Oh look, a blog about Harry Potter (but not the film, surprisingly)
I've just been thinking about Harry Potter, and just how amazing J.K. Rowling actually is. I mean apart from the whole seven-book storyline with all its complexities and back-stories, and the style of writing, and the way the books grow up with the readership (and characters). All of that I find incredible, but it's her creativity in the little things that really amazes me.
Every character name is appropriate and "believable"; every character fits, no one is out of place. Just the name Hogwarts has become a household name and couldn't possibly be anything else, and the names of the houses - Gryffindor, Slytherin... things like the names of spells, Expelliarmus, words that had to be invented yet sound perfect for what they are. The little details like everyone's different Patronuses, the different types of wand and how they should match the owner, floo powder, the marauder's map and the password to unlock it.
And the big details like Quidditch and all the rules that go along with it. She created an entire sport in her mind and made it completely detailed and "realistic". Every beast, every animal, Hippogriffs and phoenixes, their personalities that are formed. The Burrow, the foreign schools, the skeletal horses that you can only see if someone close to you has died, the Forbidden Forest and all its mysterious capacities, The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, all the shops like Ollivander's. Everything has meaning, and nothing makes you think, 'huh, she should have come up with something better for that.'
And this is on top of her mind-blowing capacity to create an entire world that everyone loves, to develop so many characters without making it too complex or dull, and to encapsulate everyone's relevant back-stories to make it believable, tying up loose ends with ease and relating facts all over the place. The plot has so much going on in every book and there are no weak links, every new idea she introduces is interesting, shocking or just what makes the world of Harry Potter more exciting.
To think that all of this came from one woman's mind is simply astounding. Dislike Harry Potter all you want, but J.K. Rowling is an absolute genius.