Stephen King on Harry Potter
There is a killer article by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly called J.K. Rowling’s Ministry of Magic which digs deep into why JK Rowling is an awesome writer, and why the Harry Potter series is more than just a blockbuster of modern fiction. First, Stephen shoots down the hype around the Potter book reviews:
“… the very popularity of the books has often undone even the best intentions of the best critical writers. In their hurry to churn out column inches, and thus remain members of good standing in the Church of What’s Happening Now, very few of the Potter reviewers have said anything worth remembering. […] Most reviewers … bolted everything down, then obligingly puked it back up half-digested on the book pages of their respective newspapers.”
When a Harry Potter book comes up there’s too much pressure to race to the press with a review that all that can come out is a brief plot summary and a bit of gush about the next Harry installment! Second, King points out that Rowling is a talented novelist:
“While some of the blogs and the mainstream media have mentioned that Rowling’s ambition kept pace with the skyrocketing popularity of her books, they have largely overlooked the fact that her talent also grew.”
Coming from Stephen King, “one of the finer stylists in her native country” is high praise indeed. He’s particularly taken with “a sweet but uncompromising view of human nature…and hard reality: NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!” that made it into the finale, a mother protecting her daughter from something evil.
Of course, he ends with a cute little jab at the commercialization of the series–not that King is actually jealous–that almost slipped by without notice:
Mostly Rowling is just having fun, knocking herself out, and when a good writer is having fun, the audience is almost always having fun too. You can take that one to the bank (and, Reader, she did).
This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 10:18 pm and is tagged with j k rowling, jk rowling, harry potter series, harry potter book, awesome writer, mainstream media, column inches, something evil, entertainment weekly, best intentions, modern fiction, high praise, stephen king, blockbuster, commercialization, plot summary, having fun, view of human nature, novelist, reviewers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
on August 19th, 2007 at 12:45 am
Stephen King has spoken well of Rowling’s work many times. Her achievements seem to resonate with some of his own values in storytelling: having fun writing, not being plot-driven, and spinning a captivating yarn.