In wishing that JKRowling would shut the fuck about her new novel?

[ExitPursuedByABear]

For days now the media has been awash with interviews about her new 'adult' book. Every time I turn on the radio or the tv, there she is, giving another bloody interview. She has said she thought about publishing it under a pseudonym but decided to go public. You know what JKR, anonymous would have been a good idea.

I mean, the Harry Potter books are a good yarn but hardly great literature so I am not exactly champing at the bit to get my teeth into her 'adult' offering.

And apparently it contains swearing .

She has called her fictional middle class village with the adjacent sink estate Pagford.

[LauraShigihara]

YY Merrylegs I agree and that was my point earlier.

I have older children who were growing up in those pre-Potter days and it was such a struggle to find decent books for them. I had money to spend but little to spend it on .

Their bookcases were groaning with Point Horror, Star Wars books and those terrible Goosebumps books. There were very few decent authors around and most of the 'off-series' books that they owned were classics like Peter Pan. Walking around the children's section was an hugely uninspiring event for adult and child.

It wasn't just my family having a moan - it was a huge bugbear for my friends and their children too. Who wants to buy formulaic 'horror books for kiddies', eh? It wouldn't be most people's choice for their children.

Harry Potter really was a turning point - it showed children an interesting story with sympathetic characters and it put decent books back on the shelves. My youngest son has a huge range of books and not a crappy series among them.

[LauraShigihara]

And I'm the same age as JKR and I have one wrinkle - a small one on my forehead

[thebeesnees79]

yabu and yippie thanks for telling me, off to amazon I skulk to buy it.

[KarlosKKrinkelbeim]

She still has an accountant though, doesn't she? Presumably he's not sending her fee notes for doing nothing. One woman's "avoidance" is another's "prudent tax planning" - there's no clear demarcation between what's acceptable and what's not, however pious JKR might like to think she is about it.
this is the trouble when you get all sanctimonious about these things - people feel entitled to poke holes. There's a simple solution; keep your gob shut.

[flippinada]

YABU. Haven't read any of the other messages but I think she's inspirational and a great role model.

PS - anyone criticising the Harry Potter books for not being 'well written' - they are childrens books and very entertaining ones at that.

[theodorakis]

Harry Potter is hardly an indication of a talented writer. Her inablity to write well combined with her greed and vanity means I will happily avoid her self seeking attempt at adult fiction.

[BeanieStats]

Just because a book is aimed at children doesn't mean it has to be poorly written.

[KarlosKKrinkelbeim]

She may be an excellent writer - I don't know. Where I think she makes her error is in assuming that her status as a writer makes her views on politics, economics, social affairs etc automatically valid and of interest to the rest of us. It does not. She is quite as capable of uttering empty-headed rubbish as the rest of us.

[theodorakis]

It isn't because it was a children's book, an adult's book or a book aimed at donkeys. It is shite writing.

[Nancy66]

She's not a good writer. She just isn't.

Jeffrey Archer has also sold millions of books - he can't write either.

Just as there are plenty of singers who can't sing, actors who can't act, so there are 'writers' who can't actually write.

[IShallPracticeMyCurtsey]

Well, yes Karlos, quite. She is as capable of spouting rubbish as anyone - she is a human being, after all. Humans have been known to be wrong/have different opinions from other humans occasionally. Do you really think that she goes around assuming that she's some kind of authority, though?

Her views come through, for the most part, in her fiction-writing. That's how fiction works. Outside of that, she probably gets hounded by media requests for opinion pieces - but she's hardly going about spouting her mouth off all year round, is she? If she cares about a particular issue enough and feels that it's worth drawing attention to, she does occasionally write pieces and give interviews. In that way, she utilises the platform available to her to get her views across. The same way as we utilise the platform available to us (Mumsnet's AIBU) to get our views across.

All this talk about shite writing. Maeve Binchy used to get stopped in the street by angry people who would tell her that her books were shite and that anyone - the person in question, usually - could have written them. Her reply: 'Yes, but you didn't, did you?'

[IShallPracticeMyCurtsey]

I think she's a good writer. What criteria are we using to judge?

[KarlosKKrinkelbeim]

Yes, she plainly does assume she's some kind of authority - otherwise she'd keep her opinions to herself, rather than assuming we'll be interested enough to read them in the paper. Not only that, but lots of people here are claiming her views make her a more worthwhile human being, when what they really mean is "I agree with her". So what?

[Nancy66]

Her use of language, her lack of lyricism, her linking of stories and themes, the rhythm and flow.

I actually think Maeve Binchy is a lovely writer.

[ExitPursuingDameAbsy]

I always enjoyed Maeve Binchy novels too.

But then I enjoyed the Harry Potter books.



I did like the bit of hers that I read in the Telegraph today about our children leaving tiny ghosts in our heart. I have been feeling that very much recently as my soon to be 13 DD gets increasingly arsey and refuses to be seen with me, and I look at little girls happily skipping along holding their mum's hand. Makes me very melancholic.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

It's not being very well-reviewed, is it?

I used to edit HP as I went along, reading out loud to the children, because whilst Harry and Ron 'say' things, Hermione invariably seems to screech, squeal, or squeak them. That's the main thing that sticks out now, but even her fans don't argue she's a particularly inspired user of the English language, do they?

[EdgarAllanPond]

i think Harry Potter is wonderful fiction (whether great literature or not : we'll see if it stands the test of time)

I'm not tired of hearing from JK

the fact she is political doesn't bother me, after all, her saying stuff i don't agree with doesn't make me spontaneously combust. She has at least a considered opinion - it isn't like a Hollyweird actor expressing opinions of UK political issues.

I think it's fantastic that probably the most celebrated author of our time is female.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

If she is the most celebrated author of our time, I find that pretty depressing!

Anyway, when I hear her AGAIN AND AGAIN on the radio at the moment, she's not saying anything political, she's saying that her book is both realistic and funny!

[HoldMeCloserTonyDanza]

More than halfway through the book now, still really enjoying it.

It's not the greatest book I've ever read but I'm flying through it!

[McHappyPants2012]

gave in asnd got it today :)

[wordfactory]

As a writer myself, I really admire JKR.

And I smile at all the 'oh it's so badly written' crits (often y would be writers who could never get a word published if they paid ).

Writing is not all about which words we choose and what order we put them in. It's about how it makes our target audience feel. And JKR makes millions of DC feel as though HP is their friend. That is a skill which makes her not just a good writer but a great one.

[wordfactory]

Oh and of course big sellers like JKR allow the oublishing industry to keep taking risks on new authors, especially the small selling lit'ry types who only sell four copies each .

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

Yeah, it is badly written though. Her tapping into something the audience was, for whatever reason, ready for in 1997(?) and onwards is certainly a phenomenon, and I think dd1 did get quite heavily into the first three or four books at the time. But she was a reader anyway, and by time Harry's complex process of adolescence was reflected in the text by his INCREASING TENDENCY TO BE IN CAPITALS, she lost interest iirc.

She's a significant phenomenon and probably a good egg besides, but a great writer.... No.

[Hullygully]

And still don't get why people think they are badly written, I think they are brilliant, and the writing does exactly what wordfactory says, it creates a wholly contingent world that kids, and adults, enter into completely. It doesn't intrude or show off, it creates.

[IShallPracticeMyCurtsey]

Thank you for posting that, wordfactory I'm a writer too, as it happens. Not a fiction-writer, but I do get paid pretty well for it. And I take my hat off to JK.