Well, if this isn't a consecration....
Aug. 1st, 2006 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fpbDon't kill Harry Potter, US authors urge Rowling
Tue Aug 1, 2006 6:13 PM BST
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two of America's top authors, John Irving and Stephen King, made a plea to J.K. Rowling on Tuesday not to kill the fictional boy wizard Harry Potter in the final book of the series, but Rowling made no promises.
"My fingers are crossed for Harry," Irving said at a joint news conference before a charity reading by the three writers at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
The author of "The World According to Garp" and a string of other bestsellers said he and King felt like "warm-up bands" for Rowling, who is working on the seventh and last book in the Harry Potter series, and who has said two characters will die.
King, who shot to fame in 1974 with "Carrie," said he had confidence that Rowling would be "fair" to her hero.
"I don't want him to go over the Reichenbach Falls," King said in a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle's effort to kill off the character of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Pressure from fans eventually led Conan Doyle to resurrect Holmes, who was found in a later story to have survived.
Rowling, a Briton whose books have sold 300 million copies worldwide according to her publishers, said she was well into the process of writing the final book.
"I feel quite liberated," she said.
"I can resolve the story now and it's fun in a way it wasn't before because finally I've reached my resolution, and I think some people will loathe it and some people will love it, but that's how it should be."
"We're working towards the end I always planned but a couple of characters I expected to survive have died and one character got a reprieve," she said, declining to elaborate.
Asked about the wisdom of killing off fictional characters, Rowling said she didn't enjoy killing the major character who died in book six -- for the sake of those who haven't read it yet she avoided naming the victim -- but she said the conventions of the genre demanded the hero go on alone.
"I understand why an author would kill a character from the point of view of not allowing others to continue writing after the original author is dead," she added, leaving the door open to the worst fears of some fans -- that Harry could die.
King recalled that when he had a character kick a dog to death in his novel "Dead Zone" he received more letters of complaint than ever, to his surprise.
"You want to be nice and say 'I'm sorry you didn't like that,' but I'm thinking to myself number one, he was a dog not a person, and number two, the dog wasn't even real," he said.
"I made that dog up, it was a fake dog, it was a fictional dog, but people get very, very involved," King said.
Rowling noted that Irving had killed off many more characters than she had.
"When fans accuse me of sadism, which doesn't happen that often, I feel I'm toughening them up to go on and read John and Stephen's books," she said. "I think they've got to be toughened up somehow. It's a cruel literary world out there."
© Reuters 2006.
Two extra notes fromfpb. One: the British literary world that has long done its best to play down JKR's importance must be chewing poison tonight. Stephen King is one thing, but to have John Irving declare that he is a JKR fan must have made all the jealousy specialists choke on their frappuccinos. Second: the Italian journalist who wrote up this story and alerted me to it showed his knowledge of the saga by suggesting that one of those who die in book seven might be.... Dumbledore. As I'm always a-tellin' you, You Couldn't Make It Up.
Tue Aug 1, 2006 6:13 PM BST
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two of America's top authors, John Irving and Stephen King, made a plea to J.K. Rowling on Tuesday not to kill the fictional boy wizard Harry Potter in the final book of the series, but Rowling made no promises.
"My fingers are crossed for Harry," Irving said at a joint news conference before a charity reading by the three writers at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
The author of "The World According to Garp" and a string of other bestsellers said he and King felt like "warm-up bands" for Rowling, who is working on the seventh and last book in the Harry Potter series, and who has said two characters will die.
King, who shot to fame in 1974 with "Carrie," said he had confidence that Rowling would be "fair" to her hero.
"I don't want him to go over the Reichenbach Falls," King said in a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle's effort to kill off the character of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Pressure from fans eventually led Conan Doyle to resurrect Holmes, who was found in a later story to have survived.
Rowling, a Briton whose books have sold 300 million copies worldwide according to her publishers, said she was well into the process of writing the final book.
"I feel quite liberated," she said.
"I can resolve the story now and it's fun in a way it wasn't before because finally I've reached my resolution, and I think some people will loathe it and some people will love it, but that's how it should be."
"We're working towards the end I always planned but a couple of characters I expected to survive have died and one character got a reprieve," she said, declining to elaborate.
Asked about the wisdom of killing off fictional characters, Rowling said she didn't enjoy killing the major character who died in book six -- for the sake of those who haven't read it yet she avoided naming the victim -- but she said the conventions of the genre demanded the hero go on alone.
"I understand why an author would kill a character from the point of view of not allowing others to continue writing after the original author is dead," she added, leaving the door open to the worst fears of some fans -- that Harry could die.
King recalled that when he had a character kick a dog to death in his novel "Dead Zone" he received more letters of complaint than ever, to his surprise.
"You want to be nice and say 'I'm sorry you didn't like that,' but I'm thinking to myself number one, he was a dog not a person, and number two, the dog wasn't even real," he said.
"I made that dog up, it was a fake dog, it was a fictional dog, but people get very, very involved," King said.
Rowling noted that Irving had killed off many more characters than she had.
"When fans accuse me of sadism, which doesn't happen that often, I feel I'm toughening them up to go on and read John and Stephen's books," she said. "I think they've got to be toughened up somehow. It's a cruel literary world out there."
© Reuters 2006.
Two extra notes from
fpb. One: the British literary world that has long done its best to play down JKR's importance must be chewing poison tonight. Stephen King is one thing, but to have John Irving declare that he is a JKR fan must have made all the jealousy specialists choke on their frappuccinos. Second: the Italian journalist who wrote up this story and alerted me to it showed his knowledge of the saga by suggesting that one of those who die in book seven might be.... Dumbledore. As I'm always a-tellin' you, You Couldn't Make It Up.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-01 08:40 pm (UTC)I'm sad to see her say literary convention demands Harry be on his own. I always liked the team work aspect of his adventures, but then I'm not counting my chickens before they're hatched!
Thanks for posting that, I'll read it more carefully later, but the skim was good.
I wish I could see JKR and Mr. King tomorrow *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2006-08-01 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-01 08:51 pm (UTC)You do realize she was refering to Dumbledore's death, there? The absence of the mentor in order for the hero to come fully into responsibility in his quest?
no subject
Date: 2006-08-01 09:04 pm (UTC)It's not an illogical extention.
But I did realize it could mean nothing, which is why I said what I said about counting chickens.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-01 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-01 09:07 pm (UTC)And I kinda dread it too in so much as then the story is over.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 02:45 pm (UTC)I went through a big Stephen King phase, and I enjoyed him very much, but somehow I was never able to finish the first book of the Dark Tower series. I am not sure why either. My favorite of his books was called Eye of the Dragon, I think, about the prince and the usurping uncle.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-02 01:14 am (UTC)I also think Dumbledore is going to die in Book 7. Twice.
OT
Date: 2006-08-02 06:13 am (UTC)Re: OT
Date: 2006-08-02 06:17 am (UTC)Re: OT even more
Date: 2006-08-03 06:55 pm (UTC)Re: OT even more
Date: 2006-08-03 06:57 pm (UTC)Pretty woman, anyway.
Re: OT even more
Date: 2006-08-03 09:30 pm (UTC)And don't headdesk for so little, everyone has done it.
Re: OT even more
Date: 2006-08-04 01:03 am (UTC)