JK Rowling and the trouble with Harry. . .
A BAD SPELL IN THE COURTROOM: Harry Potter author JK Rowling
Lexicons have been popularly written for many fantasy/ sci-fi books and films, like Star Trek (there is a Klingon dictionary available), and Tolkein's Lord of the Ring. It's hardly new.
DISTRESSED
But the multi-millionaire is getting uncommonly distressed at the thought of 50-year-old librarian Steven Vander Ark's forthcoming book on all things Potter.
Funnily enough, his Harry Potter Lexicon has been a popular website for years with millions of fans, and Rowling never took issue with it – she even admitted to having used it herself for fact-checking her new books – it's only the print version she's objecting to and you have to wonder why.
She has often said that the Harry Potter characters are like children to her, which must make her own kids feel just swell, and she says she cried inconsolably when Sirius Black died (having, erm, killed him) but even so, is she taking the whole thing a little, well personally?
She's clearly not in the court case for the money, and the book itself is hardly a tell-all expose – merely a dictionary of sorts, but Vander Ark was reduced to tears in the witness box after Rowling accused him of “utter laziness” and “constant pilfering”, despite admitting she once presented an award to the very same website!
What difference does it make these days whether one accesses a book online or on paper? Fans clearly want it and Rowling has no plans to introduce a lexicon herself.
Even the judge in the case claimed most of the terminology he reviewed was “gibberish” – but then again he's hardly the target audience.
She's given the go ahead for all the mugs, schoolbags, wands and dress-up clothes that have made a fortune for marketing companies.
And this year the Harry Potter theme park gets under construction in Orlando, Florida – with her blessing.
