I used to admire J.K. Rowling … a lot. Not because I’m a man-child who found her Potter novels spellbinding, mind you. In fact, I was never even tempted to read any of them. Instead, I admired her because she helped millions of kids discover the love of reading.
But my admiration waned when she started exploiting that love like a drug dealer exploiting a junkie’s addiction. Here in part is how I expressed my dismay in “More Harry Potter…? Say It Ain’t So, Jo,” July 11, 2014.
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My admiration also stemmed from her steadfast pledge that there would be ‘no more Harry Potter,’ despite all things Potter being a veritable license to print money. Indeed, she practically conceded that the only reason she would have to write more Potter novels after the seventh (and purportedly final) one is the same reason Sylvester Stallone made more Rocky films after the third (and what should’ve been the final) one: money…
But she betrayed the spirit, even if not the letter, of her no-more-Harry-Potter pledge when she launched her website Pottermore in 2011. After all, Rowling selling Harry Potter stuff to provide fans a more interactive experience is rather like a drug dealer selling hallucinogenic drugs to provide addicts a more psychedelic experience. You’d think the billion-plus dollars she’d already raked in from books, movies, and merchandise would’ve made this kind of money-grubbing enterprise utterly anathema to her.
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Thus I lamented about her merchandising Harry Potter like Disney merchandises Mickey Mouse. Now comes this:
Fans have waited nine long years since the last installment of the magical “Harry Potter” book series came out — but as the clock ticks past midnight Saturday into Sunday, readers can once again immerse themselves in the world that is Harry Potter.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the book edition of the play — now on stage in London — by Jack Thorne based on a new story by Thorne, John Tiffany and, of course, Potter creator J.K. Rowling.
(Los Angeles Time, July 27, 2016)
But instead of lamenting anew, I refer you to ‘An Open Letter to J.K. Rowling: Please, Just Stop.’ It was written by Eryn Carlson of Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism and published in Wednesday’s edition of the Boston Globe. Not only is her title uncannily similar to that of my July 2014 commentary, the dismay she expresses is even more so.
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The magical world of Harry Potter shows evidence of something akin to urban sprawl, awash with continuations, spinoffs, and editorializing from you as you continue — through tweets and other means — to add annotations that are too often immaterial (e.g., Dumbledore was gay) and at worst upsetting or even infuriating (knowing that Americans use the term ‘no-maj,’ as in ‘no magic,’ instead of ‘Muggle’ irritates me immensely)…
Like so many millennials, I grew up enchanted by the books…so why am I not excited about the publication of Cursed Child?
The enchantment is gone … I’m asking you — I’m begging you — to stop … put Harry Potter to rest.
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Enough said?
Related commentaries:
Harry Potter say it ain’t so…