Rowling, have you heard of the word "chill"?

[dangermousie]

I am so annoyed at the mighty JKR right now, I am tempted not to buy HPVI. First, there is a court order in Canada barring people who bought books early (accidentally) from reading them. Excuse Me?!

Now, a website I go to for spoilers deleted them all saying they got a cease and desist. The letter itself seems to promote the interests of poor widdle kiddies everywhere. WHATEVER. OMG, a child found spoilers incidentally. What were they doing on a heavily marked spoiler site anyway? And you know, if coming across a spoiler for a book is the worst that ever happens, my heart isn't going to be bleeding for you.

It might amaze you to know, JKR, that your book is not the Bible, the Torah, Quran or any other holy book. The world does not revolve around it, nor will it come to an end if someone reads it days early. It's a rather derivative, entertainingly written children's book. No more, no less. Most of us out in the world would continue on happily existing if Harry Potter dissapeared tomorrow.

By protecting it the way a religious fanatic protects his holy text from the hands of the unbelievers, you are accomplishing nothing except an exhibition of your own sense of self-importance. It's Harry Freaking Potter, not the secrets of a nuclear bomb.

Barring people from reading? An injunction against it? Really. Leaving aside the issue of how very Orwellian and Farenheit 451 this is (making me glad not to live in Canada, if that's the kind of law they have), how on earth do you enforce it? Do you have a Harry Potter Death Squad?

Ugh.

ETA: phylogenetics has a lovely rant re HP spoilers here. Better than mine!

Comments

[callmecaito.livejournal.com]

It's J.K. Rowling, my dear, not Rawling. If I'm not mistaken (which I probably am) Rawling is a company that makes baseball equipment, not the author of the Harry Potter books.

That, and I don't think JKR has as much to do with all this legal hubbub as her publishers do.

That, and JKR? Like SRK? OMG LOL.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Corrected. The cease and desist pasted there said the lawyers also represented her. Ditto for the Canada business. Her name is on the suit, she is a party.

JKR like SRK? Nope. If I were single, I'd drag SRK off to a cave to shag him senseless. JKR? Not really.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Just because she's connected to the lawsuit does not mean that it was her idea or at her urging. She's connected only because she wrote the books... like the person in the middle of an accident is connected simply due to proximity. (For instance, this happened to a friend - she was hit from behind and pushed into another car. In order to sue the person who pushed her, the guy who got hit had to sue her as well, even though he admitted it wasn't her fault.)

All this insanity is the publisher's doing, and only the publisher's doing. I sincerely doubt that JK would ever stand on the side of someone who, as in Canada, sniffs that reading is not a fundamental human right. It's hardly in her best interests to agree with THAT!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

When you are a defendant (like your friend), you have no choice. The other party picks you. When you are the plaintiff, yes you do. It might have been her publisher's urging, but the fact remains she is on it as a plaintiff, she is a party, she could put a stop to it, and all it does is annoy a number of readers.

I think what gets me the most is the sense that HP books are so important that the world would stop if spoilers leaked. They are books. Not particularly world-changing masterpieces or full of religious or political revelations.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I think what gets me the most is the sense that HP books are so important that the world would stop if spoilers leaked.

And there I'm right with you. It's a book, not the nuclear football. The one big relief is that we're only going to have to deal with this crap one more time.

[callmecaito.livejournal.com]

Miss Mousie, darling, I was just having fun with initials and abbreviations. Nonsense is fun sometimes, especially when one is supposed to be writing a paper (coughcoughmecough).

Also, I agree with neadods description of her perspective. Cookies to you, dear, for being able to eloquently verbalize exactly what I couldn't.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Miss Mousie, darling, I was just having fun with initials and abbreviations.

So was I :) I still stand my my "shag SRK but not JKR" statement though :)

[kimbari.livejournal.com]

*pets and loves Mousie in a snit* LOL

It might amaze you to know, JKR, that your book is not the Bible, the Torah, Quran or any other holy book. The world does not revolve around it, nor will it come to an end if someone reads it days early. It's a rather derivative, entertainingly written children's book. No more, no less. Most of us out in the world would continue on happily existing if Harry Potter dissapeared tomorrow.

