Terry Pratchett lays into JK Rowling!

[zorcarepublic]

Well said! Now, there is nothing good left about Rowling's work.. You've ruined my only appreciation of her creation... (oh! look it's rhymes! I'm a poet! )

So, were you a poet, but didn't know it?

 

[Joel007]

*Slaps zorcarepublic*

 

[Connavar]

The magazine also said Rowling reinvented fantasy fiction, which was previously stuck in "an idealised, romanticised, pseudofeudal world, where knights and ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves".


Bollocks!! if you think thats fantasy you dont know ****

No wonder they think she is something special in the genre.....
Let the media hail her the somone who changed fantasy. They dont know anything as usuall.





"I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds, jumping chocolate frogs, owl mail, magic food, ghosts, broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?"

Haha TP is so funny with this

 

[Toraspanda]

Well, I enjoyed the Potter books the first time around (though I was getting increasingly irritated with the adolescent antics in books 6 and 7), BUT.... Rowling may be a talented story-teller, but in comparison, Terry Pratchett is a writer.

As to his "laying into" Rowling, I doubt that it was more than an amused, throwaway comment. An author's success is not only measured in sales, and I don't think Rowling will ever command the respect that Pratchett does.

Between the two, there's no contest - Viva Pterry!

 

[Unseleighe]

Rowling didn't know she was writing fantasy? Somehow I doubt it. I have to agree with PTerry...the magic kind of gives it away.

Morris-dancing to Greensleeves. Please excuse me while I go laugh hysterically and scream at the same time. Has this journalist ever read a single fantasy book that wasn't Harry Potter?

I can't believe we're still talking about this two years later. Funny how things can last.

 

[Hypes]

Because thread necrophilia is fun.

 

[zorcarepublic]

*Slaps zorcarepublic*

Ow! That hurt!

 

[Daisy-Boo]

Reading through this thread has been very entertaining. I particularly enjoyed Smoothassilk's flounce. A good flounce is hard to find so I was delighted to see one of such superior quality.

Even though the article is an old one I'd like to present my thoughts (for what it's worth).

Full disclosure: I admit to being a rabid pTerry fan. I read anything with his name on and spread the gospel of the Discworld wherever I go.

I think his comments were very reasonable and sensible and I couldn't detect any "laying into".

JKR & HP...I read the first book and got halfway through the second before I gave up. It was like slogging through thick mud. At a certain point I realised that I actually didn't give a damn if Voldemort killed the whole damn lot of them...in fact, I rather wished he would.

However, it's great that she's written a series of books that has captured so many people. I have no opinion of her as a person simply because I couldn't be bothered. As for her writing skills...meh...that's my feeling.

pTerry on the other hand...

His books are not only funny but also thought-provoking. Thadlerian made several insightful comments about the themes explored in pTerry's books.

When I read a Discworld book I often stop to re-read a line or paragraph, amazed at his skill with words. IMO he's made an invaluable contribution to the fantasy genre. There are very good reasons why he is Britain's most-shoplifted author. Even my local bookshop in Cape Town has to keep his books behind the counter.

 

[Allegra]

There are very good reasons why he is Britain's most-shoplifted author.

I'm sure those shoplifters are acting under the regulations of The Thieves Guild.

 

[Rodders]

This is the first time i've seen this initial story. Good on Terry for sticking up for a genre that he obviously cares passionately about. I've no interest whatsoever in Harry Potter, but it seems to me that JK is trying to make herself more mainstream and less a fantasy author with those statements.

 

[clippedwolf]

Subvert fantasy? By giving into its tropes? Nice try, JK! Pratchett's comments were worth a few chuckles.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Just stumbled across this thread.

Not a particular fan of her writing (I've only read the first Potter book) but Rowling did a lot to get younger children into reading, which is a very good thing. However, her comments (of 7 years ago, admittedly) seem rather bizarre. Is there anything more fantastical than widespread magic and wizard school?

 

[Alex The G and T]

Thanks for reviving a thread I'd missed.

I just read through all nine pages; laughing out loud. Hilarious.

 

[bubba-gump]

This is a great find! It my be old but still hilarious! I'm sure JK has mellowed her opinions on the writing world over this time. Love HP and anything with TP's name on it

 

[biodroid]

Really, does it matter who lays into who? She did inspire a generation to read that normally would have thought it too geeky to read a book, doesnt that mean literacy increases among kids? Plus HP is a great story to keep you reading.

 

[mythmaker]

JK Rowling and Terry Pratchett - it's a battle of the Titans! I think Practhett's "dig" isn't so shocking, really. With wit as sharp as his, if he'd wanted to be acerbic, he could have been! That said, it sounds like she is taking herself a bit seriously (subverting the genre??) so good on him for pointing it out. He is da man!

 

[Tecdavid]

There's some pretty heavy comments here, isn't there? When I read that article, all I saw was TP sharing a jest at JK's comment, and then speaking of how fantasy had been tweaked, treated and 'redefined' in the past. Nothing at all scathing, right?
And yet some of us here are actively choosing "sides", as if the two writers were about to start sparring!
Why's this? I'm really quite confused ~ why all the contempt for JK Rowling? It seems to me that people are taking the style, content and message of her books quite a bit more seriously than the were surely meant to be taken.

 

[Stephen Stagg]

Interesting.

Whereas Discworld is a completely made up world in a made up Universe, HP takes place in a world that is parallel to our own, everything from Platform 19.5 onwards.

You would think they would be fans of each others work.

 

[Nightspore]

I read a lot of Pratchett's books a while ago. I enjoyed a lot of them & he parodied the genre well. I'm not a Rowling fan.

"I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds, jumping chocolate frogs, owl mail, magic food, ghosts, broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?"

This is genuinely funny though, no?

 

[Thadlerian]

Another somewhat funny thing is that even though Pratchett's books started out as fantasy parodies, some of his latest books are now so conceited that writing parodies of them has become a viable opportunity.