This Explains A Lot To Me

[catherinecookmn]

From today's Writer's Almanac by Garrison Keillor, honoring J.K. Rowling on her birthday, comes this passage concerning Rowling's tastes in literature:

J.K. Rowling has launched a new generation of readers (and some adult readers) into the world of fantasy, but it's a genre that she doesn't actually like much herself. She didn't even realize that

Comments

[mundungus42]

If you think like a genre writer, you write like a genre writer, and it's a very limiting thing.

There is much to think about here. I've never quite understood why some people are "fantasy" writers and other people are "literature" writers.

[catherinecookmn]

I think a lot of it comes down to the publishing house.

[severewrath]

It's true that JKR exhibited a great deal of creativity in writing Harry Potter. It's one of the reasons her series was so popular.

But I would feel better if she could, perhaps, actually write. It would be a substantial plus if she could write as well as you do.

Alas, her capacity for creativity was limited; resulting in more of a spastically generated hodgepodge of fantasy creatures, a universe that makes no sense, and a poor mastery of plot, characterization, and Deus Ex Machina.

Also, I would _love_ to read a fic about Snape & Lily in the Discworld. Hilarious! Granny Weatherwax would certainly knock some sense into both of them :-)

Crossovers are cool, I agree, because they can provide a substantially different view of a character.