Terry Pratchett lays into JK Rowling!

I read the interview (Or a simliar one) With JK recently, and remember getting really annoyed with her attitudes. (basically biting the hands that have given you hundreds of millions!) I'm well chuffed with Terry Pratchett! He's finally said all the things I wanted to! :D
 
Rowling (and Pratchett) have made a place for themselves in history as the best selling fantasy authors...

There was a story on the news that said that said that over 70% of authors (not just fantasy) are on or below the breadline... And that writing is only their part-time job... Not a great deal of hope for all the aspiring writers out there...
 
Rowling's a mixed blessing. On one hand, she should be congratulated for getting so many children to read. On the other, she needs to actually read a genre, before she 's critical of it, and makes statements like she's 'subverting' it. The woman's obviously never even attempted anything but Lewis and Tolkien. (Neither of whom really stuck to any stereotypes anyway!)

I think the niche she's found is that she's the first person in a long time to write very accessible, easy to read fantasy for children. Children's literature either tends to be peurile rubbish, or darker and more serious and therefore with less mass appeal. She's hit that lucky medium (With her first few books, anyway) that appeals to lots of kids, without talking down to them. Lewis still knocks her into a cocked hat though. People who complain about his religious iconography, seem to forget that there are 7 narnia books! Not JUST the Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe!

As for adult fantasy, which she looks down on, she doesn't hold a candle to the majority of authors out there.
 
I agree with Tez on this one. However, he has done nothing for the Fantasy genre where as she has. I can not believe she did not feel that it was a fantasy novel - absolute madness.
 
What exactly is Rowling doing to "subvert the genre"? While her stories are engaging, they're second-rate writing. It's all so simplistic. Sure, she knows how to throw a shocker in there, but it's not exactly a plot twist, especially since everyone guessed her major decision with this last book well before release. She's still using all of the classic fantasy devices too! Come on, subvert the genre? It sounds to me like she never even READ the genre. Otherwise she'd know she was a good bit behind the greats of fantasy. Especially if her description of fantasy as mentioned in that article is what she really thinks it is. Pratchett is about 1000x more entertaining than Rowling anyway. I've got news for her, instead of subverting the genre, she's only created a place in it for herself instead. Fantasy will go on being what it's being long after Harry Potter and JK Rowling. No one is going to look at HP and say, "Wow, what a revolutionary fantasy series that changed the genre forever!" They'll say, "Wow, look at this series that got kids to read! Isn't that nice?" And even with that, most studies that looked at readers of Harry Potter found that Harry Potter was ALL they were reading. It's not exactly encouraging as many new young readers as everyone seems to think. Besides, good fantasy explores the human condition first and foremost, using fantastical means. How does HP do that? By saying his mother loved him, and died for him? By showing Harry's sense of loss regarding his parents, godfather, and now Dumbledore? By writing a cheesy teenage love story into this last novel? *Yawn* Sorry, but that's nothing spectacular.
 
kinda reminds me of when all the 'celeb' chefs went after delia. it makes no difference to the novels of either, except to make rowling look a bit thick and in serious need of having her ego punctured.
 
I think it's a shame to see authors bickering about one another. Why can't they just support one another :confused:
 
Although I obviously couldn't say for sure, from what I've seen and read, I don't think Terry Pratchett is the kind of guy to make critical comments lightly. I think, like many people, he was a bit incensed by Rowling basically taking cheap shots at a genre that has made her a multi millionaire, and which she hasn't even bothered to read, in order to understand before criticizing.

