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

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, because super-secret media conglomerates run around plucking up unemployed young mothers and placing them in a position to make a lot of money just by acting as the face. I mean, the paper trail on that money has to go somewhere.

That reminds me of the guys at my last job who ribbed me for knowing the Harry Potter characters. "Why is it the single, unmarried woman knows all about Harry Potter and we, who have six kids between the two of us, don't?" (Because I, unlike you who have the six kids between the two of you, didn't get all anal and uppity when I became an adult, that's why.)

Try admitting publically that you enjoyed the Princess Diaries. There's a real trial to one's dignity.

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

In, I think a LOT better news the United Arab Republics will (hopefully) hold elections in '06. Women will vote. I'm not sure but I think Jordan, Iran, Iraq and the PA all have this right observed. Now if only we (the rest of the world) and those countries can help ... um convince the Saudi's and Yemen to join in.

[vass]

Oh, brilliant.

Joanna Russ is a genius. Sometimes I just really wish she wasn't right.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

give this woman oliver stone's phone number!

btw, as a children's editor, i see this kind of attitude all the time. it's not confined to this one author.

[pengolodh-sc.livejournal.com]

Since I'm Norwegian, I thought I'd let you know what the most common opinion on this matter is here in Norway. Most people seem to think that the lady director is one crazy lady, and mainly out to raise attention about herself.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

That's kind of sad.

Although I like the media conglomerate theory. But if it were true, I think that Harry would like more brand-name merchandise.

B

[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.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

So do I.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, because everyone knows the best writing is done by committee.

Sure there are plenty of people out there claiming HP is not good writing; I've seen it called simplistic, repetitive, overwritten, and I don't know what all. But that all may be less important than whatever it is the books do have; notice the books popularity gre first by word of mouth long before Warner Bros got to them. It's interestng to note also just how many of the books people read just because they love them are written by women.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, because everyone knows the best writing is done by committee.

That's a great point, and one I hadn't considered. My boyfriend works in the video game industry, which is well-known for its flaws when it comes to story-telling, and I have always blamed the whole "by committee" approach to creativity. Since video games are about selling to the lowest common denominator, sometimes cool things don't or won't make it in, because it's not the publishers targeted demographic. (Or because the publisher, who is usually a different company than the developer, really wants a game that will pave the way for mega-hit X or a certain videogame playing system. Story is really the least of many concerns. Sometimes, some marketing director somewhere will pass down a suggestion. To be fair, some really HORRIBLE ideas have also been axed because they won't sell to the public. So I suppose there's bright sides to it as well.)

The point being, when you write for the huge megacorp, the writing you get goes through so many filters, it's hard for it to step out of the cliche and hard for it to do anything new and daring.

[sternel.livejournal.com]

The fact that she's photographed in a bar with a pint in her hand makes me wonder if her academic degrees and knowledge was appointed by newspaper committee. ::sniff::

[(Anonymous)]

It's odd -- had the author of the article or creator of the theory done a bit of research, they would have turned up the fact that the "rags to riches" aspect of Rowling's story is highly exaggerated....yes, she wrote the story in cafes and was struggling financially....but she also had a computer to work on and could afford paper and lived in a safe, warm, heated flat....
...it's just so obviously absurd. Sigh.

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

The only way that anyone could subscribe to this idiotic theory is if one believed that Rowling's success was a marketing phenomenon. Unfortunately, tons of people with either poor observational skills, poor memories, or blunt agenda seem to believe just that, in the face of the evidence -- all of which is recent enough to be undeniable -- that the success of the Harry Potter books was a word-of-mouth juggernaut.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Peg, can I quote a chunk of your first paragraph in my own journal? I'd link to it too amd could just leave it at that, but I'd rather quote. I think it would be more effective, and I....um... *really* like the point you're making. I don't expect my journal to turn into a big forum for debate on this subject, but since it did come up in a rounabout way--would it be all right? If you'd prefer I didn't, that's fine.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Sure.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly.

[ascian.livejournal.com]

At times like this (read: any time corporations are involved) I put my faith in Occam's Razor rather than human goodness.

While I don't find the prospect of a manufactured author phenomenon especially unbelievable (looking at the way popular bands are sometimes/frequently created by formula for maximum marketability), it's much more likely that the artifice would be on the reporting side than on the factual side. It can't be very hard to find people who write stories in the precise circumstances that Rowling faced, and it'd be needlessly complicated to hire an actor to pretend to be a struggling author when there are so many waiting to be discovered.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I find myself uncharitably thinking how much it would explain if Anne Rice were an hired actress.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I find myself uncharitably thinking how much it would explain if Anne Rice were a hired actress.

[cruisedirector]

As you can see I'm like a week behind...but Russ is such a perfect reference here! (I did my M.A. thesis in part on her.)