Just about the dumbest thing I've ever read

[Thorn Wilde]

If JK Rowling Cares About Writing, She Should Stop Doing It

 

Are there no limits to people's pettiness? I think not, given Lynn Shepherd's frankly astoundingly jealous and sad post in the HuffPo blog regarding how J.K. Rowling has 'had her turn' writing fiction for adults, and she should let someone else have a go. Shepherd admits that she herself hasn't read the Harry Potter books, but that she thinks it's 'a shame' that adults are reading them when there are, 'so many other books out there that are surely more stimulating for grown-up minds'.

 

She goes on to say that Rowling should lay down her pen or stick to children's books because she's clogging the market so other writers can't get their work through.

 

Shepherd starts the article with a disclaimer, so people will understand that this isn't just 'sour grapes', but she could have fooled me.

 

I haven't read The Casual Vacancy or The Cuckoo's Calling, but I do know that the Harry Potter series got me and my entire generation reading. That's no mean feat, and I think Rowling's deserved her moments in the sun. It is a fact that big best sellers draw readers to book shops, and once they're there they browse, and they come away with lesser known books that they end up loving. Me buying book X doesn't make it less likely that I'll buy book Y, rather the opposite. Reading is an addiction. Once you start, you just want more.

 

Aside from that, writing something like this is extremely unprofessional. A bit of envy of other people's successes when you're struggling in the same field is unavoidable, but spelling it out like this is really just petty.

 

Please, you guys, let's make a pact never to get like this.

[Bill W]

It makes you wonder if she isn't someone who has had manuscripts turned down and she has transferred her disappointment to Rowlings.  If not, what difference would it make who writes the books.  If they're good they'll sell.  If not, they won't.  Think of all the authors that published more books than Rowlings.  Should we have stopped them from being so prolific?  This is just another of those comments you have to take with a grain of salt.  

[Zombie]

That attitude is just ignorant. First it assumes there's a finite literary "cake" which is just plain crap - the bigger and tastier the cake the more readers will stuff themselves And since when has there been a rule that writers - or anyone - should "stay in their place"? It's true that writing successfully for children and adults is a rare talent but others have done it - Penelope Lively and Terry Pratchett spring to mind - so why shouldn't JKR have a go? Good for her for trying and I hope she continues trying out new things. She doesn't need the money so she should kick off her shoes and gorge on Beluga all day?

[Kitt]

I suppose by those standards David Eddings, Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind as well as a host of other authors that occupy my bookshelves  should stop cluttering up the bookstores too?

 

You are absolutely right Thorn - I never go into a bookstore and come away with only the title I went in for. I usually leave having expended all my expendable income for that day.

[Thorn Wilde]

I suppose by those standards David Eddings, Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind as well as a host of other authors that occupy my bookshelves  should stop cluttering up the bookstores too?

 

Well, in my opinion, Goodkind could easily have stopped after Faith of the Fallen, because The Pillars of Creation was just dead boring.

[rustle]

What a bitch. To dismiss someone's writing without having read it is prideful ignorance.

 

Rowling's crime novel was published under a pen name, and its author's name was revealed by a law firm which apologized and offered a substantial charitable donation as recompense. Otherwise, we might have never known it was hers.

 

Speaking of charity, Rowling has proven herself extremely generous. Has the author of this article ever done anything for anyone else?

 

JK Rowling has earned her following. She should not squander it. Besides, if you're going to compete for a place in this world, should you not compete with the best?

[Ieshwar]

Oh my god. I have no idea how to respond to this level of stupidity... 

 

It's only thanks to JKR and her Harry Potter that I discovered (and read) other fantasy authors like Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, Garth Nix amongst other.

 

And she's saying that JKR should stop writing for adult genre? I think she should rather thank her for bringing new readers to the genre and increasing the market of her books.

 

And I thought writers were highly intellectual wise persons...  

 

Btw, how could she not read Harry Potter? That's like... never eating chocolate. Unless she's allergic to good sense and intellect, which might be the case judging from her post. 

[Sasha Distan]

I have only ever read/heard one thing thicker than this, and it also related to JK Rowling.

