I'm feeling disenchanted with JK Rowling...
Ever since the news broke about JK Rowling suing the authors of the HP Lexicon I've found that I have become disenchanted with her and her attitude. I love her books and for a long time I really have admired her tenacity and her rise from poverty to where she is now. But, I feel like she's let some of the success and hype go to her head and it's disappointing.
The fact that she praised the online version of the Lexicon and linked to it from her site only to sue just seems like she has gotten a little too full of herself. There have been enumerable other HP reference books published in the last 10 years and yet, she sued none of them. It was only after book 7 had been published and the attention on her had waned a bit that she brought this law suit.
Her ridiculous assertions that if the Lexicon were published it would keep her in some way from writing and selling her own reference book of the HP universe came off as childish and petty! Of course fans of the HP books will buy her book when it is published! Any HP fan knows that were JK to publish her encyclopedia of the HP universe it would be chalk full of back stories for minor characters, information that didn't manage to find it's way into the actual books, and knowledge of the characters and the universe itself that no one else would ever be able to give us. For her to claim that the Lexicon being published would somehow keep her book from being successful is patently laughable!
Her attitude on this subject also disturbs me because if she were to win her suit it would set a precedent, for all future reference books that might be published on other literary works, films, etc. If authors can have absolute control over everything having to do with their work, even to the level of commentary and literary discussion than the world of literary academia is in REAL trouble!
I would not be surprised to hear of her filing suit against Wizard Rock bands next and maybe that sounds pessimistic but I am just really not feeling the love for her at the moment and I don't know that I ever will again.
The fact that she praised the online version of the Lexicon and linked to it from her site only to sue just seems like she has gotten a little too full of herself. There have been enumerable other HP reference books published in the last 10 years and yet, she sued none of them. It was only after book 7 had been published and the attention on her had waned a bit that she brought this law suit.
Her ridiculous assertions that if the Lexicon were published it would keep her in some way from writing and selling her own reference book of the HP universe came off as childish and petty! Of course fans of the HP books will buy her book when it is published! Any HP fan knows that were JK to publish her encyclopedia of the HP universe it would be chalk full of back stories for minor characters, information that didn't manage to find it's way into the actual books, and knowledge of the characters and the universe itself that no one else would ever be able to give us. For her to claim that the Lexicon being published would somehow keep her book from being successful is patently laughable!
Her attitude on this subject also disturbs me because if she were to win her suit it would set a precedent, for all future reference books that might be published on other literary works, films, etc. If authors can have absolute control over everything having to do with their work, even to the level of commentary and literary discussion than the world of literary academia is in REAL trouble!
I would not be surprised to hear of her filing suit against Wizard Rock bands next and maybe that sounds pessimistic but I am just really not feeling the love for her at the moment and I don't know that I ever will again.