JK Rowling

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

JK Rowling's story is amazing.

Basically she went from unemployed
and writing her first novel in 1995...to having a fortune of $1 Bil.
less than 10 years later.

I've never even read a Harry Potter book or seen a movie.
Perhaps I should....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.K._Rowling

unimog406 · 03-18-2007, 07:45 AM

she has more money than god.
one more book to go....

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

It just goes to show you how starved people are for something a little bit creative or original. . .

It'd be nice if the so-called "entertainment industry" took a clue from this instead of consistently recycling the same tired old crap over and over. There's fortunes to be made for those that can imagine and be original. The world needs originality and artistic beauty like she has brought us - not more of the "same-old-same-old".

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

Quote:

It just goes to show you how starved people are for something a little bit creative or original. . .

That is so true...

Take this movie "300" for example... most of the reviews have
been pretty negative...very negative in fact. Yet it is breaking
box office records out of the gate.

Each weekend, what do married people and people who are dating do?

Go to the movies... or rent one.
There are only so many choices of films to see at any given time
so most of them are going to make money, if the production budget was in line.

I was on a date last week, and we saw this new comedy with
Diane Keaton called "Because I said So". It was terrible, completely trite
void of laughter, void of an interesting plot....yet the theather was
almost filled with people on dates, looking for some kind of
escapism. Its always been that way...

Back on topic....Are the Harry Potter books any good?
Ms. Rowling has been pretty prolific in hammering out 7 books
in 12 years...

Seahawk · 03-18-2007, 08:55 AM

Whether I liked the books or not, my kids love them. I thank Rowling for giving us something interesting to share with our kids. As a parent, that is unfortunately all to rare. And we look.

Some of my best memories are of my wife reading the books to our kids, the four of us huddled on our bed, listening.

Edit: The movies have been good as well. Again, it is not about me...my kids adored them.

the · 03-18-2007, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Porsche-O-Phile
It just goes to show you how starved people are for something a little bit creative or original. . .

It'd be nice if the so-called "entertainment industry" took a clue from this instead of consistently recycling the same tired old crap over and over.

Seahawk · 03-18-2007, 08:59 AM

Funny you post that. We have had a great family run with Star Wars as well.

I know I am not as sophisticated as the rest of you, but I know what I can share with my children. It could be much worse than SW and HP

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

Everything creative is derivative of something else.

berettafan · 03-18-2007, 09:33 AM

As sonic said, there is nothing new under the sun.

BUT the Harry Potter stuff is entertaining and the movies have a great 'feel' to them. I thoroughly enjoy them even at my ripe old age of 34. I am also looking forward to watching them with my 2.5 yr old in a few years as well.

the · 03-18-2007, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sonic dB
Everything creative is derivative of something else.

Even if that were true, everything creative is certainly not *equally* derivative as something else.

Some things under the sun certainly are newer than others.

I take it you guys find these chinese cars to be creative?

MRM · 03-18-2007, 09:56 AM

I quite like the Harry Potter books. The first one was very well written. It had a tight, deceptively simple style that was very easy to read but conveyed complex plot twists that were just plain fun to follow. The second one was almost as well written and was just as much fun to follow the plot twists, although by now you knew that there would be some final battle between Harry and the bad wizard, whose name escapes me. I know, some fan I am.

Anyway, the rest of the books have also been good, but you can tell she no longer has a serious editor and that she has final say in the editing process and she has fallen in love with her own writing. The books have ballooned in size and she now uses ten words to convey what she used to express in one.

But the stories are still fresh and fun and they keep you racing to see how it ends. I very much respect her as a writer, even though her later books are a bit bloated.

By the way, Star Wars was a conscious recreation of the WWII air action movies of the 40s and 50s (Indiana Jones was a nod to the same era of adventure film) and the WWII airplane action movies were conscious adaptations of the old cowboy and Indian westerns. Just change horses to P-51s and the P-51s to X-Wing fighters and you get the drift.

berettafan · 03-18-2007, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MRM

Anyway, the rest of the books have also been good, but you can tell she no longer has a serious editor and that she has final say in the editing process and she has fallen in love with her own writing. The books have ballooned in size and she now uses ten words to convey what she used to express in one.

Absolutely!

the · 03-18-2007, 10:09 AM

I think the Harry Potter books are great, don't get me wrong. She deserves every penny and the books have done a great service to kids by making literally millions of kids more interested in reading.

I just think singling it out as an example of something highly original, and not essentially recycled, is a bit off base.

R Wilco · 03-18-2007, 10:10 AM

My wife is the library coordinator for all the public schools in our town. She is in charge of buying all the books. She has never been able to keep enough of the Harry Potter books on the shelf. The kids love them. I'm 52 and enjoy them myself. They mean different things to people on different levels is what makes them so good.

the · 03-18-2007, 10:12 AM

BTW, Star Wars, as a written work, isn't the most creative or original work in the world, of course. Or even one of the most well written thing.

But Star Wars was original and creative in its production, as a whole. There wasn't anything like it before, as far as the special effects and production. There was quite a bit of creative vision in putting that movie together.

ckissick · 03-18-2007, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Porsche-O-Phile
It just goes to show you how starved people are for something a little bit creative or original. . .

It'd be nice if the so-called "entertainment industry" took a clue from this instead of consistently recycling the same tired old crap over and over. There's fortunes to be made for those that can imagine and be original. The world needs originality and artistic beauty like she has brought us - not more of the "same-old-same-old".

Harry Potter isn't what I would call original. There have been plenty of stories with wizards, etc., such as The Hobbit. I've read the first 5 books and enjoyed them. While not original in concept, they are very creative. She's a great story teller with one of the best imaginations in writing today.

Another series of books is currently out, and is also a re-hash of old concepts, like pixies and elves. The first book is called "The Various", the second, "Celandine", by Steve Augarde. I read both to my daughter and they were very good. The third book is not out yet. Like Harry Potter, their strength is in good, old fashioned story telling. And I think they're selling pretty well.

The so-called "entertainment industry" can certainly learn from Rowling and Augarde. While originality is welcome, what's more needed is a simple, well-told story. Hollywood tries too hard most of the time.

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

Quote:

I take it you guys find these chinese cars to be creative?

said The

Auto design is not necessarily "creative". It can be...and usually
is...but it wouldnt be included in the first 10 pages of Webster's
definition of "creative".

However, if you want to correllate it to my quote regarding
"derivative".... then you could say this: The cars in those pictures
would not exist if there was no Ford Model A.

And that, creative "art" or not, is derivative.

tabs · 03-18-2007, 11:00 AM

Hollywood has been on a binge of Action, Blow em up movies for at least a decade. No plot, no character development, no story just Action, Blow em up special effects.

I really have to give credit to Lucas and Spielberg. Both of them were fans of the old movies and paid homage to the Serials of the 40s..like Buck Rogers. When viewing Raiders or Star Wars they included so many elements and scenes from not only the action movies of the the 30 and 40s but to the more serious efforts as well.

The one scene that really struck me as derivative was the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Arc, where the Arc is put into a large warehouse and essentially gets lost. If U look at the scene you can tell that the background of warehouse is painted. The orginal was the last scene in Citizen Kane where they pan the warehouse full of objects Kane had collected, resulting in the the Sled with "Rosebud" painted on it being thrown into the fire as junk (getting lost). In the Kane scene it is obvious that the background was painted as well. So it was this kind of homage that U see again and again in Lucas and Spielbergs earlier work.