053982.stm
JK Rowling outs Dumbledore as gay
BBC News Online: 20 October 2007
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has revealed that one of her characters, Hogwarts school headmaster Albus Dumbledore, is gay.
She made her revelation to a packed house in New York's Carnegie Hall on Friday, as part of her US book tour.
She took audience questions and was asked if Dumbledore found "true love".
"Dumbledore is gay," she said, adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, who he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago.
"Falling in love can blind us to an extent," she said, and added Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down" and his love for Grindelwald was his "great tragedy".
"Oh, my god," Rowling, 42, concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction".
...
Hari Puttar makers defend film
Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Harry Potter film franchise is worth millions of pounds
The makers of Bollywood's Hari Puttar - A Comedy Of Terrors have defended the film, saying it has nothing in common with Harry Potter.
Warner Bros is taking legal action against producers Mirchi Movies, based in Mumbai, India, over the film title.
The studio believes the name is too similar to that of the young wizard.
But Munish Purii, of Mirchi Movies, said: "Our film bears no resemblance to the Hollywood film Harry Potter and it is a completely different story."
He added: "Our film has been in the making for quite some time and everyone knew about it."
Release date
A spokesman for Warner Bros, which owns the rights to the boy wizard movies, confirmed the lawsuit against Mirchi Movies last week.
Hari Puttar, directed by Rajesh Bajaj and Lucky Kohli, is due to hit Indian movie screens on 12 September.
Two weeks ago, it was reported that the release date for the next Potter film - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - had been pushed back by eight months to July 2009.
Warner Bros said the decision had been taken in order to guarantee the studio a major summer blockbuster in 2009.