The J.K. Rowling effect

I’m going to assume (Well, hope) that by event organizer they mean an MC of sorts. I mean, what else could they mean by that? They want to be a wedding planner?

Not to be sexist, but in my experience, young women and girls often see their “socialness” (which means different things to different people I suppose…) as lending itself toward event planning. I think its the female equivalent of “sports agent” at this point.

“Hey I have no ability to do X, but to be around X sounds fun for me, and you just have to be on the ball and have people like you, and hey, who doesn’t like me?”

My point, though sloppily written, was that any kids that started reading because of Harry Potter didn’t go on to better works. The vast majority of those reading Harry Potter, however, were already readers, thus Harry Potter only added a negligible amount of readers to the mix.

If I had to guess i’d say there are still less children reading than in past times. But someone could prove me wrong with some statistics.

The British infatuation with being an author predates Rowling. As evidence, I offer the none other than the Beatles.

Paperback writer.

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book,
it took me years to write, will you take a look?
Based on a novel by a man named Lear.
and I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer,
paperback writer.

It’s the dirty story of a dirty man,
and his clinging wife doesn’t understand.
His son is working for the Daily Mail,
it’s a steady job but he wants to be a paperback writer,
paperback writer.

Paperback writer.

It’s a thousand pages, give or take a few,
I’ll be writing more in a week or two.
I can make it longer if you like the style,
I can change it round and I want to be a paperback writer,
paperback writer.

If you really like, it you can have the rights,
it could make a million for you overnight.
If you must return it, you can send it here,
but I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer,
paperback writer.

Paperback writer.

Paperback writer – paperback writer.
Paperback writer – paperback writer.
Paperback writer – paperback writer.
Paperback writer – paperback writer.

First, my comment was not suggesting that her writing would fit whatever criteria you or anyone else would deem worthy of “better works” (whatever that means anyway). The fact of the matter is history will tell on that score–just give it time.
But personal tastes and literary judgment aside, anyone who has seen the attention this particular series has produced must concede that it must being doing some favor to the literary world. The fact that it has crossed that oh-so-taboo line between mainstream fiction and children’s literature alone makes this work worthy of note, bringing not just children but adults back to books–no matter how “sloppily written” they may be. It’s also broken past the book and TV/movie/technology border better than almost any other work I can think of–how many novels do you know have gotten as much TV coverage as this one (my evidence, look at the world-wide book-release party for the last book–or any of the recent ones for that matter)?

But if you need facts and stats (and I know Wikipedia isn’t the most reliable source, just the most convenient):

“The most notable trend attributed to Harry Potter has been an increase in literacy among the young. Anecdotal evidence suggesting such an increase was seemingly confirmed in 2006 when the Kids and Family Reading Report (in conjunction with Scholastic) released a survey finding that 51% of Harry Potter readers ages 5–17 said that while they did not read books for fun before they started reading Harry Potter, they now did. The study further reported that according to 65% of children and 76% of parents, they or their children’s performance in school improved since they started reading the series.”

Before you just write this series–and its creator–off as popular literary trash, you may also want to read the scholarly works out there studying its use of mythology and tracking its main character’s progress along Joseph Campbell’s Hero Journey (at least in the first four novels anyway).
Lastly, literary snobbery, by the way, is probably one of the reasons why reading is viewed as so boring–because, obviously, anything trendy or popular or just plain fun to read must be trash, right?

I didn’t say they couldn’t do anything. Just like Harry Potter is a readable book, Apples are a useable computer. My point is that Apple and Harry Potter don’t expand. They bring you together into one product and you stay there. iMac, iPod, iPhone etc. Harry Potter and Apple are accessories for a stylish life.

“Harry Potter and Apple are accessories for a stylish life.”

To Robert S. Porter–Apple products were used by the majority of the CompSci graduate students at my previous institution. I don’t believe they were going for style.

I do not disagree with you that people do indeed use them for style, however, but I am disagreeing with you that Apple does not “expand.”

In short, I disagree that Apple and Harry Potter are similar by the ways you mentioned. Apples and oranges in my book.

徵信社
徵信
徵信社