HP WankGate, Volume 6.3 Trillion 1/2...
So. JKR decided to sue The HP Lexicon guy for trying to publish his own HP encyclopedia.
Yeah, I said I'd be staying out of debates like this one. But honestly (and I'm not just playing devil's advocate here)? I see where JKR's coming from with this.
As prolific as those MuggleNet and Galadriel Waters-type crackpot theory and speculation books are, that's all they are in the end: theories and speculation. Which JKR has said she doesn't mind. However, the Lexicon doesn't present itself as purely theories and speculation or a "readers' guide" to HP -- it seeks to be a comprehensive, definitive compilation of raw facts about the series, which this book would have also been. I don't think any HP "companion" book out there yet has gone remotely close to the extent that the Lexicon website has in the archival area, unless someone can point it out to me. Those other companion books, and what the Lexicon was planning to do, are NOT THE SAME DAMN THING.
Steve Vander Ark wasn't just publishing a book of essays. Nor was he doing this for charity. He would be compiling raw info from JKR's work and selling it for a profit, which makes it an entirely different animal than his not-for-profit website. Yet somehow this makes him less selfish than JKR, who does plan for her encyclopedia's proceeds to go to charity? Um, okay.
I can see how, if JKR already plans on doing an HP encyclopedia herself - which she's hinted at for a while, so certainly the folks at the Lexicon were aware - a book equivalent of the Lexicon would be problematic. It would be an encylopedia in itself. (Also, I suppose that, given how widely known it is among HP fans that JKR herself has used the Lexicon website to verify details while writing the novels, such a book might be seen by many to be the one officially endorsed by JKR, when it's actually not.) If there's going to be a book out there that's seen as a 'definitive' HP encyclopedia... why shouldn't JKR, as the series creator, have control of it?
If JKR was that tyrannical about who and what archived information about her series, I'd think she'd be shutting down sites like the Lexicon. I don't see her doing that so far.
I can't say I think much of Steve Vander Ark's judgment, either, continuing to go on with publishing this AFTER he'd gotten the warning from JKR's publishers and attorneys. He knew he was in for a royal ass-chewing.
Really, there are times I wonder if there wasn't already such a seeming groundswell of animosity towards JKR lately, whether incidents like this would induce as much vitriol as they would 'normally.' If HBP and DH had been as widely loved as the previous books, how many of these people out there ranting against JKR now would actually be saying "You go, girl!"
Also? If JKR had ironcladly banned all those speculation books out there? People out there are still going to be calling her a dictatorial bitch, so really, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Pick one or the other, people.
Now, as far as whether she should publish an encyclopedia or not, whatever. It doesn't really change my personal fanon, where "nineteen years later," Harry and Luna are off having lots of fantastic sex in some exotic corner of the world while hunting for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. Oh, and occasionally sipping daiquiris on the beach.
Anyway. It's time for Office, dammit.