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Orson Scott Card comments on JK Rowling

I happened to stumble across this today and thought I'd share.

http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-i-2008-04-24-177772.112113_JK_Rowling_Lexicon_and_Oz.html

Tell me your thoughts and I'll tell you mine. (Hey, I've got to do something to get the comments moving over here!)
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Comments

  1. Amanda6:30 PM

    Wow. That's an amazing article. I don't know how to weigh in on the issue. He makes some very persuasive arguments. I guess the main difference is before the guy was offering it for free and now he's charging for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sarah Ski11:26 PM

    Wow, that's very interesting. Thanks for posting that! I'm not really sure how to weigh in on it, but he makes some really good points. What are your thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matt S1:47 PM

    My first thought after reading that was, "Holy crap, Orson Scott Card is awesome."

    You should check out the fan site that he linked to. It's pretty interesting. Then post a new blog asking for input :) I'll comment when I finish that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amanda10:19 PM

    Now that I've had time to stew about it. It makes you wonder how many of our ideas are original or some bastardization of something we've read eons ago. Even if they are, we are writing the story and the path that gets us to the end may be entirely different even if we use elements from our own experiences or readings. I think that JK is getting a bad rap for this. Rightly or wrongly. Not that she ever has to write again if she wants to, but if she really is a write she will want to.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Krista Heiser4:21 PM

    Thanks for commenting! How fun!

    I've had some time to think about this topic now, too, and I'm still a bit mixed about the whole thing. On one hand, I completely agree with Orson Scott Card. What we read influences our writing whether we acknowledge it or not. Most writers are avid readers. I'd even go so far as to say that most writers were readers long before they felt that urge to pick up the pen.

    So there are no new ideas. Agreed.

    However, the same basic concept can be reshaped and presented as unique because the authors are unique individuals who will see things through a filter of their experiences, ideologies, and education. I guarantee if we were all given a loose outline of a story and told to flesh it out, each of us would produce something uniquely our own. Common elements, different story.

    So I can appreciate where Card is coming from and why he might feel its okay to call Rowling on the carpet, so to speak, over the matter. She can't claim an idea. Ideas are outside the scope of copyright.

    However, I think he might be wrong in one respect. She created Harry Potter and his world. If the Lexicon she's challenging specifically uses her characters, concepts, settings, world-building, and whatnot, I think she has a case. The Lexicon writer isn't creating a spin-off, he's actually publishing (and possibly making money off) something that doesn't really belong to him.

    Although Rowling may have more money than she knows what to do with, I can see how a sense of ownership would prompt her to try to put a stop to this.

    Of course, I haven't seen this Lexicon. I don't know exactly what it is or how its been presented. I know Card mentioned in his article the validity of reviews and scholastic publications regarding works of fiction. Does this Lexicon fall under those headings? I don't know. But if it doesn't, I feel Rowling is getting a bad rap.

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