I agree it's a shame, but people who don't read fantasy, do need to realize that JK Rowling is talking ill-informed rubbish about the genre. Imagine if George Lucas said "I think Science Fiction is over-rated and cliche ridden rubbish that I'm subverting in my new films. However, I've not read much Science Fiction, 'cause I got bored." ;-)
 
All I can say is that J.K Rowling got me to read and write. If I hadn't have read her books then I wouldn't have read anything, I'd still be the teenager who abhorred literature. Now I read just about a book ever few days if I can manage it, and not only of the Fantasy genre but every genre. She did do something nobody had quite managed to do and for that she should be commended, that is how she subverted the genre itself. She widened the awareness of fantasy as a genre. Although Tolkien and Lewis did that when their series were released, this is what she's doing now. As for what she says about not realizing it was a Fantasy novel, that's utter rubbish, there'd be something wrong if she didn't realize that. Pratchett is right in being angry about more Fantasy authors getting such a minimal amount of attention. He is also right in most of his criticsms concerning J.K Rowling. I think he's right in almost every regard, she's being way too hypocritical of a genre that she has chosen to add to. Though I'm on the fence here, I disliked that Times magazine article because it presented J.K Rowling as perfect. To say that she had contributed nothing to the genre, or tho the literary world in general is nonsense, she has, and although some don't agree with her series or her way of doing business. She has found a medium that most children now use to widen their knowledge of literature.
 
I think authors who claim to subvert the genre they are writing in have an inflated sense of their own importance.

No matter how many millions of books she has sold, I don't really see Rowling having that great an effect on the genre one way or another, certainly not to overthrow or cause the downfall of traditional fantasy, which seems to be selling as well as ever, and I somehow can't imagine that she means to say that she's corrupting the genre.

And why would someone who says she doesn't read in the genre anyway wish to subvert it in the first place? Sounds a bit mean-spirited to me.

To do her justice, I don't think she ever had any such intention at all. She's just saying that now to keep from getting lumped in with the rest of us.
Which considering her sales and mass popularity seems ... a little unnecessary, don't you think?
 
just re-reading the hp books, my daughter has developed a sudden interest in knowing whats going to happen in the new film before her classmates and its now bedtime reading. they are good. no doubt at all about it. I just wish that people who did something that is now being enjoyed, didn't suddenly pretend that they are better than that, it cheapens things.
 
It just angers me that she went so far as to criticize a genre that:
1. She neglected to actually read anything of
2. She is undoubtedly forever a part of

And yes, maybe a character in our modern day world, learning things at a school is a little different than what's out there now, but it's hardly revolutionary, and certainly not capable of "subverting" the fantasy genre in any way. No one is going to say, "Wow, now I must write my fantasy novel based on the premise of some kid at a wizard's school who's really famous and represents good, and has to fight some soulless evil overlord who is the essence of all that is bad." Call me crazy, but isn't good vs. evil the basis of just about EVERY fantasy work out there?

Ppbbtt, Rowling.
 
It could just as easily be insecurity as arrogance. So much fame and fortune so fast -- it could be frightening.
 
what's frightening are the obsessive 'fans' :)
must be how Tolkien felt when people were telling him they'd named their child Frodo... :D
 
I believe Terry Goodkind also has said that his books were not fantasy (they were romanticism). I'm with the other Terry on this one; fantasy has enough problems being recognized as a serious genre as it is already.

I think it's a shame to see authors bickering about one another. Why can't they just support one another
Click to expand...
Authors discussing nomenclature is actually a good thing, at least if it results in a more refined view of the genre. What's really shameful is in-genre author camaraderie, authors commenting in each other's books, like Anne McCaffrey in Eddings' Pawn of Prophecy "This is a great book! Give me more!", or something along those lines.
 
NSMike said:
And yes, maybe a character in our modern day world, learning things at a school is a little different than what's out there now, but it's hardly revolutionary, and certainly not capable of "subverting" the fantasy genre in any way.
Click to expand...

A boy discovers a power he never knew he had, and a world he never knew existed. He's taught how to use said power by a wise, kindly old bearded man who becomes a father-figure to said boy. Meanwhile, a dark evil is rising, and said boy is only hope in defeating said evil....

Mindblowingly original, and subversive, I'd say. I'm sure thousands of fantasy authors are kicking themselves: 'A quest narrative! Why didn't I think of that?' I think George Lucas should sue - she ripped off Star Wars!

But in all honesty, I do love the books, and I'm glad they got kids reading again, but it's whether they keep reading that matters, and that's going to be the job of J.K.'s contemporaries...
 
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