Actually, I think the world DOES revolve around it, judging by the reactions of a couple of people on my flist alone. I never understood what all the hoo-hah was about the Harry Potter novels. Hell, I couldn't get through the first page of one. Maybe I'm too much of a philistine to enjoy great literature [removing tongue from cheek] or I simply am not entertained by writing aimed at children.

The whole thing is pretty bizarre. I mean, how are they gonna enforce a NO READ law???? That kinda pisses me off on General Principle.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Rants are my favorite form of excercise :)

I enjoy the HP books and find them fun, but they won't make it anywhere near my Top 10 books list or whatever. But even if they were Shakespeare, Hugo, and Goethe rolled into one, I would still find the reading ban absurd.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

While I normally don't care much about what JKR does as she doesn't seem as irrational as some authors (curse you Ann Rice and your apparent use of psychotrophic drugs that make you think you're God) I do think the court order is going a bit far. For pete's sake, RotS was leaked all over the internet for ages. Some of this might have to do with the fact that spoiler leaking undermines the frenzy, but at this point, the book releases tomorrow meaning that it's not going to matter who leaks what at this point and frankly I know I'M going to be reading the end of the book first.

And conversely, if I see one more person on my flist warning about how all spoilers have to be put under an lj cut, I'm going to go all ninjitsu on someone's butt. It's MY journal, I can put whatever I dang well please and don't tell me what to do. Out of courtesy I will put spoilers under a cut FOR A WHILE, but so help me if it takes you three months to read the stinking book, you're on your own. Don't you DARE tell me what I can write in my journal. Telling me NOT to do that simply makes me want to post the last chapter on my journal and leave it there.

Yes, I do have authority issues.

[kimbari.livejournal.com]

Spoilerphobes are a ROYAL pain in the arse, aren't they?

I personally never met a spoiler I didn't like....

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I, being a spoiler slut and proud of it, am automatically at odds with the spoilerphobes, but when they start getting all pushy about it is when I really start taking issue. Learning a spoiler is NOT the end of your word, folks and if learning a spoiler somehow ruins your experience, you're not that big of a fan to begin with. Not that there aren't laws of courtesy, but some of these people just get anal about it. I shouldn't have to watch what I say just because someone hasn't gotten off their but and either seen the movie or read the book in a reasonable amount of time.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Get out of my head and stop thinking like me :)

Also, look at ROTS. It was leaked all over the place and still made a gazillion bucks. There are many people like me, who like reading spoilers beforehand. All the people chewing over ROTS spoilers still went to see the flick. It even kept the interest up. Ugh,

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Apparently JKR does not feel that spoilers are going to help her any, but frankly, you either want to be spoiled or not. I didn't read OotP until last year and I didn't know how it ended because I didn't go hunting for spoilers. I DID know exactly how RotS ended because I went spoiler trawling. Didn't mean I didn't go see the movie, I just wanted to prepare myself beforehand. If you're interested enough to go looking for spoilers, you're more than likely going to read or see the movie anyway.

[phylogenetics.livejournal.com]

Hmm....looks like someone read my mind. LOL. I just finished ranting about this too on my LJ.

Personally, if I got an early copy, I'd read it and then post what I thought about it on my livejournal (under a cut of course). I wonder how many hate mail I'd receive for that! :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I just linked to you in my above post. You said what I wanted to say, only better.

The slavish adherence is ridiculous. If you want to be helping corporations, be my guest, but how that has anything to do with morals escapes me.

[phylogenetics.livejournal.com]

Haha, cool...I got linked! :~D

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Now I know why I never started (nor will I ever start) to read any HP books. This is really taking an author's poetic license too far.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Btw, that icon? To die for!

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

To be frank, I never really got into all this hype with HP. A friend of mine bought the first book for my birthday and I started to read it but didn't even get farther than the first chapter. She was appalled as I'm an avid TOlkien reader, but I just couldn't get into the whole kid mages thing.

[rajni.livejournal.com]

I personally can't stand spoilers, but oh my GOODNESS, that is just ridiculous. A Cease and Desist?! It's not like a tutorial on how to make a bomb, geeze.

And don't even get me started on the Bible Thumpers!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

don't even get me started on the Bible Thumpers

Heh.