JK Rowling announces new novel

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by tecweston

I loved the Harry Potter books and I am looking forward to what Ms. Rowling does next. I don't understand why people who don't like her books feel the need to come into this thread to announce that they don't care about this announcement. Good for you, I guess?

Fair enough. I must confess that I'm the last one in the world qualified to pass judgment on Rowling's work; having seen only one movie and having read not even one of her books. My only criticism is her stance on ebooks. Now, she's the creator of those works; they are the product of her labor. As such, she has the right, in my opinion, to make those books available in any form she sees fit, or to prohibit their availability in whatever form she sees fit.

Just as I, as a reader, am free to say that if that's how she feels about those of us who prefer screens over paper, I won't be reading any of her works.

[jmaejr]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

Very nicely put.

IMO popularity is no measure of greatness, or even competence; witness the inordinate number of awful television shows, movies, books, magazines, YouTube videos, etc. Popularity generally is a good measure of how popular something is, and that's about it. Teenagers and younger are immensely conscious of peer acceptance and will follow the trend of almost anything whether it be clothes, music, or, wait for it...books.

I think JK Rowling is a writer of moderate quality, she certainly isn't awful, but IMO she isn't superlative, hence "mediocre." I'm not a "hater" but then again I'm not a "fanboy."

Perfectly said, although I fail to understand why it is that the 'fanboys' get all butthurt when you do not agree with the popularity of whatever it is they are beating the war-drums for....popular does NOT equal good. McDonalds is popular but it certainly is not good or good for you...

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by azazel1024

No that is reserved for the Twilight series...which I still don't understand how in the Gods' names my wife can enjoy. She universally pans the writting and thinks the themes are horrible, but she has also read the series at least 4 times over now....

I've never read or seen anything connected to the Twilight franchise so I can't offer an opinion there, but maybe your wife's enjoyment of the series is similar in some respects to the enjoyment I found as a teenager watching the original Dark Shadows TV series with my friends. For the most part the acting was bad, the writing was stilted, and the dialog was overblown; but the characters were lovable, and as corny as we knew the the plots to be, we quickly grew to care about their resolution. Above all, it was a hoot seeing boom microphones dropping down to screen level, reflections of cameramen and their equipment popping up in windows, shadows of crew members appearing in scenes where the actors were suppose to be alone, and a thousand other bloopers that seemed to occur on an almost daily basis.

[QuantumIguana]

It is really hard to take anyone seriously who used words like "butthurt". What happens is that people flip out over any mention of Rowling or Harry Potter and come in foaming at the mouth. The thread would have been so easy to ignore.

I've read the books, and seen the movies. I don't think they are the best books that I have ever read, but she has done more to get kids reading than perhaps anyone alive today.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

I think JK Rowling is a writer of moderate quality, she certainly isn't awful, but IMO she isn't superlative, hence "mediocre." I'm not a "hater" but then again I'm not a "fanboy."

Kind of a strawman argument, though. I don't think anyone on this thread has claimed that she is the best author ever, so I don't particularly see why you felt the need to plant your flag of mediocrity in the thread.

In any event, your opinion that she is a mediocre writers is no more valid than someone's opinion that she is the best writer ever. It's like arguing whether chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla.

[DiapDealer]

It's all well and good to say anyone who doesn't like HP should just ignore the thread... and normally, that's exactly what I'd do, but statements like:

I doubt we'd have had the wide spectrum of fantasy available today if she hadn't published it.

are pretty hard to just let stand. I'm only human, after all.

[HoopyFrood]

"In any event, your opinion that she is a mediocre writers is no more valid than someone's opinion that she is the best writer ever. It's like arguing whether chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla."

Oh poop on that argument.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

"In any event, your opinion that she is a mediocre writers is no more valid than someone's opinion that she is the best writer ever. It's like arguing whether chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla."

Oh poop on that argument.

Including poop and ice cream in the same post is just... wrong.

I'd be interested in this new book depending on what it's about. It will be nice when there's actually info about it.

[frostschutz]

I swear if the new book doesn't involve magic I'll search&replace on it until it does.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

...she has done more to get kids reading than perhaps anyone alive today.

You're probably right. Can't take that from her.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Including poop and ice cream in the same post is just... wrong....

You've just given me a great idea for a new flavor pitch to dog food companies.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

You've just given me a great idea for a new flavor pitch to dog food companies.

...Fido was wracked with indecision as to whether he should eat his Kibbles 'n' $hitz or just roll around in it.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

You've just given me a great idea for a new flavor pitch to dog food companies.

Originally Posted by TimW

...Fido was wracked with indecision as to whether he should eat his Kibbles 'n' $hitz or just roll around in it.

You've made my lunch less enjoyable, but I gotta give you both props for making me laugh.

[6charlong]

I have to disagree with those who consider J. K. Rowling's work subpar. Putting down real money to buy a book is a real measure of how many people find a work important; add together how many people want to spend hundreds of hours reading those books and you have a better metric of a work's place in literature than counting how many people click their mouse in some online survey. Hundreds of millions around the world parted with their money and their time in a kind of vote for the HP books. Millions more stood in line at midnight to buy the books as soon as they could get them and went home and read them.

Physical science gives us hard facts about a reality that never changes but literature has to reinterpret the human reality--the times they are living in--for every generation. Regardless any post-modern, deconstructionist foo-foo about what makes great literature, the HP books pass the test for the children of the generation in which they were created. I believe that fact qualifies them to have entered the "great dialog" that is literature without regard to their appeal to earlier or later generations.

I agree it is a tragedy that these books are not available as eBooks because eBooks in some form or other are quickly becoming the means of presenting literature. As we all know the HP books are not the only important literature being left out. I think To Kill A Mockingbird to name just one, is part of that great dialog and another important work that has yet to join the steam of modern publishing but that's a different thread.

Can Rowling continue to interpret this present age in a way that rings true for an older group? It's such a rare thing for any artist to accomplish even once that I doubt it can happen but I want to read this new book regardless.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by azazel1024

No that is reserved for the Twilight series...which I still don't understand how in the Gods' names my wife can enjoy. She universally pans the writting and thinks the themes are horrible, but she has also read the series at least 4 times over now.

Frankly I, and she at least espouses this, worry about books like that seeing as how I am going to have a daughter in the next few weeks. I personally don't think it is a particularly enriching reading experience or good that the take away message from the books is that obsessive personalities and stalking relationships are both normal, good and to be wanted.

I really don't want my daughter reading books like that until she is very much old enough to parse out the horse pucky from it all.

As the books would have you believe, you only truely love someone if you are willing to stalk them and conversly someone only really loves you if they stalk you.

Some researcher has come up with an explanation