"The big news from the world of Harry Potter isn't that [a href="vny!://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/10/23/dumbledore/"]Dumbledore is gay.[/a] It's that J.K. Rowling is greedy."
In 2000, Steve Vander Ark, a middle-aged, middle-school librarian and ardent "Harry Potter" fan, created one of the brightest sites in the constellation of online Potter arcana, [a target="_blank" href="vny!://www.hp-lexicon.org/index-2.html"]the Harry Potter Lexicon.[/a] The HPL, as it's known, is a comprehensive reference work covering all that happens in J.K. Rowling's series -- to quote [a target="_blank" href="vny!://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_Lexicon"]its Wikipedia entry[/a] (everything related to Potter is on WP), the Lexicon lists "characters, places, creatures, spells, potions and magical devices," and it introduced one of the first [a target="_blank" href="vny!://www.hp-lexicon.org/timeline.html"]timelines[/a] of all events that occur in the Harry Potter universe. In the past, Rowling has offered high praise for the HPL. "This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an Internet cafe while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter (which is embarrassing)," [a target="_blank" href="vny!://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/fansite_view.cfm?id=14"]she says[/a] on her site. She calls the HPL "a website for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home." [/p]You might suppose that given her appreciation of the online HPL, Rowling would have encouraged the book's publication and sale. But you'd be wrong. On Halloween, Rowling and Warner Bros., which produces the Potter movies, [a target="_blank" href="vny!://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21568449/"]filed suit[/a] to stop Vander Ark and RDR from selling the book.
In a statement, [a target="_blank" href="vny!://www.jkrowling.co.uk/textonly/en/news_view.cfm?id=102"]Rowling said[/a]: "It is not reasonable, or legal, for anybody, fan or otherwise, to take an author's hard work, re-organize their characters and plots, and sell them for their own commercial gain. However much an individual claims to love somebody else's work, it does not become theirs to sell." [/p] Has J.K. Rowling ever been to a library? Seriously, I truly wonder. Because if she had, she might have seen many examples of exactly the sort of books she describes as "not reasonable." For instance, a list of [a target="_blank" href="vny!://books.google.com/books?id=Dof6ABIIfwkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ulysses+allusions&ei=Gdo4R8v9J4bktAON09ndCQ&sig=UtnrhV_trbkQyi4lM9Ky-qY32Zw"]the allusions in "Ulysses"[/a]; or a complete guide to [a target="_blank" href="vny!://books.google.com/books?id=ErYeAAAAIAAJ&dq=faulkner+characters&ei=x9o4R93lFoHKtAOXiqn6AQ&pgis=1"]all of the characters in William Faulkner's fiction[/a]; or a compilation and detailed analysis of [a target="_blank" href="vny!://books.google.com/books?id=moOnAAAACAAJ&dq=dylan%27s+lyrics&ei=RNs4R-roBqLstAPc2rXrAQ"]Bob Dylan's lyrics[/a]; or a book containing the complete chronology of the events in David Foster Wallace's [a target="_blank" href="vny!://books.google.com/books?id=xJ6U1VK3SRcC&dq=timeline+infinite+jest"]"Infinite Jest."[/a] [/p]Full Story: [a href="vny!://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/11/13/harry_potter/"]vny!://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/11/13/harry_potter/[/a]