 

In a radio interview with Sir Terry Pratchett *bows* back when the 4th of the HP books was released and HP fever was at peak in the UK, the interviewer accused Lord Pratchett of plagiarising JK Rowling because his Discworld series also has a magical school. My father and I shouted at the radio for about half an hour.

 

Sir Terry was quick to point out that he publish his first Discworld novel some ten years before JK Rowling was born...

[TetRefine]

I never bought into the whole Harry Potter hype. My dad read the first book to me when I was like 9. Even then I wasn't interested at all. I'm not into young-adult type books. Idk, they seem to come off as an immature style of writing.

 

Now just because I don't like her books doesn't mean I'll discount what JK Rowling has achieved. She went from a welfare bum to almost a net worth of a billion dollars in just ten years, and wrote the best selling series, and produced some of the highest grossing films of all time. Like others have mentioned, she got a whole generation into reading (and not just her books). 

 

This lady just seems like an underachieving ass hat who'll never reach Rowling's level of success, so she bitches and complains. I hope Rowling is laughing at this lady in her Ferrari as she heads to the bank. 

[Adam Phillips]

Her pettiness obscures what might be a somewhat valid point, which is that in today's publishing world, it's difficult for new voices to get a hearing.

 

That being said, it was poor form, it was sour grapes, it was a whine that makes me completely uninterested in checking out any novel that she might have to offer.

[Tomas]

She sounds like a no talent wannabe who has a stack of rejection letters and spends her time believing that it's the established, published authors that are the cause of her works being rejected. It can't be her fault that the rejection letters keep piling up.

 

Maybe, if she spent more time improving her craft rather than blaming others for her failures she might eventually get something published.

 

 

 

 

 

[Thorn Wilde]

She does, as Adam pointed out, have a point in that the publishing industry will fawn over any big name. After all, they're trying to make money. However, this is hardly the fault of any of those big names.

[Kitt]

She does, as Adam pointed out, have a point in that the publishing industry will fawn over any big name. After all, they're trying to make money. However, this is hardly the fault of any of those big names.

And not a reason to tell any of those big names they have written enough, time to hang up their pens!

[blake_logan]

While the blog post was a little harsh, it's not exactly unique.

 

There was a category on Jeopardy the other night called "WRITERS HATIN' ON WRITERS" that had similarly snarky remarks from the likes of Mark Twain about Jane Austin. 

 

I guess everybody's a critic

[Celethiel]

Depends.... if Rowling is using the horrible popularity of her potter series to push through other books.... after all anything connected to potter will sell like hot cakes....

and no Rowling should have never started writing in the first place,.... but i only say that because she turns Harry into a little Prat, kills off the characters i like, and destroys artifacts....and i couldn't read the last book,

after what she did to dumpy drawers....i couldn't stand to touch another book *sobs*

[Thorn Wilde]

Depends.... if Rowling is using the horrible popularity of her potter series to push through other books.... after all anything connected to potter will sell like hot cakes....

 

She really isn't, though. She even released her second adult novel under a pseudonym, but some idiot went and spilled on Twitter or something like that, which was a shitty thing to do.

[Zombie]

She really isn't, though. She even released her second adult novel under a pseudonym, but some idiot went and spilled on Twitter or something like that, which was a shitty thing to do.

 

"Typecasting" applies to authors who achieve success with a particular niche just as much as to actors who have success with a role say in a TV show or movie franchise and it can make good sense to invent a new name and persona. So when typecast mystery writer Agatha Christie wanted to write romance she published as Mary Westmacott, and Ruth Rendell used the name Barbara Vine when she wanted to try out a different style of crime genre. This avoids all the crappy grief JKR has had and it means the new audience isn't prejudiced by the author's previous work so they read it fresh with no bias. It's a well trodden path and what's happened here with this Shepherd creature just shows why it can be a smart move

[Celethiel]

She really isn't, though. She even released her second adult novel under a pseudonym, but some idiot went and spilled on Twitter or something like that, which was a shitty thing to do.

good

lol.