J.K. Rowling the writer?

[pegkerr]

Remember my earlier post which examined some of the critics' responses to the Harry Potter books, recognizing some of the threads present in Joanna Russ's How to Suppress Women's Writing? (She wrote it, but it isn't high art, literary, sophisticated. She wrote it, but she doesn't deserve the fame. She wrote it but it's too popular, and therefore not worthy of the attention of people with really superior taste. She wrote it, but it's about silly little childish things (i.e., like friendship, courage, self-sacrifice and death). She wrote it, but it's really just escapism.

Well, now the plot thickens. Now there is someone out there claiming she didn't write the books at all.

A Norwegian film director has sparked a debate in Norway over whether JK Rowling really is the enormously successful author who launched the Harry Potter craze, or whether she's just a good actress fronted by multinational commercial interests.

As cruisedirector put it, "Yeah, because of course no single mother could accomplish all that she did. . . Now I just want to know where I audition to become the next fake famous writer and live in a castle and meet Alan Rickman."

Thanks to cruisedirector for the link.

Comments

[dreamflower]

Sounds to me less like one of those "women can't write anything important" and more like a female director jealous of someone else making a name for herself.

The whole idea's a crock. In the days when "Nancy Drew" (and Tom Swift and The Shadow and Doc Savage) were written no one tried to pretend that Carolyn Keene or Lester Dent were anything *but* psuedonyms. *sheesh*

JKR should be flattered, actually, I guess. After all, she's in good complany--think of all those Shakespeare couldn' have written Shakespeare theorists out there.

In 400 years maybe people will give this theory credence. Right now, however it's just so much garbage.