Ingratitude and loathing in South Gloucestershire

[unixronin]

Imagine this.  You're writing a book — no, make it a series of books.  All in all, they sell 375 million copies over a ten-year period, plus several feature films, and get translated into 64 languages.  During the course of writing them, you discover that someone has gone to the trouble of collating a whole bunch of reference information for readers of your books, and made it available online for free.  In fact, he's done such a good job of it that you find it useful as a reference yourself, and make extensive use of it while you finish your books.  You even give him an award for the site.

Later, after your books are finished, he decides to publish his reference to your work.

[Poll #1181122]

Well, it sort of depends on whether you're J. K. Rowling, doesn't it?

Personally, while I'm as likely to disagree with Orson Scott Card's positions on various things as agree with them, I think he has Rowling dead to rights here.  Most people would be quite satisfied with having become the 13th richest woman in Britain (and that's including the royal family) and the highest-earning novelist in history.  But it seems becoming rich has made Rowling greedy.

Comments

[meglimir.livejournal.com]

Ok, an opinion I never expected to agree with:
"J.K. Rowling is inappropriate for Xtians."
Granted, I would say so not because of the content of her writing, but because of her abuse of her role-model status.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Is she a Christian?

[meglimir.livejournal.com]

I don't know - but I put that badly: She is held up as a role model for Xtians and non-Xtians alike, as how to be successful. In that area, this lawsuit behavior makes her a bad model for Judeo-Christians. (Also for most other beliefs and traditions, I think, but I'd prefer people who know more about those others speak for them.)

That's not to say Xtians shouldn't read Harry Potter novels. For my point here, that's a completely separate topic. If there's any relevance at all, I'd agree with the analysis they fall in the Tolkien/Lewis/et al realm of good vs evil allegories. I.e. if a Xtian family lets their kids read Narnia, it would be consistent to also approve of Harry Potter.